Health Information Center

1. This is hard work, you are going to have to deal with it! This is probably not what you want to hear but this is the way it is. There will be no magic bullet, no rescue squad. No one will swoop down and take your client off your hands. Even if there are mental health services that recognise that your client has a psychiatric problem, what do you genuinely think they can do? The first step to working with a DD client is accepting that your intervention, done properly, is probably the best and most significant intervention your client will get. You may feel that you lack the skills but the truth is so does everyone else – there is no super-magical skill set for working with chaotic clients, psychiatric services rarely have any greater expertise in working with these kinds of clients than you do (and they most likely will have less experience than your common or garden outreach worker or drugs worker). So, knowing that there is no rescue (and when it comes to DD clients most of us would like to be rescued from what seems an impossible task) it’s time to steel yourself for this extra work you will be doing. Get good supervision in place, you will need it. If it isn’t forthcoming, find it – the most important thing is that you don’t burn out, so do what you have to do (in dialogue with your line manager), take breaks if you need to, go for coffee with colleagues, anything that works. The client needs a consistent worker and for the time being just accept that that worker is you.

2. Know what you are talking about. The DD label is bandied around a lot. But let’s be clear that we are dealing with two different categories: (1) Clients that have formal diagnoses who also use substances, and (2) Clients who use drugs who just seem that extra bit difficult to work with because their baseline mental capacities (though there is no easy way of judging this) seem more inhibited or affected than their peers. The former tend not to worry us too much, the care pathways seem fairly clear, the latter are the real meat of our anxiety as workers. Be careful not to overuse the term dual diagnosis or knowingly equivocate between lower level DD and more concerning DD. If your substance using client has mental health issues but your capacity to communicate with them and their capacity to understand and relate to the world seems by and large intact then only in certain clear circumstances is it useful to employ the term DD. We could quite easily make the point that all substance misusers have mental health issues but that won’t help us. Save the term DD for clients that illicit genuine concern, for whom the prognosis seems particularly bleak and your capacity to communicate effectively with them is genuinely hampered.

3. Know what matters. If you are working to get additional support for your client from psychiatric services then what matters is not what your client feels or even their level of distress. Of course these things are deeply important (obviously to your client) but what matters when making assessments of need is what your client is prevented from doing because of their mental illness. Mental illness is a barrier and you should be clear about what it is a barrier to. It is one thing to say a client is schizophrenic, but much more powerful to be able to say that the client’s schizophrenia means they are unable to feed themselves, or care for themselves – these are the things that count in mental health assessments. Someone can be unwell but be judged to be coping, no noticeable deterioration in their circumstances over a given period, whilst the most concerning clients will stop being able to look after themselves. If you are making a referral to psychiatric services this is what you must be able to detail.

Continue reading ‘Pointers on Working With Dual Diagnosis’ »

Before we get to the main discussion, let’s see what a social anxiety disorder is. It is a social phobia. In more plain words, it refers to a mental state where people suffer the irrational fear of unsuccessfully facing some special social situations. The majority of the people suffer such disorder as they are afraid that they’ll do poor when judged/scrutinized by people in the society.

However, a cognitive therapy can be a really useful social anxiety disorder treatment. This article describes how such a therapy helps you recover from disorders that stemmed from social anxieties. For the recovery through a behavioral therapy, the following steps are followed. Continue reading ‘Social Anxiety Disorder Treatment – 7 Steps To Recovery’ »

Incoming search terms:

• social anxiety

Mental health is really about how we think and feel about ourselves and the world around us, and about how we behave and interact with others in our day to day lives. It isnt easy to define exactly what it means to have good mental health as people will interpret what it means to be mentally healthy in different ways. On the other hand, there are some signs and symptoms that can indicate when someone has a mental health problem, when their mental functions are not performing as well as they could, and we see evidence of alternations in their thinking and behaviour.

Take depression for example, even though there is no set pattern and each person will be affected differently; there are some simple clues that we can look out for.

Continue reading ‘Mental Health Depression’ »

Many believe that psychiatry is not real; it’s a pseudoscience, trash, and a make belief science, it’s all about hypnotism etc. However, psychiatry is a medical science of a different order that deals with the mind and its intrinsic and complicated nature. Many mental disorders or illness often having an effect on the mind as well as the body can be treated by a psychiatrist. Insomnia, anxiety disorder, panic disorder, abnormally high pressure moods, various personality disorders etc are some of the common cases under psychiatry.

Mental health professionals and staff thrive across the globe. Psychiatric counselling has helped patients a great deal in coming out of depressions, rectifying personality disorders, correcting insomnia etc. Aids Phobia is common among a large number of people. Possessing little or lack of knowledge about HIV, and misinformed about Aids, people panic and suffer from mental and physical aspects. There are many such psychic disorders and phobias, schizophrenic cases, nervous disorders that require the expertise of a psychiatrist to deal with these.

Anorexia is a very common psychological disorder and more so in today’s young girls. Anorexia is a mental disorder where a person stops eating or eats less for fear of getting fat. Eventually such habit leads to a loss of appetite. The concept of hour glass figure is a growing trend among today’s young girls and it has had disastrous effects on the body and mind. Anorexia nervosa is one of the most common psychiatric disorders among young women. 1% of all teenage girls suffer from the condition, while for boys it is 0.1%. The disease has physical side effects like infertility among women. Continue reading ‘The Mystical World of Psychiatry’ »

I’d like to discuss anger’s role in the generation and sustenance of panic attacks and anxiety. To give the matter its due, I’ve decided to present the information in two parts. In this edition, part one, we’ll review what anger is in the eyes of the psychoanalysts and cognitivists. And in part two we’ll have a closer look at how anger directly impacts panic and anxiety. Well, are you ready? Let’s get to work.

The French psychiatrist, Jacques Lacan, a 20th Century pioneer in psychoanalysis, believed aggression is generated as a psychological defense against the threat of something known as fragmentation; the mental and emotional sense of losing control over self-cohesion. Now, fragmentation may present in a feeling of low-grade distress, or it may manifest in all-out panic and terror, for fear of total annihilation. Lacan took the whole matter to infancy where a human is simply a mish-mash of biological functions well beyond internal management. And the only goal one could have is to at least make an effort to pull everything together into some semblance of cohesive identity. Continue reading ‘Panic Attacks, Anxiety, and Anger: The Dynamics of Defense’ »

Incoming search terms:

• ocd mental defense

Life must be wonderful not only in terms of its length but also in terms of quality. But seemingly it is yet to dawn upon most of the world. We keep on letting the life pass waiting for something to hurl us into the gurgling river of living. And then one day we find ourselves flowing into the great unknown without having fully lived for most of our lives.

Isn’t that amazing? Sitting before the computer fiddling with the key board, writing a few words and reading many- that’s how our office time goes by. Going home, talking very little to your wife you doze off. The sun rises in the east and sets in the west everyday. And the life flows by. Continue reading ‘Running: A Cure for Old Age Disability’ »

The human brain is absolutely amazing. And as much as we’ve learned about it, it remains one incredibly mysterious three-pound mass of tissue and fluid. The brain’s functioning has certainly been a puzzle to me over the many years, as it’s facilitated a long bout with panic disorder, as well as dances with other distressing mental, emotional, and physical phenomena. Lately, I’ve become more and more fascinated with how a panic sufferer’s assorted pathological challenges present and interact. Here are just some of my thoughts.

I was nine-years-old when an episode of derealization struck me like a lightening bolt while I was sitting at a kitchen table with my parents and their friends. I panicked and ran from the scene. During that same timeframe it was often written on my report cards that I was seemingly unable to sit still and would occasionally wander around the classroom. As a junior in college intrusive thoughts entered my airspace. I was walking down the sidewalk in downtown East Lansing, MI. and saw a woman coming toward me pushing a stroller. Out of nowhere I wondered what would happen if I punched her baby right in the face. Wow!

Continue reading ‘Panic Attacks and Assorted Mind Variances: Pieces of a Greater Whole’ »

Old age problems may occur from the age of 40, but it all depends on the overall health of a person in youth. Happy young people can grow happy in old age, but it is one of the hardest truths to believe that life does not give a chance. Its heaviest bounces reverse back in old age. The loss of friend, family and loved ones leave people behind alone and this loneliness can cause much depression in old age. Anyhow, in this article, we will discuss in detail the problems, troubles and tribulation and solutions of old age physical and mental health.

As age grows, many physical problems begin to appear like muscle pain, arthritis, bowl syndrome, gout, prostate, heart problems, hypertension, overweight, asthma, bone weakness, osteoporosis, foot problems, dementia, diabetes, sleep disturbances, sight, hearing and speaking difficulty are common ailments of age. In order to minimize the risks of having these problems, one should adopt regular physical activity, which is not only safe and sound but also enjoyable. It will keep your body fit and have check on your weight. Regular checkup is highly necessary and inevitable in old age problems. It is important to note here that you should get to know neighbors numbers and keep the security system intact if you are living alone. Get a list of emergency numbers with you and keep them handy. Continue reading ‘Old Age Health – Problems and Solutions’ »

Anger is an emotional response to someone or something that may have caused us to be anxious. If we don’t manage our anger it may become habitual, and we may experience difficult times stemming from consequences of our bouts of anger.

Usually when we suffer from bouts of uncontrolled anger, we know it. Being out of control can frighten us and those around us. We can learn how to deal with anger; understanding why we get angry and what makes us angry helps us to deal with it better.

Continue reading ‘Anger: Understanding the Emotion’ »

There are many reasons for you to feel anger. If you want to get out of the vicious cycle of anger, you need to first understand where the feelings are coming from, and what to do about it. In other words, before you can control your feelings of anger, you have to understand what causes them.

Some of the most common causes of anger are frustration, hurt, becoming annoyed, harassment, feelings of disappointment or of being threatened. When these feelings occur adrenaline is released into the bloodstream. This adrenalin reinforces your feelings of anger because your heart pumps faster and your blood courses through your system. Your blood pressure will increase and your muscles may feel tense. Basically, your body is gearing up for action in a ‘flight or fight’ response.

Continue reading ‘Self-Help Anger Management Techniques’ »