The Dangers of Self Diagnosis

Muhammad ibn Zakariya ar-Razi
Image via Wikipedia

The widespread use of the internet as well as medical knowledge becoming mainstream in television makes the wealth of medical knowledge easily acceptable by the common person. Such information is easily accessed which leads to people self-diagnosing medical issues. The problem with self-diagnosis is that it can be dangerous to one’s health.

While it is important for people to be their own advocate regarding their mental and physical health, there is a point where too much information can be not only misleading but dangerous. One of the main problems with self-diagnosis is that the physician must first overcome the patient’s notion of what may be wrong. Patients tend to over stress and worry about a problem that may seem to be very serious when in reality it may be a minor issue.

Patients that tend to read too much online about symptoms can actually begin to feel symptoms of a disorder that they didn’t originally have. These phantom symptoms pose an additional complication to the physician who now needs to order unnecessary tests to rule out psychosomatic symptoms. Commercials on television that rattle off a whole stream of potential symptoms that can be a sign of a problem can lead patients to believe that they’ve got all sorts of medical issues. These commercials are almost convincing; people begin to feel symptoms that they didn’t otherwise have.
Another danger of self-diagnosis is that it typically leads to self-treatment. While many herbal supplements are harmless, when combined with pharmaceuticals or even other natural supplements deadly complications can arise.

The stress and anxiety that arises from self-diagnosis, especially when the diagnosis is wrong, can exacerbate the problem or even create new ones. The best way to deal with any sort of symptoms is to see your doctor and only after a professional diagnosis should you read up on it and investigate it further.

Enhanced by Zemanta
Filed Under: Health, Mental Health, Psychiatric Consultant Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Neuroplasticity and Psychiatry

Recreated :File:Neuron-no labels2.png in Inksc...
Image via Wikipedia

Your brain isn’t finished yet! Even though the human brain reaches its adult size and shape in childhood, it remodels itself internally throughout your whole life. Your brain is getting stronger, stranger, and dare we suggest-more attractive every day that you use it.

This process of brain development is called neuroplasticity. The stars of neuroplasticity are long, branching nerve cells, or neurons; and their protectors, the sea urchin-like glial cells. Neurons and glial cells are connected in a tangled network, and brain activity occurs as electrical impulses through this network.

As the brain develops, this network can do several things to facilitate new brain activity; it can strengthen old connections, make brand new connections, and even destroy old ones. Highly dynamic brain activities, like storing new memories, require the brain to build new bridges and supply new neurons constantly. But other activities, like learning, seem far less dynamic; until recently, scientists thought that adults could only learn by strengthening existing network bridges.

Today we know that this isn’t true; though the brain produces new pathways with less vigor after puberty, the brain is always in the process of adapting itself to your life experiences. The entire anatomical structure of your brain might change in your adult life, given the correct stimulus.

This neuroplasticity is the basis of modern psychological counseling. Now that we understand that the brain is capable of being retrained, counselors have developed techniques to provide your emotions with new paths, overwriting detrimental ones you developed in your youth. In particular, psychodynamic counselors use neuroplasticity as a means to revisit your youth and reprocess it, forming neural connections that you may have been denied in infancy and early childhood.

The brain is a marvelous organ, capable of learning and changing. This means that we too are capable of learning and changing, if we’re prepared to give our brains a chance. A course of psychotherapy can help you to build new brain paths, and forge a new future.

Enhanced by Zemanta
Filed Under: Health, Mental Health, Psychiatric Consultant Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

What Keeps You Up at Night?

If you’ve ever been asked the question of “what keeps you up a night?” then it implies that you’re indeed having trouble sleeping. Everyone suffers from an occasional bout of insomnia. This could be a direct result of the chili you had for dinner that leaves behind a rough case of heartburn. Or maybe your dog wakes you up in the middle of the night wanting to go outside. And of course having a new baby in the home throws everyone’s sleep out of whack. Once you get woken up, it’s not always easy to drift back to slumber but ultimately you do until your morning alarm awakes you and you start all over again!
However, there are some people who are being kept awake at night for more problematic reasons. Quite often your sleep can be disrupted when you just can’t seem to get your brain to “turn off.” The daily stresses of work and relationships can cause havoc with letting you get a good night’s rest. Add to that some ongoing and overwhelming feelings of anxiety about a whole range of other issues and you can see why solving sleep disorders is a major concern for health care professionals.
If you are suffering from disrupted sleep, there might be some underlying issues that can be resolved by working with a trained psychiatrist. In extreme cases you might be willing to have your sleep patterns diagnosed at a health care facility where you will literally be watched while you sleep. Of course, that in and of itself can cause sleep disorder! Most often, you can find relief through a course of counseling and prescribed sleep aids. Having a good night’s rest is going to impact your entire day. You know in an instant if someone near you didn’t get any sleep. Imagine how that looks on you. If you can find a way to maintain a productive sleep pattern why not take advantage of that?

If you’ve ever been asked the question of “what keeps you up a night?” then it implies that you’re indeed having trouble sleeping. Everyone suffers from an occasional bout of insomnia. This could be a direct result of the chili you had for dinner that leaves behind a rough case of heartburn. Or maybe your dog wakes you up in the middle of the night wanting to go outside. And of course having a new baby in the home throws everyone’s sleep out of whack. Once you get woken up, it’s not always easy to drift back to slumber but ultimately you do until your morning alarm awakes you and you start all over again!
However, there are some people who are being kept awake at night for more problematic reasons. Quite often your sleep can be disrupted when you just can’t seem to get your brain to “turn off.” The daily stresses of work and relationships can cause havoc with letting you get a good night’s rest. Add to that some ongoing and overwhelming feelings of anxiety about a whole range of other issues and you can see why solving sleep disorders is a major concern for health care professionals.
If you are suffering from disrupted sleep, there might be some underlying issues that can be resolved by working with a trained psychiatrist. In extreme cases you might be willing to have your sleep patterns diagnosed at a health care facility where you will literally be watched while you sleep. Of course, that in and of itself can cause sleep disorder! Most often, you can find relief through a course of counseling and prescribed sleep aids. Having a good night’s rest is going to impact your entire day. You know in an instant if someone near you didn’t get any sleep. Imagine how that looks on you. If you can find a way to maintain a productive sleep pattern why not take advantage of that?

Enhanced by Zemanta
Filed Under: Discussion, Health, Mental Health Tagged With: , ,