Posted on Jun 26, 2011 under Anti Depressants-Sleeping Aid |
We all know that too much psychological stress can make us physically ill. We refer to these stress-related illnesses as psychosomatic disorders. This name conveys the notion that the psyche, or mind, can affect the functions of the body or soma. We could, as well, describe a number of somato-psychic disorders -where known body damage or illness affects the functions of the mind.
Stress-related illness in the three stages of stress breakdownFirstly, let us look at how psychosomatic illnesses can occur in the first stage of stress breakdown. You will remember that the alarm reaction which is activated when the nervous system becomes overloaded is the anxiety reaction. You will remember as well, that the anxiety reaction has two components to it.1. A warning component – a feeling of unease or dread.2. A preparing component – preparing the body, through the release of adrenaline and noradrenalin, for physical action that may be necessary to meet a threat.These two components of anxiety can cause symptoms and illness in several different ways.
Illness as a result of chronic feelings of uneaseWhen we stay in stressful situations, we may have to put up with chronic feelings of unease or dread as the nervous system, from time to time, gives us the message that it is unable to cope with the stress. The feelings of unease in themselves don’t harm our health – after all, they are just normal body warning signals. However, because we find it hard to tolerate these feelings, we tend to try to relieve them by doing things we know will reduce feelings of anxiety.Overeating would probably be the most common activity which we use to reduce anxiety. Most of us seem to be aware that giving anxious or frightened people something to eat may often reduce their levels of fear or anxiety quite markedly. The use of this mechanism to reduce anxiety has been thoroughly incorporated into the behavioural patterns of our culture. For example, it is common practice to invite someone to dinner to soften the blow of the bad news we have to convey. Prudent people will wait until the victim is well fed before revealing the worst. Wise therapists or counselors will often offer their anxious clients a cup of tea or coffee.We should include, therefore, in a list of illnesses caused by stress, those illnesses caused by over-eating to relieve anxiety. Obesity from chronic over-eating in situations of unavoidable stress is a major cause of concern in our society. I have often been impressed with how fat some of our trainee nurses become in their first two years of-living in at the hospital, away from home, often, for the first time in their lives, and subjected to high levels of stress in their work. Likewise, I notice that many students in boarding schools become overweight.While the food served in these institutions such as nurses’ quarters and boarding schools tends to be high in calories, it is my distinct impression that the obesity is due to over-eating, which is associated with separation anxiety. Separation anxiety is a term used to describe feelings of anxiety when we are separated from our loved ones and our support systems. Because human beings are communal in nature, our nervous systems can trigger an anxiety response when we are separated from our families.However, the use and perhaps abuse of alcohol, with all the health risks associated with it, is probably the next most important cause of ill health as a result of steps we often take to relieve stress-related anxiety. Alcohol was our first sedative drug, and it is still the most abused sedative, being freely available without a doctor’s prescription. Diseases caused by drinking alcohol include brain damage, stomach disorders, liver damage, alcoholic heart disease, pancreatitis and disease of the peripheral nerves.
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Posted on Dec 30, 2010 under Anti Depressants-Sleeping Aid |
Usually the onset of narcolepsy occurs during childhood or adolescence. Narcolepsy is thought to arise from some kind of/ biochemical imbalance or defect in the central nervous system, one that seems to affect the mechanism that activates the “on/ off” cycle of sleep. It is not contagious, but those who report a family history of the disorder are 60 percent more likely to develop it than other people.
By studying the EEG tracings of narcoleptics, researchers have learned that victims are unable to keep the REM phase of the sleep cycle in its proper place. Instead, REM bursts onto the sleep scene before it has been invited. Nearly three out of four narcoleptics begin their sleep cycles with a REM phase, unlike normal people, whose first REM period may not come for an hour or more after onset of sleep. The overall percentage of REM sleep is the same, but the periods are fragmented. Researchers are investigating the possible role in triggering narcoleptic attacks played by acetylcholine, the neurotransmitter thought to be involved with instigating the REM phase. One other clue to the cause may be the fact that narcoleptics show increased blood flow in the brain, especially through the brain stem, where REM sleep is regulated. (Other aspects of sleep architecture are also affected by narcolepsy: those with the disorder fall asleep much more quickly when they go to bed—usually within five minutes or less, compared with fifteen to thirty minutes for normal individuals.)
Abnormal REM sleep may account to one extent or another for most of the classic symptoms of narcolepsy. For example, experiencing dream-filled REM sleep immediately after dropping off may be perceived and reported by the sleeper as a hallucination.
Also, as we have seen, a mechanism exists to suppress muscle activity and prevent us from acting out our REM dreams. When a narcoleptic experiences a sudden burst of REM sleep, this muscle suppressant may suddenly be activated, which in turn may trigger cataplexy or sleep paralysis.
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Posted on May 08, 2009 under Anti Depressants-Sleeping Aid |
Occasionally we come across people who complain of feeling sleepy throughout the day and who fall asleep very easily during the day as if they have never had enough sleep. This is called excessive daytime sleepiness or EDS. EDS sufferers do not normally include people who have insomnia and feel sleepy. The chief complaint of people who have insomnia is their inability to sleep and the distress of lying awake at night, whereas people with EDS appear to have a compulsion to sleep even if they have been sleeping at night. There are two main causes of EDS: narcolepsy and sleep apnoea.
Narcolepsy. This is the most interesting cause of EDS. People suffering from narcolepsy have sleep attacks and are chronically sleepy. They cannot resist sleep and sleep comes abruptly, sometimes in the most embarrassing or hazardous circumstances. They can fall asleep while driving for short distances or even when they are operating dangerous machines. It has been reported that they can even fall asleep whilst having sex, when the body should be pumping hard with adrenaline. This condition results from a developmental defect in the brain, present at birth, and is most prominent at around 20 years of age.
It is not infectious. Narcolepsy is sometimes associated with other phenomena, namely cataplexy, hypnogogic hallucination, and sleep paralysis:
* Cataplexy is a sudden paralysis of some part of the body. This can be brought on by the sudden expression of emotions, such as laughter, excitement, anger, or extreme pleasure. This is the reason why a person suffering from narcolepsy can become paralysed with sleep when he is about to climax during sex.
*In hypnogogic hallucination, a person sees things before he is fully awake from sleep. The word hypnogogic comes from ‘Hypnos’ the name of the Greek god of sleep. It is a mixed feeling of dreaming and being awake at the same time. It can be an experience of seeing things that do not exist, but the person is convinced that he is awake.
*Sleep paralysis is much more common. Most of us experience it occasionally. For instance, you are still in bed, you think you are awake, and you can see the room you are in. You may be able to move your eyes, but the body is completely paralysed and immobile. Usually when this happens you are in a transitional state between dreaming and reality; that is, you are in the process of waking up from a dream. The experience can be frightening.
As we have already learnt, when we are in REM sleep our body is completely paralysed, as if there is a jamming mechanism that prevents our limbs from moving. When we are sleeping it does not worry us, because we are not aware of the paralysis. However, when we are semi-awake and aware of the inability to move our limbs, we are gripped by a terrible feeling of imminent catastrophe and panic follows. One patient told me about her husband who had frequent sleep paralysis. He made so much noise in his throat during an attack that she knew he was in trouble. But once she touched him he would wake up and immediately feel incredible relief. The husband told me that during an attack he always thought he was going to die, as he could not move at all. He believed a ghost was sitting on top of him, immobilizing him.
Cataplexy, hypnogogic hallucination, and sleep paralysis are all a disorder in REM sleep, namely that REM sleep occurs too quickly and too often. Sleep comes easily and quickly, and REM sleep may occur within ten minutes of falling asleep. During REM sleep the mind is actively dreaming, but the muscle tone of the body is flaccid. Cataplexy and sleep paralysis both result from this loss of muscle tone, whereas hypnogogic hallucination is associated with the actual experience of dreaming during REM sleep.
People who suffer from narcolepsy should never drive long distances or engage in hazardous work. Accidents are common among the narcoleptics, and they find it difficult to hold onto a
steady job as their bosses generally dismiss them for sleeping on the job. When a narcoleptic patient is tested in the sleep laboratory, an excess of REM sleep is recorded, especially immediately after falling asleep. Medical treatment with a stimulant called amphetamine, which has to be taken regularly, can be successful.
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Posted on Apr 29, 2009 under Anti Depressants-Sleeping Aid |
When we have attained relaxation of our mind, we have already started on the way to regression. In regression we allow our mind to function in a simpler, more primitive fashion. The main features of this state of mind are that we are less alert and less critical. Regression of this nature is necessary to allow us to abandon our old faulty patterns of reaction, so that we can learn again new and better ways of reacting.
Remember that this regression of which we speak is quite a normal process. We all experience it in our moments of quiet reverie. At these times we let our mind wander, and are no longer concerned with our immediate surroundings. In other words we cease to be alert and critical, and our mind is working at a simpler and more primitive level of organization.
We continue our exercises, allowing ourselves to neglect what is going on around us. We let ourselves lose awareness of the things in the room where we are. We temporarily abandon our critical faculties. If a truck passes in the street, we hear the noise, we don’t think of it as being a heavily laden truck going past in the street; it is just a noise. This is what I mean by allowing ourselves to be uncritical.
We can now proceed with our exercises.
We feel the calm of it all through us.—We feel it in our body; we feel it in our mind.—The calm pervades us.—We let ourselves go.—We let go, and we drift.—We drift in the calm of it.
—Just letting ourselves go, we drift more and more.
This exercise is easy enough. It is merely a combination of two things which we have already achieved. We learned the letting-go feeling from the letting go of our muscles in relaxation. We have also learned to experience the feeling of calm in our mind as a continuation of the feeling of calm in our body. All we do now is combine these two. We let ourselves go in the calm. We do this, and we feel ourselves drifting in the calm that is all about us.
Like most of the different parts of the exercises, the drifting sensation does not usually come all at once in its complete form. Rather, at first, there are moments of drifting. Then it stops, and we allow ourselves to let go again, and the drifting returns.
When we achieve this drifting sensation, we have in fact regressed; in this state of mind we are no longer fully alert and critical as we are in our normal waking state.
We let ourselves go with it.—We let ourselves go more and more completely.—Each breath, we let ourselves go as we breathe out.—We let go our breath; we let go ourselves, more and still more completely.
This is the general outline of the procedure. Each individual will make modifications to suit the particular needs of his own personality, his particular symptoms and the particular circumstances in which he is situated. As I have already said, it is important to get into the routine of just presenting the various ideas to the mind. Do not think about the ideas in logical fashion, as this prevents regression.
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