Showing posts with label Mental health. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mental health. Show all posts

Sunday, 19 April 2009

DO YOU HAVE OCD

I have come up with a fantastic idea!

Every Month I interview somebody over at A boy With Aspergers. As most know this is another of my blogs. All the interviews are autism related, and boy are they becoming a hit. So I fault hay lets do something like that over here. My plan is to find someone to interview each and every month as a blog feature. So my first interview will be on the topic of OCD. Then maybe the next panic disorders. So if your Interested then leave a comment. Wanna read some autism related interviews or take part in one ( No spaces left to July ) Then pop yourself over to A boy with Aspergers and see what all the fuss is about. 

Will Inform readers of the upcoming interview on OCD in the next coming weeks.

Sunday, 8 March 2009

A trip to the unknown

What in life are you most scared or worried about? Is it the outcome of a job interview or how your child will progress in school and life as a whole?
It all boils down to the same! We as a human being are most scared or worried of the unknown! 
I have sat and fault to myself more then once, many a times in fact, Once I have got past this or that I will be able to relax and not have anything left to worry about. But come on how true is this statement? Not very true! Why? Because life it's self is a worry! Its just how we manage to deal with these worries of everyday life. We can chose to let them get deep inside our heads making us sick with the unknown or we can chose to take each day as it comes. What kind of person are you?
Once you let to much in then that's when things change! That's when you see the world in a different way. That's when your at major risk of developing an Anxiety disorder. I'm not suggesting you go along life not worrying about a thing because not doing this would cause you to develop such a disorder. I'm just saying that once you start to ponder on the unknown in an obsessive way that's when you can be pretty much sure mental health problems are on the way. Stress and anxiety are hard to deal with, but how we deal with it is the key. It's very easy for me to sit here writing this post, but for me it is hard to put my own words in to actions. As a person that does not deal with anxiety in the best of ways I know how out of control Anxiety disorders can really become.
I spent many years battling the condition OCD. A condition that still bears it's big ugly head at times. There are two major subcategories of anxiety disorders: Phobic disorders and anxiety states. Well I seem to fall into the later, anxiety states covers's disorders such as panic disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, and post traumatic stress disorder. I'm unsure about post traumatic stress disorder, but OCD and panic disorder I can relate to on a number of levels having suffered both of them. Physiological arousal and free-floating anxiety are something that come with each and everyone of them disorders, and that is what makes them so hard to deal with and over come. For the people that don't know what I'm blurting on about, Psychological arousal is when there maybe changes in the heart rate, respiration, muscle tension, dizziness, tension, tremor, sweating and shaking, felling of wanting to be sick or being unable to sallow. Free-floating is the same as the above but with one added difference! The felling of not knowing why this is happening ( An intense apprehension with-out reason) If you explained these symptoms to a doctor I'm guessing you would be told that you had experienced a panic attack and it was likely due to some sort of anxiety disorder. I used to fell a complete prat once I understood what in fact was occurring. It got to the stage where I knew that yes this was a panic attack I was having and yes it would pass, but at the same time I still wanted to get help as I was sure I was dieing. The first panic attack is one of the worse as you really do think you are having a heart attack! Mine started as I fault I was unable to sallow and my airways were closing. Silly you may think. Try living through one then say that's silly. I have passed out three times due to panic attacks, although there much more under control now, they still pop up and say hello now and then.
Most of the time when I'm stressed out.

So there is just a small handful of reasons not to ponder on the unknown!
And as i have said before, I was just 7 when OCD took over my childhood. 
For more info on anxiety within children you can read my blog A boy with Asperger's 

Wednesday, 4 March 2009

Mental health, more common then you know.

The mind! By far one of the most powerful things we own.

It's up to us on how we use it, treat it, and see it. Think your crazy? Mark my words' you carry on thinking that way theirs a pretty big chance you will be.
As a young woman ( well I like to think so ) I have known and meet so many different people with some form of mental health problem. Some conditions that are just a passing by thing, like depression or a breakdown of some sort. Then there are the conditions that well stick around like bipolar, paranoid disorders or schizophrenic disorders. It is so common now that nearly everyone will go through some form of mental health problem in the course of there life. 

I myself have seen what it can be like suffering OCD and panic attacks when growing up. I also hit some real lows when I was suffering from depression ( something I try hard to avoid ) 
My partner has ADHD and my son is on the autistic spectrum with Aspergers. 
Maybe for these reasons and others I have developed an interest in psychology. For sometime now I have been thinking of studying psychology as I enjoy it so much on many levels, but being a mother I just can't seem to find the time right now. A pretty rubbish excuse I know because I myself do firmly believe that if you really want something in your life you have to work at it to make it possible. So I'm hoping to take this chance in the near future' maybe next year! God only knows I spend anoth time reading about it I may as well study it. However there is something that I'm hoping to be able to start very soon! I have applied to be a volunteer for a local autism project. This well really give me the chance to get heard and raise awareness and funds for a cause very close to my heart. I will be involved in organising fundraising events and have one to one contact with other parents that have just found out there child is on the autistic spectrum. I have also been asked to become a founding member for a new online forum for ASD. This is due to Begin in April. This will also give me the chance to start conversations and answer questions from other parents that have just discovered there child has ASD. Really I can't wait. So really I have this and my family so that is going to keep me busy and on my toes for sometime.

Lets just say my mind will be worked and that's the way it should be.

Tuesday, 3 March 2009

IT'S ALL IN THE NAME

Great I have now created a blogspot blog, and looking forward to using it.
First let me explain why I decided to name the blog Don't look twice! Well as this blog is focused around different aspects of physiology and the interest I have developed with the mind and mental health, I wanted to give it a name that I can really relate to. Don't look twice is that name! As a young child growing up I developed a condition known to many. OCD.
This was something that my son who is on the autistic spectrum can also relate to. All through he has a much milder form which I guess is really part of the Aspergers. Well I had and suppose still do a great fear of fire. I used to find myself up and down of a night unable to sleep as I felt the need to repeatedly check and count the plug sockets. It used to kill me having to leave the freezer plugged in and after the 8th trip back downstairs I would make the decision to unplug it.
God as you can probably guess I would make my mother crazy. I remember her begging me to not get up and do it. She would give it all she had trying to explain to me that the freezer was designed to be plugged in. I would get in bed and prey I fell asleep before she came up to bed but if I didn't them I would not be able to help the compulsion within me' yes I would unplug it yet again. My poor mum was forever replacing the defrosted food! It must of cost her a small fortune. I had many trips to the doctor and went through loads of therapies but it only seemed to get better in adulthood. It only really shows itself when I'm down or really stressed. Yes I still do the small things but on the whole it's under control.

So you see don't look twice is something I would tell myself when I felt the need to act out my compulsions. I guess it's the would that helped me onto that big old road to recovery, that many of us know for different reason. So OCD will be just one of the many subjects touched on within this blog, ASD, depression and eating disorders are just a few more. I do hope you will all follow me in the journey of the creation of what I hope to be a wonderful blog' DON'T LOOK TWICE.