Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism:
Signs and Symptoms:1. Temporary blackouts or memory loss after heavy drinking.
2. Use of increasing amounts of alcohol to relax, sleep, cheer up , deal with problems, or feel “normal.”
Alcoholism (alcohol addiction)
3. Headache, anxiety insomnia, or nausea that develops when you stop drinking.
4. Drinking in the morning.
5. Depression.
6. Trouble maintaining family relationships and holding a job.
7. Drinking alone regularly or drinking in, secret; hiding bottles.
8. Failed attempts to control drinking.
9. Flushed skin and broken capillaries on the face.
10. Yellowish skin, which may indicate cirrhosis.
What to do now:
1. If you suspect that you have an alcohol problem, keep notes of how much you drink over a specified period of time ( a week or more), and don’t misrepresent. If you’re man than you shouldn’t take more than 250 ml alcohol in any particular day, but if you’re a woman you shouldn’t take more than 125 ml. This difference in amount is because of the difference of alcohol metabolization between men and women, according to medical experts. But to keep your health good never drink more than three times a week.
2. Don’t drink on an empty stomach.
3. Never have more than one drink (250ml for men and 125ml for women) in an hour. Liver cannot process more than that an hour.
4. Don’t drink any beer, wine or other alcoholic drinks if you’re pregnant, or trying to get pregnant.
5. Examine your attitude toward your drinking. If you get drunk despite of your best intentions, then take steps to make yourself compel not to take so much. If you react angrily if someone confronts you about your drinking seek professional help.
Alcoholism:
1. If you think that some one you care about is an alcoholic, talk with a doctor or a drug abuse treatment center.
2. If you can’t give up your drinking, acknowledge the problem and resolve to stop drinking on your own. If you don’t succeed in your attempt call on professional help. In most cases, early treatment increases the chance of recovery.
3. Start exercising regularly. Exercise releases chemicals in the brain that provide a sense of well-being.
4. Seek support from your friends and family members who would understand you and keep you away from alcohol.
5. Find new friends who do not drink alcohol. And avoid places and people related with alcoholism.
When to call a doctor:
1. If you have symptoms of alcohol abuse or alcoholism.
2. If you drink regularly and feel chronic or periodic depression.
3. If you have tried to stop drinking and have experienced withdrawal symptoms like anxiety, insomnia, headache, nausea or in rare cases, delirium tremens (hallucinations, confusion, shaking).
4. If you can’t give up alcohol and you are pregnant or think you may be pregnant.
How to prevent it:
1. Try not to drink, try to remember that drinking to get rid of your anxiety or depression doesn’t solve anything. Be positive.
When it’s social drinking try to substitute other, more healthiful activities.
1. Avoid places and events and other people that you associate with drinking alcohol.
2. Tell your family and friends that you are trying to give up alcohol, but can’t just make it. They will help you.
3. Replace your dependence on alcohol with other activities.
4. If you have a relapse, don’t use it as an excuse to give up all your gains. Don’t try to cheat with yourself.
Attention Deficit Disorder:
Signs and Symptoms:1. Frequent inability to pay attention.
2. Difficulty focusing on work.
3. Making careless mistakes or having difficulty following instructions.
4. Impulsiveness.
5. Talking too much and interrupting others frequently.
6. Hyperactivity, in some cases, restless movements and running about in otherwise quite situations.
What to do now:
1.If you suspect that your child have ADD, find a skilled specialist and get a thorough evaluation. Child psychiatrists, neurologists, psychologists, and pediatricians work with ADD.
2. If a doctor says your child has ADD- particularly if methylphenidate or another drug is prescribed or if the doctor does not specialize in childhood psychiatric disorders, ask the doctor whether any other alternative is possible, or you may want to go to another doctor.
3. Know your child: Learn about his or her patterns and habits, strengths and weaknesses. Some children with ADD do best with lots of planned activity and minimal distractions, while others need lots of activity and do poorly if their environments is too controlled.
4. Educate yourself and your child about the disorder.
5. Try not to punish your child for behavior he or she can’t control.
When to call a doctor:
1. If you or your child show symptoms of ADD that interfere significantly with daily life and work or school.
Depression:
Signs and Symptoms:1. Feeling of sadness or pessimism that don’t get away.
2. Feeling of worthlessness, hopelessness, guilt or despair.
3. Loss of interest and pleasure in work, relations, food, sex, or other aspects of life.
4. Fatigue and lack of energy.
5. Sleep problems such as insomnia, oversleeping, or repeatedly waking before dawn.
6. Difficulty remembering, concentrating, making decisions, and completing simple tasks; a feeling of moving in slow motion.
7. Frequently occurring thoughts of suicide or death.
8. Distressing physical ailments-such as headaches or stomach pain that don’t get better with treatment.
9. Unusual weight gain or loss.
What to do now:
1. Get professional help from a specialist.
2. Get support from people who will treat you with respect and consideration.
3. Educate yourself about depression. There is a lot of information available through internet.
When to call a doctor:
1. If you, your child, or someone close to you has suicidal thoughts or depression that doesn’t seem to lift.
2. If depression is seriously disrupting your work, school, or relationships. Psychologists, psychiatrists work with people suffering from depression.
3. They often take radically different approaches to treatment, including individual psychotherapy (“talk therapy”) and antidepressant medication.
How to prevent it:
1. Try not to isolate yourself.
2. When you’re feeling blue, find a friend or someone with whom you’re comfortable and talk about what’s bothering you.
3. Stay active. Research shows that regular exercise can improve your mood.
4. Be sure to get enough sleep.
5. Eat balanced meals.
DrugAbuse :
Signs and Symptoms:1. Change in appearance and/or behavior that threaten relationships and work performance.
2. Irritability or abrupt changes in mood or attitude.
3. Restlessness, sometimes alternating with extreme lethargy.
4. Unexplained absences.
5. Unexplained money problems.
6. Blackouts and memory lapses.
7. Drug thirst, inability to stop using, lying about drug use, preoccupation with obtaining the drug and using it.
What to do now:
1. If you believe you have a drug problem and have tried to stop using but could not, seek help of a drug treatment program or professional right away. Remember that it’s difficult to overcome drug abuse on your own.
2. If you detect any combination of the listed symptoms in a family member or friend (particularly a child or an adolescent) and suspect drug abuse.
When to call a doctor:
1. If you are pregnant and have been abusing drugs.
2. If someone (especially a child or an adolescent) shows symptoms of drug abuse.
How to prevent it:
Preventing setback often requires significant changes in habits and lifestyle. Depending on the severity of the drug problem recovery (the reactions that follows withdrawal) can be extremely difficult, still, there are steps you can take to make it easier to remain clean:
1. Seek the support of family members, friends, and colleagues.
2. Be careful not substitute another kind of addictive behavior-such as gambling, smoking, or overeating- for your former addiction.
3. Make sure that your diet is healthy and that you get regular exercise; physical activity stimulates your body to release chemicals that make your feel good.
4. Remember, recovery doesn’t happen overnight If you have a relapse don’t use it as an excuse to go back to your old habits. Think carefully about what led to the incident and plan how to avoid the same reaction next time.
5. Avoid places and situations that you associate with drug use. Try to make new friends who don’t use drugs and stay away from friends when they are using drugs.
Grief:
Signs and Symptoms:Grief is a natural course of action that people go thorough when they suffer a deep loss. The reactions or symptoms it produces vary largely from one person to another. They may include:
1. Extreme depression.
2. Fatigue.
3. Sudden shifts in emotions-being numb and emotionless one minute and crying uncontrollably in the next minute.
4. Significant changes in sleeping patterns, such as trouble falling asleep, waking to sleep all the time.
5. Physical pain or discomfort.
6. Either loss of appetite or compulsive overeating.
7. Feeling of helplessness, confusion, and hopelessness.
8. Absentmindedness; such difficulty making decisions or concentrating in even simple acts, like reading a newspaper, seem nearly impossible.
9. Self-destructive behavior, including such actions as driving recklessly or abusing drugs or alcohol.
What to do now:
1. Don’t hide your grief from friends.
2. In case of a death or other traumatic event in your family, your children need to grieve too, and may need your encouragement.
3. Put off making major decisions- whether to move from your home, what to do with your loved one’s possessions-while you’re in the midst of grieving.
4. Don’t leave important things unsaid or undone before someone dies.
5. If you know someone who is grieving, don’t be afraid to make contact and talk with him or her.
When to call a doctor:
1. If you feel physically ill and think you need a doctor’s help. Ailments caused by grief can be serious.
2. If symptoms of depression last longer than two months, or if you feel suicidal.
Smoking Illness:
Signs and Symptoms:1. Shortness of breath.
2. Wheezing.
3. Poor sense of smell and taste.
4. Bad breath.
5. General fatigue.
6. Persistent of hacking cough.
7. Poor circulation (cold hands and feet are a sign).
8. Frequent bouts of respiratory illnesses such as bronchitis.
9. Premature wrinkling of skin.
What to do now:
The best advice is to quit smoking. The benefits of quitting take effect right from the start. Within 30 minutes after your last puff, you blood pressure returns to normal. Within 12 to 48 hours, the excess carbon monoxide in your blood drops to normal. One year after that, your risk of heat disease will be half that of a smoker’s. Fifteen years after giving up cigarettes, your risk of heart disease will be the same as that of someone who has never smoked. You’ll also reduce your risk of getting many types of cancer.
Tips for making quitting easier:
1. If you are a heavy smoker, consult a doctor about using nicotine gum. These aids are meant to reduce the physical urge for a cigarette. Never smoke while using the gum or patches, though, or you’ll risk a dangerous nicotine overdose.
2. Exercise regularly. Daily walks or bike rides help your body overcome its need for nicotine as stimulant.
3. Recognize “triggers”- situations and places that make your want to smoke-and avoid them, if possible. Substitute other activities when you’re tempted to light up.
4. Consider meditation.
5. Drink lots of water and have low-calorie snacks available during the first weeks when you have an urge to put something in your mouth.
What come about when you quit:
Congratulations on deciding to quit smoking. But you’ll have to prepare yourself for at least one of these withdrawal symptoms: headache, nausea, drowsiness, loss of concentration, constipation or diarrhea, fatigue, and insomnia. You may also feel more irritable, anxious, or depressed than usual, or have a bigger appetite or an increased desire for sweets. These reactions occur because your body is scrambling to adjust to the sudden absence of nicotine. But don’t rush off to buy a pack of cigarettes. Withdrawal symptoms are only temporary, and once they pass, you’ll feel better than you’ve felt in years.
When to call a doctor:
1. If you notice a persistent cough, wheezing, breathlessness, and chest pains.
2. If you are a tobacco user and become concerned about your health for any reason. Smokers are more susceptible than nonsmokers to many major illnesses.
Stress:
Signs and Symptoms:1. Frequent headaches.
2. Digestive illnesses.
3. Neck or back pain.
4. Fatigue.
5. Insomnia.
6. Skin problems.
7. Loss of appetite.
8. Overeating.
Psychological:
1.Tension, anger, or anxiety.
2. Reclusive ness.
3. Cynicism.
4. General feeling of monotony.
5. Irritability or resentfulness.
6. Inability to concentrate.
7. Failure to perform at usual level.
What to do now :
1. Do some stretching exercises.
2. Do the following deep-breathing exercise: Sit or lie in a comfortable position, and count how many breaths you take in one minute, breathing deeply and slowly, try to take half as many breaths in the same time period. Continue for five minutes. Stop if you feel dizzy or faint.
3. Do things that relax you; take walks or long warm baths.
4. Call a friend or family member you feel you can talk to easily.
When to call a doctor:
1. If you think that your condition is due to anxiety, depression, or psychological factors severe than routine stress.
2. If you have symptoms of stress combined with any of the following: a sense of exhaustion or great difficulty associated with minor tasks, movement that is unusually agitated or slow, unusual sleep patterns, mood swing, persistent crying jags, loss of sex drive, or a change in menstrual cycles. You may have a form of clinical depression.
3. If your symptoms of stress are especially long-term and bothersome.
How to prevent it:
1. Try to understand what is causing the stress in your life and what changes you should made. Set reasonable goals for yourself and be frank with other people about what you can and can’t do.
2. If you are managing too many things, let a ball or two drop. Your house doesn’t have to be spotless, for example, and you don’t always have to be the last one to leave the office. Practice giving yourself a break.
3. Get regular exercise. Vigorous exercise can reduce the level of stress hormones and release the endorphins that bring a sense of well-being. Exercise for 20 minutes each day regularly.
4. Learn relaxation techniques such as stretching exercises, yoga, meditation or deep breathing.
5. Spend time outdoors. According to some research, contact with nature may help reduce stress.
6. Take a true vacation, leaving your work behind. A real break should be slow-paced and pressure-free.
7. If your stress is severe and long-term, consider enrolling in a stress-management program, either through your local hospital or with a private therapist.
