Anxiety Symptoms: 10 Common Signs To Watch Out For

By HUFFPOST LIVING CANADA

According to Statistics Canada, anxiety is one of the most prevalent mental health disorders in the country and is usually chronic and generally lasts at least six months.If left untreated, anxiety can get worse over time and people may not feel comfortable doing day-to-day routines like going to work or openly communicating with their partners.

While there are several symptoms of anxiety, Masand says they can be broken down to psychological and physical ones. Everything from irregular sleeping patterns to constantly fearing something in your life may be signs of anxiety disorder.

Masand says there are also several misconceptions about anxiety in the medical world. He believes not all forms of anxiety can be harmful, but rather they can help us stay focused and productive when we’re dealing with fears, for example. People suffering from anxiety, however, are also aware of the stigma. Telling someone to“calm down” or relating to them with your own stress, can all be viewed as annoying and unhelpful to someone with anxiety.

Anxiety Symptoms: 10 Common Signs To Watch Out For.

Related reading from around the Web:

 Anxiety Symptoms – Anxiety Attacks
 15 Small Steps You Can Take Today to Improve Anxiety Symptoms …
 Generalized Anxiety Disorder: Get the Facts on Symptoms
 Anxiety symptoms, panic attacks symptoms and treatment of anxiety …
 Symptoms | Anxiety and Depression Association of America, ADAA

 Stress and anxiety: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia

 

Gut feeling: How intestinal bacteria may influence our moods

Researchers beginning to understand link between gut bacteria and mental health

CBC.CA

“Many people with chronic intestinal conditions also have psychological disturbances and we never understood why,” says McMaster University gastroenterologist Dr. Stephen Collins.

Now, scientists such as Dr. Collins are starting to come up with answers.

Our lower gastrointestinal tract is home to almost 100 trillion microorganisms, most of which are bacteria. They are, by and large, “good” bacteria that help us digest food and release the energy and nutrients we need. They also crowd out bacteria that can trigger disease.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/gut-feeling-how-intestinal-bacteria-may-influence-our-moods-1.2701037?cmp=fbtl&utm_content=buffer0a2a8&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&

Mental Health: Anti-stigma campaigns produce unintended consequences

| OPSEU Diablogue

There is no question that stigma is an obstacle to those seeking help for mental illness.

The question is, once mental illness is accepted in the same way as any other medical malady, will there be sufficient resources in place to deal with those who do come forward?

Alan Stevenson of the Canadian Mental Health Association recently told the Sarnia Observer that his agency is seeing yearly jumps in the number of people coming forward with anxiety and depression largely due to the success of anti-stigma campaigns.

Mental Health: Anti-stigma campaigns produce unintended consequences | OPSEU Diablogue.

Technology Addicted Kids: The Why And How Of Tackling It

http://www.womensweb.in

‘Technology overload’ is something that makes us stressed and lethargic to many other things in day-to-day life. Though technology has made life easier, technology obsession has made life uneasy for many. It also necessitates to upgrade parenting skills. This article throws light into many of those challenges and alternatives. Read more…

Technology Addicted Kids: The Why And How Of Tackling It.

Addiction Starts With Overcorrection in the Brain

| Psych Central News

When drugs and alcohol release unnaturally high levels of dopamine in the brain’s pleasure system, oxidative stress occurs in the brain, according to scientists from Brigham Young University.

“Addiction is a brain disease that could be treated like any other disease,” researcher Scott Steffensen, Ph.D., said. “I wouldn’t be as motivated to do this research, or as passionate about the work, if I didn’t think a cure was possible.”

During their research, Steffensen and his collaborators found that the brain responds by generating a protein called brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). This correction suppresses the brain’s normal production of dopamine long after someone comes down from a high. Not having enough dopamine is what causes the pains andanxiety of withdrawal, according to the researchers.

Addiction Starts With Overcorrection in the Brain | Psych Central News.

5 Science-Backed Health Benefits Of Hypnosis

This isn’t the “You are getting very sleepy…” hypnosis you’re used to seeing in pop culture references, but a clinical procedure used in conjunction with other therapies and treatments, according to the American Psychological Association. Hypnosis for health benefits “should be conducted only by properly trained and credentialed health care professionals (e.g. psychologists) who also have been trained in the use of hypnosis and who are working within the limits of their professional expertise,”

5 Science-Backed Health Benefits Of Hypnosis.

A stunning map of depression rates around the world

The Washington Post

Redder countries have higher depression rates. Bluer countries have lower depression rates. (Max Fisher/The Washington  Post)

 The Middle East and North Africa suffer the world’s highest depression rates, according to a new  study by researchers at Australia’s University of Queensland — and it’s costing people in the region  years off their lives.

 The study, published this week in the journal PLOS Medicine, used data on the prevalence, incidence  and duration of depression to determine the social and public health burden of the disorder around the world. Globally, they found, depression is the second-leading cause of disability, with slightly more than 4 percent of the world’s population diagnosed with it. The map at the top of this page shows how much of the population in each country has received a diagnosis of clinical depression.

Of course, researchers didn’t go out and test everyone for clinical depression; rather, they used preexisting data. That means we’re not looking at rates of clinical depression, exactly, so much as the rate at which people are diagnosed with clinical depression. People who live in countries with greater awareness of and easier access to mental health services, then, are naturally going to be diagnosed at a higher rate. That may help explain the unusually low rate in Iraq, for example, where public health services are poor. Taboos against mental health disorders may also drive down diagnosis rates, for example in East Asia, artificially lowering the study’s measure of clinical depression’s prevalence in that region. The paper further cautions that reliable depression surveys don’t even exist for some low-income countries — a common issue with global studies — forcing the researchers to come up with their own estimates based on statistical regression models.

A stunning map of depression rates around the world – The Washington Post.

Study: Less-Structured Time Correlates to Kids’ Success

Based on  TIME Reports:

Research found that young children who spend more time engaging in more open-ended, free-flowing activities display higher levels of executive functioning, and vice versa.

Parents, drop your planners—a new psychological study released Tuesday found that children with less-structured time are likely to show more “self-directed executive functioning,” otherwise known as the “cognitive processes that regulate thought and action in support of goal-oriented behavior.”

“Executive function is extremely important for children,” Yuko Munakata, a professor in the psychology and neuroscience department at the university of Colorado, Boulder  told EurekAlert!. “It helps them in all kinds of ways throughout their daily lives, from flexibly switching between different activities rather than getting stuck on one thing, to stopping themselves from yelling when angry, to delaying gratification. Executive function during childhood also predicts important outcomes, like academic performance, health, wealth and criminality, years and even decades later.”

Study: Less-Structured Time Correlates to Kids’ Success | TIME.

Depressed? Then improve how you cope with stress ….

The Globe and Mail

We’ve all had the “blues” at some point or another, but real depression is complex. Not all symptoms of depression can be explained by a person’s genetics; some clinical depression stems from a person’s life choices. Psychosocial risk factors also can play a role. Depression negatively effects neural circuits that control mood, thinking, sleep, appetite and behaviour to the point that important neurotransmitters are put out of balance. .

Depressed? Then improve how you cope with stress – The Globe and Mail.

Proactively addressing addictions in the workplace…

Canadian Occupational Safety : http://www.cos-mag.com

What is the first image that comes to your mind when you think about an addict? The majority of individuals envision a person who is sitting in a back alley with a bottle in hand, or a needle protruding from their arm. The Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse(CCSA) discovered 77 per cent of drug addicts and 90 per cent of alcoholics are employed. The addicts of today include nurses, lawyers, surgeons, teenagers and soccer moms. Despite the fact the face of addictions has changed over the past 50 years, the challenges remain the same.

Substance abuse while on the job remains to be a serious issue for numerous companies, and the safety of many is at stake. CCSA reported that 40 per cent of workplace accidents that result in death involve drug or alcohol use. In an effort to target this problem, companies are starting to look into random drug and alcohol testing. Recently, the arbitration board rejected Suncor’s goal to do just that.

Proactively addressing addictions in the workplace.