Adult Attention Deficit Disorder

Attention deficit disorder adult or adult add, can be a very frustrating condition to have. Almost all original research and the development of attention deficit disorders focused on children and youth, but adults are just as likely to have the State as the youth. Disorder makes visible in childhood, usually with difficulties at school is one of the most common stamps on the condition that helps explain why it has focused as much on children with the disease. But children with attention deficit disorder grow up to be adults with attention deficit disorder.

If you are an adult and have trouble focusing on work, have trouble listening to people in everyday conversations, find out many people, often losing things, is easily distracted by tasks, is easily frustrated, or find feel stimulated frequently, you can have deficit disorder adult's attention.

Treatment of the disorder reflect the treatments used for children with the disease. The first step you need to take if you think you may have a problem of adult attention deficit is to see a doctor. There are other conditions that can mimic a condition of attention deficit adult such as bipolar disorder, anxiety, depression or disorder obsessive compulsive disorder, and it is important that they be excluded before attempting treatment.

Most health professionals agree that there are also a number of drugs, measures to take to help relieve some of your symptoms. Get regular vigorous exercise has been shown to help many people with ADD. A high protein diet is also recommended. To keep the lists, type notes, split large tasks into smaller parts and other measures similar to the counter of your disorder will certainly help and. Medicine is also another option. Discuss with your doctor and together decide which method is best.

When Anxiety Becomes a Personality Disorder

Very severe anxiety can sometimes lead doctors to diagnose people with personality disorders. Symptoms of the two most prevalent ones are described in this article.

Anxious (Avoidant) Personality Disorder is characterized by pervasive and persistent emotions of insecurity, shyness, tension and apprehension. The person believes they are undeserving, unlikable, and inept socially, and not that important compared with other people. These feelings often mean the affected individual avoids relationships unless certain that they are liked by the other person.

Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder comes in two forms: 'impulsive type' and 'borderline type', both have the following characteristics: a strong inability to think and plan ahead in combination with no real self-control and the occasional sudden outburst of extreme anger. This anger can itself lead to other behaviors such as violence, particularly if these acts are challenged or stopped by people in the vicinity.

Impulsive type emotional instability manifests itself with a low level of being able to control impulses. Violence and threatening behavior are frequent, and more often than not are direct responses to others criticizing the person affected.

Borderline type emotional instability can be characterized by strong doubts of personal aims, image and sexual preferences, leading to upset and distress. Debilitating feelings of emptiness can promote suicide, or at the very least self-harming. People get involved in emotionally taut, constrained relationships which frequently have crises, but which they try to remain in so as to avoid being abandoned.

As yet the diagnosis of this mental condition is controversial since its causes and treatments are not fully agreed upon. Certain sufferers benefit from being emotionally open enough to discuss past difficult and upsetting experiences. Through airing their problems they become able to better identify the risky situations and so learn how to then deal with them.

Bipolar II Disorder

Bipolar II is related to Bipolar I, but it differs in one major aspect. While Bipolar I has extreme manic and depressive states, Bipolar II has the deep depression, but never goes into full-blown mania. The highs of this type of bipolar disorder aren't quite as high, but they are high enough to make the individual notice the downswings more. This form of bipolar disorder can be just as trying on the individual as Bipolar I.

The highs of bipolar two are called a hypomanic manic episode. Hypomania is essentially a very revved up state of great productivity and quickness. When hypomanic, you talk fast, walk fast, think fast, pretty much do everything else fast. You become upbeat, enthusiastic, relentlessly optimistic and confident.

Major depressive episode is essentially just a fancy word for depression. When you have a major depressive episode, you're severely depressed. The symptoms are the same as they are for clinical depression. These symptoms are:

--Decreased interest in life.

--Feelings of sadness, tension, or irritability.

--Loss of energy.

--Change in appetite.

--Change in sleeping patterns.

--Feeling restless.

--Feeling slowed down.

--Decreased ability to make decisions.

--Lack of concentration.

--Feelings of worthlessness or guilt.

--Feelings of hopelessness.

--Thoughts of suicide or death.

The major depressive episode is the downside of Bipolar II in more ways than one. Not only is it the mood downswing, it's the cost of having such great productive ups. Although you can get a lot accomplished when in the up phase of Bipolar II and you can also feel wonderful, you pay a high price for these benefits. You pay with a major depressive episode. Coming down off of a glorious, ecstatic high into a place of hopelessness can be devastating.

Loving Someone with Bipolar Disorder

Giving unconditional love for bipolar disorder patients is a tough job. If you do not understand what is happening to your loved one, then you will have difficulty relating to them.

Do not think of the illness as humiliation. If you will feel ashamed of your loved one because he is inflicted with such illness, then you are not helping him restore his good health, instead you are letting him do worse than expected.

Trust is essential to individuals with Bipolar disorder. They need you to trust them, not entrust them to other people or institutions such as the psychiatrists or an asylum. To build up trust, an open and honest communication is needed. Keep the communication line open. An open and honest communication is vital. Encourage your loved one to talk about what he thinks and feels. Let him suggest ways on how you are supposed to relate to him.

Do not suppress what you feel. However, there are positive ways to let your loved know how you feel. It is recommended that you avoid nagging, preaching or lecturing an individual with Bipolar disorder. Such negative actions will drive him to detach. If you are concerned about him, let him see how concerned you are in a gentle and encouraging manner.

Let him do things his way. Along with trust and communication, let the person experience what he can do for himself. Let him solve problems if he can find solutions. Let him live the way he is supposed to live. By that, he will feel that he is important and has a good reason why he lives.

Be there. Although you allow him to do his own way, it does not mean that you will not be there when he needs you to. Let him do things his way but make sure that you are around to give assistance when needed.

Most importantly, apart from assistance, you need to offer your love, understanding and support.

Addiction and personality disorder

Substance abuse and Addictions (alcoholism, drug addiction) is a form of pattern recurring and self-destructive of misconduct. People are addicted to all sorts of things: games of chance, shopping, Internet, reckless and sides of life-danger of the same coin. Adrenaline junkies abound.

The link between the chronic anxiety, pathological narcissism, depression, features obsessive compulsive and drug addiction, alcoholism and substance abuse is common and well established in clinical practice. But not all Narcissists, compulsive, depressive and anxious people are turning to the bottle or the needle.

Frequent claims to find a complex of genes responsible for alcoholism was constantly thrown in doubt. In 1993 suggested Berman and behavior addictive Noble and bold is just emerging phenomena, and can be connected with other, more basic features such as risk taking or new research. Psychopaths (patient with an antisocial personality disorder) are the two qualities in abundance. We expect them, so strongly of alcohol and drug abuse. Yes, as Lewis and demonstrated convincingly in 1991 Bucholz, they do. Although a negligible minority of alcoholics and drug addicts are psychopaths.

What was established that most of the addicts are narcisstic in personality. Cocaine abuse serves its purpose. The places him above the laws and pressure from secularism and humiliating and depressing reality requirements. They make him the center of attention - but also locked up in 'splendid isolation' troublesome and less than the quantity.

These pages of the wild and mandatory judgment gives a psychological exoskeleton. They are a delegate existence connected. The narcissistic advice with an agenda, with timetables, goals and false results. Narcissistic-adrenaline-junkie-feel that he is in control, alert, energized and vital. He does not consider his condition as a dependency. Narcissistic convinced he is responsible for his addiction that he may leave at will and in a short time.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

Generalized anxiety disorder affects approximately three percent of the population. There are no real triggers for generalized anxiety disorder. Sometimes it can affect a person without them knowing. The feeling of worry and anxiety will start to creep into the person's head and they are unable to stop, despite all indications the worry is unnecessary.

People who experience generalized anxiety disorder usually expect the worse case scenario. It prevents them from relaxing and can cause insomnia, fatigue, headaches, irritability and trembling.

This anxiety disorder affects nearly four million people each year and often hits people in their childhood or adolescence but can first appear in adulthood. It affects women more than men.

Generalized anxiety disorder is just one of six different anxiety disorders and can be categorized in the following groups: Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Panic Disorder, Social Anxiety Disorder, Post Traumatic Anxiety Disorder, Obsessive Anxiety Disorder and Phobia Related Anxiety Disorder

GAD along with the other 5 disorders is treatable and should be looked at by a professional therapist as soon as possible. There are two main types of recommended therapy, cognitive and behavioral therapy. Cognitive therapy is focused on changing one's mental state by helping the brain relearn its thinking process. It can help with long term treatment because changing the way a person thinks can affect their out come tremendously.

Behavioral therapy is a more in your face type of treatment. It involves confronting a person's fears. The purpose to this is to help a person talk about their problems until they become desensitized from the fear or anxiety by describing in detail how they feel.

Whichever method a person chooses, treatment for generalized anxiety disorder will help the person live a fuller, more enjoyable life. A life free on unnecessary worry and fear is possible with time and effort.

What is Social Anxiety Disorder?

Social anxiety disorder may be easily misdiagnosed or even be mistaken as a form of shyness. Having said that, many sufferers of social anxiety are not even aware that they are experiencing an anxiety disorder. Approximately seven percent of the population suffers from social anxiety. Recent years have shown progress in treating this type of disorder.

Social anxiety can be defined as fear of social occasions and situations and the interaction with people due to feelings of negative evaluation, inadequacy, embarrassment, humiliation and self-consciousness. This form of phobia provoked by the social situations exceeds the ordinary shyness when it ultimately leads to complete or excessive social avoidance and invariably causing substantial social impairment. People with this disorder are often the world's loners.

The physical symptoms of social anxiety disorder are associated with two or more of the signs that are caused by persistent fear or worry, negative feeling of embarrassment and humiliation such as restlessness, feeling of fatigue, trembling and sweaty palms, lack of focus, muscle tension or sleep disturbance. There is a high possibility when you experience irritability, shortness of breath and intense anxiety and worry that suggest that you are suffering from a social anxiety disorder. Social anxiety symptoms closely resemble ordinary shyness but they can be differentiated in terms of the intensity and extreme experience of anxiety and tension.

In the early stages of the disorder, it is critical to receive the appropriate medical intervention by drug-based medication or non-drug based methods or combination of both. Alternative medicines have also recently grown in popularity, of which therapy is often used widely for healing social anxiety. There are no clear guidelines on the best course of treatment. It may take several attempts and method or prescription changes to find the one that works for you.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

One thing that is coming up more than ever is the condition called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Some were aware of it before this became the common name and remember it as shell shock.

It starts with events that are so traumatic for those suffering, that they can't deal with it all at once, and shouldn't be expected too. In wars, many soldiers experience horrors that were extremely beyond anything they could ever prepare for. This has been a strongly noticed issue on the rise since the many soldiers returned home from the Vietnam War.

Many have experienced post traumatic stress disorder from acts of violence around crime scenes, devastating losses, repeated abuses beyond imagination, and yet many more situations. The key factor often being the result is severely traumatizing to them.

Whatever the cause, untreated, those with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder stand to deal with many side effects including sleep trouble, anxiety, depression, flashbacks, and even blackouts when these occur. While they came back, the issues of their trauma are still buried deep in their mind in full force.

One of the more extreme side effects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is another disorder called Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD), in which studies indicate all cases have PTSD as well. Split personalities seem to be one of the ways the human mind can deal with the trauma hidden back in.

One thing that will definitely be necessary when treating Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is unraveling the layers of emotional feelings, fears and other things that may have long been hidden and attempted forgotten. Learning to deal with these feelings and fears is the most important thing. Being able to find someone they can open up to about them and get the word out of their head will indeed bring long-term progress

Creativity and Bipolar Disorder

Almost since the beginning of time, human beings have recognized the connection between intelligence or creativity and mental illness. Consider the way these individuals are portrayed in movies and books, for instance - the mad scientist working day and night in his laboratory, the hallucinating artist who doesn't even take time out from his creative work to eat.

Researchers have noted that an unusually high number of creative geniuses suffered from bipolar disorder. The reason Bipolar may bring about this increase in creative abilities is linked to the nature of the disease. One symptom of mania is an increase in creative, mental and physical energy. This might explain why these people were able create such works of genius, and why they were able to devote such concentrated periods of time to their work.

These creative geniuses included novelist Virginia Woolf, who brought us numerous first rate novels. Poet Sylvia Plath also suffered from the mood swings associated with Bipolar disorder. Musician and composer Ludwig van Beethoven is also believed to have suffered from Bipolar Disorder.

Perhaps best known for her role as the Southern belle Scarlet O'Hara in Gone with the Wind, actress Vivien Leigh was also plagued with Bipolar Disorder. Despite the disease and the shock therapy she was given as the treatment in those days.

Painter Vincent Van Gogh is also said to have suffered from Bipolar disorder. His most loved painting Starry Night was painted while Van Gogh was in a mental asylum for treatment of his erratic moods.

While every person with bipolar disorder may not create lasting works of art or literature, there is a higher percentage of artists and writers who are bipolar. So does the emotional instability of bipolar disorder bring about genius? We may one day know the answer for sure.

What is a Mood Disorder?

Mood disorder has become a bit of a generic term when discussing mental health. In reality, the term mood disorder refers to one of two specific conditions: depression or Bipolar Disorder.

Many people refer to feeling sad or disappointed as "being depressed". This is a factually incorrect description. Depression is, in part, a chronic change in one's mood, outlook, or behavior. Normal sadness and disappointment don't linger on for weeks at a time.

Bipolar Disorder is a swing between feeling euphoric mania, and major depression. Bipolar Disorder can have a severe impact on the lives of people inflicted with it, as the euphoric mania stage sometimes results in excessive, irresponsible behavior -- spending a great deal of money unwisely, for instance, or inappropriately interjecting oneself into certain situations -- while the major depressive stage can leave a person almost completely incapacitated, and sometimes leads to a suicide attempt.

Having anxiety is quite a different scenario than having Bipolar Disorder. Anxiety is, generally speaking, feeling emotionally overwhelmed and/or extremely fearful, be it most of the time, or only in certain situations. The person with anxiety may feel as though they aren't in control, but an anxious person typically isn't going to engage in public displays of irrational or unreasonable behavior like someone with Bipolar Disorder may. Interestingly enough, this fear of becoming mentally ill is typically an indication that one is not mentally ill at all, as most people who are truly mentally ill consider themselves to be normal and healthy, and may even react hostilely to anyone suggesting otherwise.

While using the term mood disorder when one really means anxiety may just be a case of semantics, it is important to differentiate between various emotional and psychological conditions, if for no other reason than to ensure proper treatment.

Rapid Cycling in Bipolar Disorder

Bipolar disorder by itself is a condition in which its sufferers cycle between two poles of mental instability; mania and depression. Rapid cycling occurs when the sufferer shifts quickly between the two states with little to no warning.

Because it is one of the most serious forms of bipolar disorder the prognosis for anyone afflicted with rapid cycling bipolar disorder is not always good. The mental health and brain function of people with this condition is highly compromised because of the rate at which they go from mania to depression and back again. Treating this condition is also difficult.

In order to make a rapid cycling diagnosis the patient will have to meet the standards set forth in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders IV-TR which states that the patient must have at least four episodes of depression and mania/hypomania in a one year period.

Some people with rapid cycling bipolar disorder are asymptomatic, meaning they have periods when they exhibit neither of the cycles associated with this disorder. This does not diminish their need to effectively deal with their condition because when the mania and depression do hit it can be severe enough to be life threatening.

The more troubling side of this disorder is those who have little to no time between normalcy and a depressive or manic episode. Without proper mental health help people who suffer from this extreme can be a danger to themselves and others.

It is also possible that those who suffer from rapid cycling bipolar disorder will also partake in risky behavior. Drug and alcohol abuse is not out of the question particularly for those who like to self medicate. This can actually make the symptoms much worse and cause the cycling between the two extremes to happen at an even faster pace.

Histrionic Personality Disorder

Histrionics resemble narcissists - both seek attention compulsively and are markedly dysphoric and uncomfortable when not at the center of attention. They have to be the life of the party. If they fail in achieving this pivotal role, they act out or create hysterical scenes.

The histrionic is preoccupied with physical appearance, sexual conquests, her health, and her body. The typical histrionic spends huge dollops of money and expends inordinate amounts of time on grooming. Histrionics fish for compliments and are upset when confronted with criticism or proof that they are not as glamorous or alluring as they think they are.

Histrionics sexualize everyone and every situation. They constantly act flirtatious, provocative, and seductive, even when such behavior is not warranted by circumstances or, worse still, is highly inappropriate. Such conduct is often ill received. People usually find this unabashed directness and undisguised hunger for approval annoying, or outright repulsive. Consequently, histrionics are sometimes subject to social censure and ostracism.

The histrionics' intensity and unpredictability are exhausting. The histrionic's nearest and dearest are often embarrassed by her unbridled display of emotions: hugging casual acquaintances, uncontrollable sobbing in public, or having temper tantrums. The histrionic's behavior is so off-color that she is typically accused of being a fake.

Concerned only with the latest conquest, the histrionic uses her physical appearance and attire as a kind of conscious bait. It is ironic that histrionics often mistake the depth, durability, and intimacy of their relationships and are devastated by their inevitable premature termination.

Histrionics are the quintessential drama queens. They are theatrical, their emotions exaggerated to the point of a caricature, their gestures sweeping, disproportional, and inappropriate. The histrionic is easily suggestible and responds instantly and fully to the slightest change in circumstances and to the most meaningless communication or behavior by others.

Conduct Disorder

Children and adolescents with conduct disorder are budding psychopaths.

They repeatedly and deliberately - and often with great joy -violate the rights of others and breach age-appropriate social norms and rules. Some of them gleefully hurt and torture people or, more frequently, animals. Others damage property. Yet others habitually deceive, lie, and steal.

These behaviors inevitably render them socially, occupationally, and academically dysfunctional. They are poor performers at home, in school, and in the community. As such adolescents grow up, and beyond the age of 18, the diagnosis automatically changes from Conduct Disorder to the Antisocial Personality Disorder.

Children with Conduct Disorder are masters of denial. They tend to minimize their problems and blame others for their misbehavior and failures. This shifting of guilt justifies, as far as they are concerned, their invariably and pervasively aggressive, bullying, intimidating, and menacing gestures and tantrums.

Adolescents with Conduct Disorder are often embroiled in fights, both verbal and physical. They frequently use weapons, purchased or improvised (for example, broken glass) and they are cruel. Many underage muggers, extortionists, purse-snatchers, rapists, robbers, shoplifters, burglars, arsonists, vandals, and animal torturers are diagnosed with Conduct Disorder.

Conduct Disorder comes in many shapes and forms. Some adolescents are "cerebral" rather than physical. These are likely to act as con-artists, lie their way out of awkward situations, swindle everyone, their parents and teachers included, and forge documents to erase debts or obtain material benefits.

Conduct-disordered children and adolescents find it difficult to abide by any rules and to honor agreements. They regard societal norms as onerous impositions. They stay out late at night, run away from home, are truant from school, or absent from work without good cause.

Some adolescents with Conduct Disorder have been also diagnosed with Oppositional Defiant Disorder and at least one personality disorder