Anxiety and Panic Attacks - 10 Questions Your Doctor Will Ask If You Are Struggling with Anxiety!

Diagnosing anxiety can sometimes be difficult because the manifestation of symptoms such as shortness of breath, tingling in your hands and feet and heart palpitations can also be symptoms of physical conditions. If you visit the doctor´s office with the suspicion you have anxiety, you will probably be asked a lot of questions about your daily routine and habits.

The doctor will use this information to help diagnose you but you can use this information to help you figure out how to solve your anxiety problems. Many anxiety conditions can be effectively dealt with without medication.

Here are some of the questions you might be asked when you visit the doctor due to anxiety problems.

1. How often do you feel anxious? If you have infrequent bouts of anxiety, it may indicate a physical problem. More frequent episodes tend to indicate an anxiety condition.

2. What are some of the current stresses in your life? Anxiety conditions are often related to your physical health, personal relationships or financial considerations.

3. Has there been a recent, traumatic incident in your life? The loss of a loved one, personal injury, or natural disaster. Trauma is often very connected to our anxiety level.

4. Is there a family history of depression or anxiety? There is a genetic component to these problems and family history can often be a good clue in determining the nature of your current condition. Depression and anxiety problems are often bed companions as well.

5. Are you on any prescription medications, drink excessive amounts of caffeine or alcohol? These questions are pertinent because prescriptions drugs can have side effects that either cause anxiety or mimic the symptoms of it. Alcohol and caffeine can lead to jitteriness, paranoia or depression.

6. Under what circumstances do you feel anxious? This question will help determine the nature of your anxiety. Do you have a fear of elevators, speaking in front of others or a more generalized type of anxiety disorder?

7. Is it difficult to perform your daily activities i.e. going to work, shopping driving etc.? This question will help determine the impact of your anxiety on your life, an important diagnostic consideration.

8. Have you felt more tired or had trouble concentrating lately? These questions get at the symptoms of anxiety.

9. Are you experiencing panic attacks or just general feelings of worry? A panic attack is often the culmination of anxious feelings and can be very scary and traumatic.

10. Do you have any medical conditions? This can help the doctor determine whether any medical problems you may have are contributing to your symptoms.

While these questions are just some of the many you will probably be asked, they are a good place to start in understanding for yourself whether you have an anxiety problem and what may be contributing to it. Once you understand the source of your symptoms, you can work to solve those problems and hopefully in turn solve your anxiety.


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Chris Cornell

Smoking Alternatives other than Pure Cigarettes

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Themes for Forbidden Love Stories

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Hypotonia – Causes, Signs and Treatment

Hypotonia is more a description than a diagnosis. It is most often seen in newborns (congenital) and infants, but it may persist through adolescence into adulthood. Another name for infantile hypotonia is "floppy baby syndrome." This refers to the tendency of a hypotonic infant's arms, legs, and head to "flop," or dangle loosely, when they are picked up or moved. In the past, the term "benign congenital hypotonia" was used for many cases in which no obvious cause for the hypotonia could be detected.



Hypertonia: Increased tightness of muscle tone. Untreated hypertonia can lead to loss of function and deformity. Treatment is by physical and/or occupational therapy, and in some cases muscle relaxant medication. Injections of botulism toxin (botox) are a recent treatment for chronic hypertonia in cerebral palsy and other disorders. Also known as spasticity.



Hypotonia is quite devastating even though it can almost be invisble to a parent. Even the floppiness that you hear the professionals talk about, for example, is because the muscles, as a result of the hypotonia, are much less supportive of the skeleton, so the joints of the bones are not held together by the muscles as well as they should be, so you are often told your kid has hypermobility as well - which simply means the joints move excessively in comparison to other peoples' joints.



Causes



The virus responsible for genital warts is called human papilloma virus (HPV). This virus can cause warts on the penis, vulva, urethra, vagina, cervix, and around the anus.



HPV infection around the genitals is common, although most people have no symptoms. Even if you do NOT have symptoms, however, you must be treated to avoid complications and spreading the condition to others.



Signs



Hypotonic patients may display a variety of objective manifestations that indicate decreased muscle tone. Motor skills delay is often observed, along with hypermobile or hyperflexible joints, drooling and speech difficulties, poor reflexes, decreased strength, decreased activity tolerance, rounded shoulder posture, with leaning onto supports, and poor attention and motivation. The extent and occurrence of specific objective manifestations depends upon the age of the patient, the severity of the hypotonia, the specific muscles affected, and sometimes the underlying cause. For instance, some hypotonics may experience constipation, while others have no bowel problems.



Treatment



Treatment begins with a thorough diagnostic evaluation, including an assessment of motor and sensory skills, balance and coordination, mental status, reflexes, and functioning of the nerves. Diagnostic tests such as a CT scan of the brain, an EMG to evaluate nerve and muscle function, or an EEG to measure electrical activity in the brain may also be necessary. Once a diagnosis has been made, the underlying condition is treated first, followed by symptomatic and supportive therapy for the hypotonia.



Physical therapy to prevent muscle atrophy and maintain joint mobility, and measures to try and prevent opportunistic infections such as pneumonia. Treatments to improve neurological status might involve such things as medication for a seizure disorder, medicines or supplements to stabilize a metabolic disorder, or surgery to help relieve the pressure from hydrocephalus (increased fluid in the brain). If the neurologic condition is untreatable, physical and occupational therapy may help to improve muscle tone, strength, and coordination.

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Martial Arts Wisdom for Alzheimer's Caregivers: Rolling with Life's Punches

Learn to Roll with Life's Punches and Bounce Back

What can the martial arts teach Alzheimer's family caregivers? Plenty. One powerful lesson comes from Aikido, a powerful, ethical,dynamic and beautiful martial art. Aikido means: "The Way of Harmonizing Energy." Aikido practitioners learn to blend and steer an opponent's force to safely control a situation. In the process of training we learn a lot about ourselves as well.

One thing that we learn in Aikido is ukemi (pronounced ooh-keh-mee) training. Ukemi is the art of falling down safely. It is important to learn how to fall in this martial art, so that you don't get hurt when you are thrown. Basically, injury to yourself is not the result of being thrown hard, it's the effect of falling poorly. Knowing how to fall well is essential for those times when you are thrown. You can spend a lifetime perfecting this skill. And you might as well. Take it from me: Gravity Always Wins.

In everyday life, when we fall down, we automatically tighten up our bodies, and increase the risk of injury. In ukemi trraining, we learn to gradually relax and let go of tension, even as we fall. This training leads to much softer impact, and a much happier Aikido-ist. Falling begins to feel more like floating, and less like crashing.

Now, am I sugesting that you drop everything and go enroll in Aikido classes? Of course not! But you can adopt the philosophy of falling well. What is the lesson of ukemi training for life? Putting aside the martial arts reasons for training, IN LIFE WE CONSTANTLY FALL DOWN! And caregiving is a continual challenge filled with even more sudden throws, and many expected and unexpected falls.

So we need to learn to fall with grace.

Think about it. If a person is bound and determined to never ever waver, to never try a different approach, what will happen when she hits an obstacle? What will happen when her usual approach to caregiving isn't working right? Any Alzheimer's caregiver knows that mistakes, challenges, and frustrations are inevitable.

And you know what makes that simple setback worse? It's that good old human tendency to get upset because you made a mistake. We are expert at tormenting ourselves by getting distressed, angry anxious, nervous, worried, or whatever- just because we ran into a frustration. That's the way in which we tighten up emotionally as we fall. And we know what pain that can lead to. Sound familiar?

So, how can we roll with caregiving's punches?

1. Expect to fall, to be frustrated at times. It is inevitable in life, and even more unavoidable for a caregiver.

2. Perfect your own personal emotional ukemi training. Stubbornly refuse to torture yourself about your mistake. Learn to relax when you are frustrated.

3. Find ways to remind yourself that it's OK to make mistakes, and that the important thing is to relax, get your balance, and get back up. You could make a sign that says something like "Relax," or "Balance," and hang it where you can see it. make more than one.

4. Don't ignore your signs once they are up. When you pass your sign, stop a minute, and rehearse its message. That's the way advertising works.

5. Get in the habit of rewarding yourself not for being perfect, and not just when things are going along smoothly. Instead, celebrate that you got back up to try again.

6. If you are comfortable, try sharing this radical philosophy with others.

7. Remember: it's not the mistake that stops you. It's your decision to stop that stops you.

8. Finally, keep in mind a wise old Buddhist saying:

"if you fall down seven times, get up eight times."

I trained for years with a very remarkable person who was also a caregiver. When I would see him and ask how he was doing, he'd smile and say, "I'm still taking ukemi." And then we'd train. I wish you good ukemi!

Alzheimer’s Family Caregiver Support is a series of articles to help empower someone who cares for a person with Alzheimer’s disease. The material in this article is educational, and is not a substitute for professional advice.

Copyright 2006 Mark Matloff
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Herpes Testing You Should Know About

There are many reasons why you shouldn’t fail to have herpes testing. These reasons may mean your life, the health of your partner as well as further complications that it may lead you if you fail to undergo the disease’s examination.

Herpes is a disease caused by virus. Depending on the virus that causes the infection, the illness may be categorized as HSV-1 or HSV-2. Additionally, this disease may manifest on your mouth (oral herpes) or genital areas (genital herpes).

The HSV-1 virus usually causes oral herpes. This kind can make its victims suffer because of painful sores. These sores may appear on your gums, lips and within your mouth area. This virus can also cause genital herpes although 80% of patients infected by this virus only suffer oral herpes.

Also, this type of simplex virus doesn’t just affect adults. Because of how the disease is transferred, it is possible for your kids to acquire it.

On the other hand, HSV-2 simplex virus is the virus type that causes genital herpes. Accordingly, herpes survey showed that 8 people out of 10 are most likely infected with this kind of herpes.

Because of the speed of transmission, it is a must to go for herpes testing as promptly as possible. This disease can be easily passed on through skin to skin contact. This is most susceptible if you have open wound or lesion on your skin.

Aside from that, herpes can be communicated through sexual intercourse. Take note that this disease may occur on your mouth which could only mean that oral sex would not save you.

Herpes testing centers and agency encourage people with active sex life to have herpes test. This is specifically encouraged whenever some symptoms start occurring. Some manifestations of herpes that would signal you to have a check are:

Oral Herpes

- itchiness around the mouth (you may experience this before the sore)

- cold sores

- fever blisters

- lymph nodes on the neck

Genital

Although this kind of herpes may show confusing symptoms, you might want to consider the following signs:

- sores that are filled with fluid

- sores near your genital areas

- excruciating pain on your lower body or near the possibly infected area

Naturally, it is always best to hear the opinion of the experts; better yet, do some genital herpes testing. By doing so, you would know whatever it is that’s been causing your health to fail and find remedy for it as early as possible.

Some of the herpes tests that you can do include herpes blood test or herpes simplex test. Depending on the herpes test results, the doctor may suggest you to do further herpes lab test.

Another thing that you must know is that herpes testing for men differ from women’s test. The different tests of the two genders can provide more herpes testing accuracy. With such, you can be reassured that the chance that you might be given the wrong diagnostic is low.

Herpes testing is very important. This is something that you should do the moment you start feeling and seeing the symptoms. In fact, you should do this as early as possible.
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Anxiety

Some degree of anxiety is perfectly normal. We all experience situations where we may feel fear and apprehension. However, there are some people who feel anxious even when there is no discernible cause. In these cases, the anxiety usually becomes overwhelming and may interfere with the normal functioning of one’s life. People who suffer from a debilitating level of anxiety are suffering from an anxiety disorder. Negative emotional patterns, anger, fear, stress and anxiety all contribute to degenerative illness such as cancer, heart disease etc..

What is Anxiety?

Anxiety is a normal physical reaction to an internal or external demand that is placed on your system. The human body reacts to most stressful situations with the “fight or flight” response where it is flooded with stress hormones. These hormones make the heart pump faster, the breathing rate increase, and the muscles tense up. This is the body’s way of gearing up for imminent physical activity. However, a person who suffers from an anxiety disorder may experience chronic and recurrent episodes of anxiety that have no discernible cause. These episodes can last for days, weeks, or even months. Sometimes, an anxiety disorder may stem from a definite trigger such as childhood abuse or witnessing the event of war. But in other situations, hormonal or chemical changes in the brain or environmental factors cause an anxiety disorder to develop.

What Causes Anxiety?

There are several parts of the brain that are involved in the development of anxiety. Scientists have performed research using brain imaging technologies and neurochemical techniques to discover the network of interacting events that are responsible for anxiety. Most of the activity appears to be centered around the amygdala, an almond-shaped structure deep within the brain. Many researchers feel that the amygdala acts as a sort of central “hub” that processes and interprets different signals to and within the brain. The amygdala controls the storage of emotional memories, therefore, it may play a central role in the development of anxiety disorders such as phobias, and post traumatic stress disorder.

The hiccocampus is another area of the brain that is likely to be involved in anxiety disorders. This part of the brain is responsible for processing threatening or traumatic stimuli. It helps to encode information into memories. People who have undergone severe stress, such as military combat or childhood abuse, have a smaller hiccocampus than people who have not experienced such a traumatic event. The smaller size may explain the fragmented memory, flashbacks, and memory deficits of those who develop post traumatic stress disorder.

Scientists are using this information to understand more about anxiety disorders and how they develop. In studies of twins and family members, researchers have determined that genetics does play some role in the development of an anxiety disorder. But life experience is also certainly a factor. Researchers are hoping to discover how genetics and experience interact in each of the anxiety disorders. They can then use this information to develop appropriate methods of prevention and treatment.

The Costs of Anxiety

According to a recent study by the Anxiety Disorder Association of America, anxiety disorders cost the U.S. more than $42 billion a year. And more than $22.84 billion is associated with the repeated use of healthcare services, as those with anxiety disorders seek relief for symptoms that mimic physical illnesses.
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