AUTISM

AUTISM 

Autism is a pervasive developmental disorder (PDD), a group of illnesses that involve delays in the development of many basic skills, most notably the abilities to socialize or form relationships with others, to effectively communicate, and to use the imagination (including fantasy play). Children with autism and related disorders often are confused in their thinking and generally have problems understanding the world around them.

In addition to problems with social interaction, imagination, and communication, children with autism also have a limited range of interests. Many children with autism (nearly 75%) also have mental retardation. In many cases, children with autism are unable to emotionally bond with their parents or other family members.

What Are the Symptoms of Autism?

Symptoms of autism typically appear before a child is 3 years old and last throughout life. Children with autism can display a wide range of symptoms, which can vary in severity from mild to disabling. General symptoms that may be present to some degree in a child with autism include:

• Difficulty with verbal communication, including problems using and understanding language
• Inability to participate in a conversation, even when the child has the ability to speak
• Difficulty with non-verbal communication, such as gestures and facial expressions
• Difficulty with social interaction, including relating to people and to his or her surroundings
• Inability to make friends and preferring to play alone
• Unusual ways of playing with toys and other objects, such as only lining them up a certain way
• Lack of imagination
• Difficulty adjusting to changes in routine or familiar surroundings, or an unreasonable insistence on following routines in detail
• Repetitive body movements, or patterns of behavior, such as hand flapping, spinning, and head banging
• Preoccupation with unusual objects or parts of objects

People with a form of autism, called savantism, have exceptional skills in specific areas such as music, art, and numbers. People with savantism are able to perform these skills without lessons or practice.

What Are the Warning Signs That a Child may Have Autism?

Babies develop at their own pace, some more quickly than others. However, you should consider an evaluation for autism if any of the following apply:

• Your child does not babble or coo by 12 months of age
• Your child does not gesture, such as point or wave, by 12 months of age
• Your child does not say single words by 16 months
• Your child does not say two-word phrases on his or her own (rather than just repeating what someone else says) by 24 months
• Your child has lost any language or social skills (at any age)
• Does not establish or maintain eye contact
• Does not make facial expressions or respond to your facial expressions

What is Stevens Johnson Syndrome?

Stevens-Johnson Syndrome is a potentially deadly skin disease that usually results from a drug reaction. Another form of the disease is called Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis, and again this usually results from a drug-related reaction. Both forms of the disease can be deadly as well as very painful and distressing. In most cases, these disorders are caused by a reaction to a drug, and one drug that has come under fire lately is the cox-2 inhibitor Bextra, which is already linked to these disorders.

There are other drugs that have been linked to Stevens-Johnson Syndrome, and these include some other NSAIDS (non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs), Allopurinol, Phenytoin, Carbamazepine, barbiturates, anticonvulsants, and sulfa antibiotics. The condition can sometimes – although not very often – be attributed to a bacterial infection, and in some cases there is no known cause for the onset of Stevens-Johnson Syndrome or Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis. However, the most common cause is through drug related reaction.

Stevens-Johnson Syndrome can affect any age group. However, it occurs most commonly in older people, and this could be because older people tend to use more of the drugs associated with the disease and are therefore collectively more at risk from the disease. People that have AIDS are also at an increased risk of contracting Stevens-Johnson Syndrome or Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis. Those in the higher risk groups are urged to remain vigilant for any signs of these skin diseases, and are also advised to remain well informed about the symptoms that could indicate the presence or onset of Stevens-Johnson Syndrome or Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis.

The symptoms :

Both Stevens-Johnson Syndrome and Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis can start with non-specific symptoms such as cough, aching, headaches, and feverishness. This may be followed by a red rash across the face and the trunk of the body, which can continue to spread to other parts of the body. The rash can form into blisters, and these blisters can form in areas such as the eyes, mouth and vaginal area. The mucous membranes can become inflamed, and with Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis layers of the skin can also come away with ease and often the skin peels away in sheets. The hair and nails can also come away in some cases, and sufferers can become cold and feverish.

With Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis the most common cause of death is infection, which can enter through the exposed areas. This disease can leave the skin looking as though it has been burned, and areas where skin has flayed away can seep copiously and quickly become infected.

Treating these diseases:

Those suffering from SJS or TEN are treated in hospital, and if the cause of the problem is drug related then the drugs are stopped with immediate effect. Surviving patients are treated intravenously to replace any lost fluids, and the skin is left to re-grow on its own. However, the chances of survival can be hit and miss depending on the level of damage and the degree of infection incurred by the patient.

It is vital that those taking drugs that could result in these skin diseases are vigilant and can identify the danger signs associated with these problems. Stevens-Johnson Syndrome and Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis can be deadly, and the earlier the symptoms are recognised the faster treatment can be initiated.

Of course, those affected by drugs in this way – or the families of those that have passed away from these skin problems – have every right to file for compensation against the manufacturer of the drug in question. Lawyers now specialize in this type of litigation, and those that feel as though they have grounds for compensation are advised to go through an experienced drugs litigation lawyer.

Delusion

A delusion is a belief that is clearly false and that indicates an abnormality in the affected person's content of thought. The false belief is not accounted for by the person's cultural or religious background or his or her level of intelligence. The key feature of a delusion is the degree to which the person is convinced that the belief is true. A person with a delusion will hold firmly to the belief regardless of evidence to the contrary. Delusions can be difficult to distinguish from overvalued ideas, which are unreasonable ideas that a person holds, but the affected person has at least some level of doubt as to its truthfulness. A person with a delusion is absolutely convinced that the delusion is real. Delusions are a symptom of either a medical, neurological, or mental disorder.

Delusions are categorized as either bizarre or non-bizarre and as either mood-congruent or mood-incongruent. A bizarre delusion is a delusion that is very strange and completely implausible for the person's culture; an example of a bizarre delusion would be that aliens have removed the affected person's brain . A non-bizarre delusion is one whose content is definitely mistaken, but is at least possible; an example may be that the affected person mistakenly believes that he or she is under constant police surveillance. A mood-congruent delusion is any delusion whose content is consistent with either a depressive or manic state; for example, a depressed person may believe that the world is ending, or a person in a manic state (a state in which the person feels compelled to take on new projects, has a lot of energy, and needs little sleep) believes that he or she has special talents or abilities, or is a famous person. A mood-incongruent delusion is any delusion whose content is not consistent with either a depressed or manic state or is mood-neutral. An example is a depressed person who believes that thoughts are being inserted into his or her mind from some outside force, person, or group of people, and these thoughts are not recognized as the person's own thoughts (called "thought insertion").

In addition to these categories, delusions are often categorized according to theme. Although delusions can have any theme, certain themes are more common. Some of the more common delusion themes are:

·                     Delusion of control: This is a false belief that another person, group of people, or external force controls one's thoughts, feelings, impulses, or behavior. A person may describe, for instance, the experience that aliens actually make him or her move in certain ways and that the person affected has no control over the bodily movements. Thought broadcasting (the false belief that the affected person's thoughts are heard aloud), thought insertion, and thought withdrawal (the belief that an outside force, person, or group of people is removing or extracting a person's thoughts) are also examples of delusions of control.

·                     Nihilistic delusion: A delusion whose theme centers on the nonexistence of self or parts of self, others, or the world. A person with this type of delusion may have the false belief that the world is ending.

·                     Delusional jealousy (or delusion of infidelity): A person with this delusion falsely believes that his or her spouse or lover is having an affair. This delusion stems from pathological jealousy and the person often gathers "evidence" and confronts the spouse about the nonexistent affair.

·                     Delusion of guilt or sin (or delusion of self-accusation): This is a false feeling of remorse or guilt of delusional intensity. A person may, for example, believe that he or she has committed some horrible crime and should be punished severely. Another example is a person who is convinced that he or she is responsible for some disaster (such as fire, flood, or earthquake) with which there can be no possible connection.

·                     Delusion of mind being read: The false belief that other people can know one's thoughts. This is different from thought broadcasting in that the person does not believe that his or her thoughts are heard aloud.

·                     Delusion of reference: The person falsely believes that insignificant remarks, events, or objects in one's environment have personal meaning or significance. For instance, a person may believe that he or she is receiving special messages from the news anchorperson on television. Usually the meaning assigned to these events is negative, but the "messages" can also have a grandiose quality.

·                     Erotomania: A delusion in which one believes that another person, usually someone of higher status, is in love with him or her. It is common for individuals with this type of delusion to attempt to contact the other person (through phone calls, letters, gifts, and sometimes stalking).

·                     Grandiose delusion: An individual exaggerates his or her sense of self-importance and is convinced that he or she has special powers, talents, or abilities. Sometimes, the individual may actually believe that he or she is a famous person (for example, a rock star or Christ). More commonly, a person with this delusion believes he or she has accomplished some great achievement for which they have not received sufficient recognition.

·                     Persecutory delusions: These are the most common type of delusions and involve the theme of being followed, harassed, cheated, poisoned or drugged, conspired against, spied on, attacked, or obstructed in the pursuit of goals. Sometimes the delusion is isolated and fragmented (such as the false belief that co-workers are harassing), but sometimes are well-organized belief systems involving a complex set of delusions ("systematized delusions"). A person with a set of persecutory delusions may be believe, for example, that he or she is being followed by government organizations because the "persecuted" person has been falsely identified as a spy. These systems of beliefs can be so broad and complex that they can explain everything that happens to the person.

·                     Religious delusion: Any delusion with a religious or spiritual content. These may be combined with other delusions, such as grandiose delusions (the belief that the affected person was chosen by God, for example), delusions of control, or delusions of guilt. Beliefs that would be considered normal for an individual's religious or cultural background are not delusions.

·                     Somatic delusion: A delusion whose content pertains to bodily functioning, bodily sensations, or physical appearance. Usually the false belief is that the body is somehow diseased, abnormal, or changed. An example of a somatic delusion would be a person who believes that his or her body is infested with parasites.

Delusions of control, nihilistic delusions, and thought broadcasting, thought insertion, and thought withdrawal are usually considered bizarre delusions. Most persecutory, somatic, grandiose, and religious delusions, as well as most delusions of jealousy, delusions of mind being read, and delusions of guilt would be considered non-bizarre.

10 Tips for good Mental and Emotional Health

Mental and emotional health are often challenging to preserve in our modern-day, busy and hectic lives.  

To lessen the impact of stressful wear and tear, consider implementing some of these helpful strategies into your daily routine. 

Some of these tips have been also been touched upon in other articles, however this only underlines their importance.

1.     Maintain good physical health.

This point is so basic it's often overlooked. Our physical health affects our emotional health much more than we realize. Make sure to eat well, exercise and get plenty of sleep.

As Virgil said: "The greatest wealth is health."

2.     Learn to release anger and let go of grudges.

Vent if you have to. Shake it off. Walk it off. Harboring anger or ill feelings builds emotional toxicity, which ultimately affects your overall health.

"For every minute you are angry, you lose sixty seconds of happiness".Anonymous 

3.     Be aware.

Look for the hidden message in negative or difficult situations. Learn from them. Experiencing adversity is meant to alert you to something or teach you a new skill.

 "Life deals you a lot of lessons, some people learn from them, some people don't." Brett Favre

4.     Keep your brain active.

Don't let complacency or boredom set in. In order to feel alive and vibrant we need to keep our minds active by learning new things and challenging ourselves.

 "If I had to live my life again I would have made a rule to read some poetry and listen to some music at least once a week; for perhaps the parts of my brain now atrophied could thus have been kept active through use." Charles Darwin

5.     Stimulate your senses.

As well as keeping your mind active, enjoy beautiful art, listen to music that lifts your spirits or try a new gourmet dish. Our senses need to be reawakened every now and then too.

 "Man has no Body distinct from his Soul; for that called Body is a portion of Soul discerned by the five Senses, the chief inlets of Soul in this age."William Blake

6.     Have fun and don't take yourself too seriously.

Balance in life is important for maintaining emotional health. Too much emphasis on work causes stress as well as wear and tear on the body and mind. Take time off; go to the beach, the park or a movie to take your mind off your current quandaries. Chances are when you come back you will see things from a fresher, more productive perspective.

"I hope life isn't a big joke, because I don't get it." Jack Handey 

7.     Maintain supportive relationships.

Maintain good relationships with friends and family for much needed feedback, a shoulder to lean on or a different perspective. Often we get so caught up in our own problems and misery we can't see the forest for the trees. Having an objective pair of eyes and ears can give you a whole new way of thinking.

 "Someone to tell it to is one of the fundamental needs of human beings".Miles Franklin

8.     Donate your old clothes, furniture or items you don't use anymore to your local Good Will, Salvation Army or charity of your choice.

It will make you feel good, first by helping someone out and secondly by cleaning out your closets and basements of 'stuff' you haven't put to use in a long time.

 "For it is in the giving that we receive." St. Francis of Assisi

9.     Take some yoga classes, learn to meditate or incorporate a relaxation technique into your routine.

Besides having fun and not taking yourself too seriously, it's a good idea to integrate another relaxation strategy into your routine for those times when life gets somewhat overwhelming. Having many methods to fall back on ensures emotional well-being.  

"If a man insisted always on being serious, and never allowed himself a bit of fun or relaxation, he would go mad or become unstable without knowing it". Herodotus

10.                        Learn to savor and appreciate the moment.

How many times have we heard that life is too short? We get so caught up in the whirlwind that we forget to live in the present moment. And in those times we're not caught up in the whirlwind, we're worrying about the future. It's time to slow down and enjoy the now!

 "Life is a memory except for the present moment that goes by so quickly you hardly catch it going." Tennessee Williams

Take good care of your mental and emotional health. It can determine the quality and enjoyment of how you experience your everyday life.