How to deal with difficult people?

How to deal with difficult people?

Difficult people roam around the world like ghost souls in search of a prey. If you don’t deal with them properly, you might end up hurting your ego and psychological self. This can create huge stress and depression.

In the last few years, I have dealt with a lot of difficult people. Everything they have thought me something. Today when I sit and analyze all of them, I can pin-point few cardinal psychological points for dealing with them:

WHAT YOU DON’T HAVE to do:

• Don't take difficult people's behavior personally. Their troublesome behavior is habitual and affects most people with whom they come in contact.

• Don't fight back or try to beat them at their own games. They have been practicing their skills for a lifetime, and you're an amateur.

• Don't try to appease them. Difficult people have an insatiable appetite for more. They will eventually grow so big, that it would become easy for them to destroy you.

• Don't try to change them. You can only change your responses to their behavior.

• Don’t try to win the “I’m right or you are wrong” game. Their mind is loaded with thousands of heart pinching and mood de-stabilizing taunts/excuses/explanation than yours.

WHAT YOU HAVE to do:

• Stand up to them, but don’t fight. The more you run the more they will chase you. Be assertive in expressing your views. Remember don’t try to prove you are right. But express your views

• Learn to wait for your chance to strike.- the boxer who waits for his opponent to tire out is usually the one that succeeds, even if means to take a few initial blows. Similarly, with difficult people, never immediately go onto the offensive, let them ventilate a little and as soon as they are losing some breath, attack with tenacity, poise and purpose.

• Mask your emotions- Difficult people are known to use sarcasm, humor, and take pot shots on looks, attitudes, clothes, personalities. If these trigger an inferiority complex inside you, never let them know about it. As they wait to feed on your misery. Mask your emotions.

• Act dumb- If you’re being placed in a very uncomfortable situation, then start acting dumb. Even thou you might understand their motives, ask them to explain each one of them in detail. This takes the fizz out of the moment and they don’t find fun in it anymore.

• Avoid Negativity- “Criticism is good till it doesn’t become pessimism.” Many people always have pessimistic and negative opinions on every single issue. Don’t listen to them. Always try to keep focus on positivity.

• Break the silence- many difficult people just avoid or remain silent. Their answers are limited to a few words. Find out their topics of interest, and ask them questions over them. Let them “educate” you on those topics. Once you can break the silence they will respect you much more.

Hope these help you tackle all the difficult persons in your life. These are general guidelines to help everyone, in case someone needs a personal application and customization of the same, you are email me at eksoch@gmail.com

Regards

Dr.Hemant Mittal (MBBS, PG.DPM)
http://www.mindmantra.in/
email- eksoch@gmail.com

Compulsive Lying in children

Compulsive lying in children

Children lie. They just learn it. Children exaggerate, twist the truth, hide the facts, manufacture stories, and deny the obvious. This behavior is easily swept away from parental conscious as it doesn’t show till it doesnt show evil effects.

A matter of grave concern is a child who lies frequently. This psychological pattern is medically termed as Compulsive Lying. Once its onset, it not only works as catalyst to destroy the bond of trust between a child and parents, but also makes him susceptible to follow a future path of unruly and dishonest living.

Once it has been assimilated into a child’s personality it becomes increasingly difficult to stop it. This further catapults a child to experiment with socially unacceptable issues like addictions, adventurous sexual behavior and psychological instability.


Why should a parent be concerned about lying?

Scientific research over the last 50yrs has carried out millions of MRI scans, EEG, and brain mapping tests to find that "lying" is produced by activity in the frontal lobe of the brain. Therefore, Compulsive lying becomes an early symptom of hyperactive frontal lobe functioning.

It’s also an early symptom that indicates an underlying medical problem. Most commonly such a behavior can be associated with following cases:

a. AD or Attention deficit disorder
b. ADHD or attention deficit hyperactive disorder
c. Conduct Disorder
d. Childhood depression
e. Anxiety/stress – this is a spectrum of conditions. The most common forms of anxiety are:
1. Overtly dominant and abusive parent
2. Overtly dominant and abusive class teacher,
3. Overtly dominant and abusive class mate/ bully
4. Living in an hostile environment
5. Adjustment disorder with environment- a child studying in a higher or lower socio-economic class school might lie to make friends.
6. Family Stress- broken homes, constant fights between parents, fight between various family members.


Behaviors patterns associated with compulsive lying?
Compulsive lying slowly succeeds in introducing socially unacceptable behavioral changes within the personality of a child. The success of compulsive lying triggers a child’s mind to use the same technique in socially inadequate behavior patterns like :

1. Stealing,
2. cheating,
3. aggression or violent temper tantrums,
4. skipping school,
5. constantly losing items,
6. inattentiveness or decreased concentration which leads to decreased marks in class.
7. discomfort with social situations
8. poor behavior among groups, social settings or with authority figures.

Children who start to show any of the above erroneous behavioral patterns, are most susceptible to fall prey of anti-social activities in their near future. Such children are known to be easily attracted to addictions, multiple sexual adventures, relationship problems, uncontrollable anger, mood instability and criminal activities (like conning, stealing and even murder).


Why does compulsive lying happen?
There are still some fundamental reasons why children lie compulsively.

1. Fear. Fear is a common motivator for lying. Such fear may be rational or irrational, but the effect of lying is similar - a temporary shelter from punishment.

2. Habit. Lying can also become a habit formed through constant practice. In such cases “lying becomes a reflex”, and when confronted with any situation, their first response is a lie. Habitual lying is often strengthened by hostile confrontation.

One of the most effective ways of dealing with habitual lying is to give the child an opportunity to retract the lie without fear of consequences.

3. Psychological Modeling. Children can learn to lie through experiencing others lie.

One potent source of modeling, is from within the home. "Moderate" lying is thought of by many parents as harmless (such as a "white" lie, or a "harmless excuse") or mistakes (such as an unkept promise), or even purposeful and calculated distortions of the truth ("I had to lie because..."). Since the mind of a child can judge a situation as black or white, he doesn’t comprehend the “Grey” area where such a harmless behavior should be used.

The second most powerful source of modeling is friends circle or classmates. Unfortunately pressurizing a child to choose only friends of parental-choice can lead to decreased development of social skills.

4. Overprediction. Children also lie because they overpredict a reaction. I had seen a case where the child lied because he predicted behavior patterns of his parents and teachers based on his knowledge of the same.


How to Deal with it?

Dealing with compulsive lying is a tricky job for most parents. It requires a step-wise control.

Step 1- Realize compulsive lying is a serious problem. – most parents and society term it as “naughty behavior”, leaving it unattended for years together. It’s important to remember that it not only can develop distorted behavioral patterns, but give rise to future conditions like relationships problems, addictions, anti-social behavior and adjustments disorders.
“prevention is the best cure”

Step 2- Identify the social, emotional and psychological causes leading to such behavior.

Step 3- Sit and talk with your child. Remember one talk won’t change things. You need to develop a communication bridge and slowly introduce the concept of honesty.

Step 4- Make certain ground rules about lying for the child to follow.

Step 5- If the child breaks the ground rules, punish him. Punishment should be firm, more directed to bring psychological change and above all humane.

If after all your efforts the child doesn’t show any improvement, and you receive complains of certain behavioral problems arising due to it, immediately consult your local psychiatrist/psychologist to identify the deeper conscious/unconscious nuances of the problem. ( remember a psychiatrist/psychologist don’t treat mad people, but treat distorted emotional, behavioral and psychological patterns).

If you know of some kid who is suffering from such a problem, do help him get on the right path.


Regards,

Dr.Hemant Mittal (MBBS, PGDPM)
http://www.mindmantra.in/
email- eksoch@gmail.com

Deja Vu - Seeing the Unseen

Déjà Vu- Seeing The Unseen

What is Déjà Vu?

Déjà vu is a French phrase meaning "already seen", and it’s used to describe the psychological experience of feeling sure that one has witnessed or experienced a new situation previously. An individual feels as though an event has already happened in the recent past although the exact circumstances of the previous encounter are uncertain.
In medical terms it is also called paramenisa or promnesia.

The experience of déjà vu is usually accompanied by a compelling sense of familiarity, and also a sense of "strangeness" or "weirdness".


Common misconceptions used by people to explain Déjà Vu?
The previous experience is most frequently attributed to:
1. a dream,
2. past life experience
3. black or white magic /spells
4. prophecy


How does the memory system in our brain work?
To understand the concept of Déjà vu we have to understand how the memory system works. It can be divided into following steps (the language used is minimally scientific to ease its understanding):

1. Experience presentation- The conscious mind comes in contact with an experience. This experience is a combination of one or more of the 5 basic senses along with emotions and feelings.

2. This experience stimulates the brain to secrete neuro-chemicals. These chemical act on different parts of the brain to instantly create a short-term memory.

3. Short term memory is part of the memory system, were a memory is stored for a very short time. This could be a few seconds to few minutes. It’s because of this volatile nature that most information stored into it is normally lost.
When a short-term memory is recalled into the conscious mind, an individual feels the sensation of present time. The notion of present time, place and person is based on this interaction.

4. Long term Memory- When a short term memory is further reinforced by some stimulus or experience, a new set of neuro-chemicals react to store it into the deeper cells of the brain. It then gets converted into what is called a long term memory. The duration of this memory ranges from a few hours to years or even a life-time.
When this memory is brought into the conscious mind, an individual describes it as recalling an experience from the past.


Why does “Déjà Vu” really happen?
1. Scientifically déjà vu is not an act of "precognition" or "prophecy," but rather that it is an anomaly of memory system in the brain.
This can be proved by the fact that the sense of "recollection" at the time is very strong in most cases, but that the circumstances of the "previous" experience (when, where, and how the earlier experience occurred) are quite uncertain.
In “Déjà vu” the new stimulus or experience of an individual is stored both in short term and long term memories simultaneously. This anomaly gives a perception of having previously experienced a newly encountered situation.

2. Neuro-chemically it’s attributed to being a hyperdopaminergic state. That means increased secretion of dopamine in certain lobes of the brain.


When does “Déjà vu” happen?
The experience of “Déjà vu” has been linked with a serious of psychological causes, namely:
a. Highly psychologically emotional states
b. High anxiety
c. Dissociative identity disorder or depersonalization disorder
d. Clinical Depression
e. Schizophrenia

It has also been linked with certain neurological disorders:
a. Temporal Lobe Epilepsy
b. Non-pathological epilepsy like Hypnagogic jerk- the sudden "jolt" that frequently, but not always, occurs just prior to falling asleep

It has also been found to commonly occur in other general medical conditions like:
a. Combined Intake of drugs amantadine and phenylpropanolamine (used in common cold medications).
b. Drugs that increase the dopamine levels of the brain.


Treatment for “Déjà vu”?
“Déjà vu” isn’t classified as a disorder by modern medicine. But in cases of a more than one episode per month, an immediate neuro-psychiatric consult is required. In many cases it’s a very important symptom to early diagnose and cure otherwise dreadfully dangerous disorders.
If you know someone who is suffering from symptoms of the same, do get him the right treatment.

Regards,

Dr.Hemant Mittal (MBBS, PGDPM)
http://www.mindmantra.in/
email- eksoch@gmail.com

SEXUAL HARRASMENT - the hidden crime!

SEXUAL HARRASSMENT- The hidden Truth!!!

“A player of Indian women’s hockey teams complaints of sexual harassment by the coach”

“A woman leaves her job, citing differences with management, when the actual reason was her senior’s constant unwanted touching.”

“An upcoming actress is asked for sexual favors in return of a significant role in the movies”

“A 14yr girl suddenly refused to attend school. Her behavior changed to irritable and violent. On psychiatric evaluation it was found that her class teacher had been kissing and fondling her for past 6months. He constantly threatened to fail her in exams if she spoke about it.”

“A man is pinched on the butt by her female boss, and a few days later asked to attend a party at her house. On the day, at the venue, he finds himself alone with his boss who is dressed in sexually provocative style. During the interaction she repeatedly forces herself onto him, he runs out of the apartment just to find himself fired from job next morning.”

These are common examples of the great social evil called “sexual harassment” that plagues our society. Sexual harassment is probably the most common crime committed thru the entire spectrum of social involvement. Every day thousands of men and women are sexually offended at hospitals, schools, corporate houses, offices, courtrooms, etc.

It also has the distinction to being one of the most neglected and concealed crimes within the society. I recently met with a few clients who had quit their jobs because of this evil. The most devastating part was that senior management who knew of what was going on, offered them “significant compensation” a.k.a “a monetary benefit or good remark on the appreciation card” to keep it secret and in some cases to even keep suffering it.

Family pressure, Management pressure, Social pressure, Religious pressure are some of the reasons that 99% of such crimes are never brought to light. Thou it can happen to both men and women. The society has a myopic view point when a man is involved and a crucifying one, when a woman is involved.

Hereby, let’s look at what the whole spectrum of sexual harassment compromises off.

What is sexual harassment?

Its commonly defined as intimidation, bullying or coercion of a sexual nature or the unwelcome or inapproriate promise of rewards in exchange of sexual favours.

The Supreme Court Guidelines on Sexual Harassment, 13 August 1997 has defined sexual harassment as unwelcome sexually determined behavior such as:

a. Physical contact

b. A demand or request for sexual favors

c. Sexually colored remarks

d. Showing pornography

e. Any other unwelcome physical, verbal or non-verbal conduct of a sexual nature

This definition has been further described in detail as following categories of sexual harrasment:

Verbal:

The verbal form of sexual harassment include any one or more of the following incidents:

1. Sexual or gender-based jokes or teasing or comments.

2. Comments about clothing, personal behavior, or a person's body.

3. Requesting for sexual favors.

4. Pressure for dates or meetings outside the professional boundaries.

5. Graphic descriptions of pornography.

6. Obscene phone calls.

7. Spreading rumors about a person's personal or sex life.

8. Turning work discussions to sexual topics (using "puns”).

Non-verbal:

The non-verbal forms of sexual harassment include any one or more of the following incidents:

1. Staring Sizing up a person’s body (looking up and down).

2. Derogatory gestures of a sexual nature.

3. Sexually suggestive looks- Facial expressions of a sexual nature; winking, licking lips.

Physical:

This includes :

1. Unwelcome hugging or kissing.

2. Standing too close to or brushing up against another person, leaning over, invading a person's space without her/his permission.

3. Patting, stroking, grabbing or pinching someone.

4. Blocking someone's path with the purpose of making a sexual advance.

5. Actual or attempted sexual assault or forced fondling.

Visual:

Visually sexual harassment is defined as:

1. Presence of posters, cartoons, drawings, calendars, pinups, pictures, computer programs of a sexual nature.

2. Notes or e-mail containing sexual comments

The criminals?

Sexual harassment is a very dangerous behavioral trait. The perpetuators of such a crime are normally using such behaviors to manifest one or more parts of a defect in their personality. They require immediate neuro-psychiatric help. If not helped and left untreated such menace of the society can go on to commit serious crimes like sexual molestations of minors, sexual perversions (inflicting physical pain to their sexual partners), date-rape, rape, or even murder.

The Victims?

The victims of such a sexual offence suffer with severe emotional and psychological damage. Keeping in mind that social, religious and moral teachings say that Privacy, modesty and sexuality are the most sacred traits in an individual’s personality. When an individual suddenly faces with unwanted intrusion into this personal space, the unconscious mind tries to retaliate. If the intrusion is persistent and the victim helpless to control it, it immediately leads the unconcious to dive into despair, hopelessness and worthlessness. This had devastating consequences on the self-esteem, which are manifested by severe medical problems like clinical depression, addictions, inappropriate sexual behavior and suicides.

How to fight Sexual Harassment?

1. If you know of anyone or any form of sexual harassment happening within your social limits, raise your voice against it.

2. Spread the knowledge about sexual harassment to all your friends and family.

3. Children should be educated to come and share about any awkward behavior by teachers or instructors. Children should be given confidence of parents standing by their side no matter what happens.

4. Children and Adults should be educated on healthy sexual practices, so they never develop such behaviors.

5. If you know anyone who has suffered such an atrocity, stand by that person. Give them support, and help them seek professional help if required so.

An educated society is the first step in fighting the evils of sexual harassments.

Regards,

Dr.Hemant Mittal (MBBS, PGDPM)

http://www.mindmantra.in/

Email- eksoch@gmail.com

The virtue of productivity

The virtue of productivity.

Productivity has been the essential for survival. Be it the time of caveman, when men went out to hunt for food or the modern day money seeking culture. Productivity has been the barometer of an individuals socio-cultural standings.

In the past 20years, technology has evolved to revolutionise the productivity of human kind to levels never known before. This demand for increased productivity has been instrumental in changing the socio-cultural make up of the entire society. The best example is seen within our own country, India. A culture essentially divided among caste and religion has slowly started concentrating more on monetary aspects, fame and power of an individual. Gone are the days when a low-caste or non-believer couldn't enter places of worship, restaurants or recreational spots. Today the flash of a credit card, celebrity status, or powerful connection can open the door of even the most sacred shrines. The higher bidders not only get to worship for longer time, but have the so-called pure "pundits" literally serving them as servants.

The virtue of a man is defined by the effectiveness and importance of his produce than his caste, creed or religion.

A persons produce is today quantified through the qualities of fame, money and power. This has further divided the society into 2 groups of producers-

a. True producers- they follow a common plan on action. They gain a knowledge about a particular skill. Later utilise that skill to increase their productivity. The path is one of struggle, full of teachings and full of emotions. Being a safer bet, most people love to take and preach this path.

b. False producers- they are those who break the rules. They want to achieve everything without any plan. They utilise unlawful activities to achieve productivity. They never understand the importance of struggle, never understand human emotions and normally fade into oblivion past their prime.

Who is the best producer?

its a personal choice. It depends on personal influences since childhood, needs of survival and social viewpoints that can be accepted or broken.

What is the need to understand which type of producer you are?

To keep effectivly producing an individual needs to introspect from time to time. The need to gain new skills, new attitudes and new approaches is very important to keep the brain, mind and personality productive.Those who become rigid, slowly lose their value.

Until when does one need to produce?

From birth to death. The moment you stop being of use, people tend to leave you aside and treat you as unwanted.

A 6months child provides joy by laughing and expectations about the future

A 26yr old man provides money, fame or power.

A 35yr old woman provides with being the center pillar of strength in her house.

A 65yr old man provides as knowledge giver to younger generations.

The secret of eternal youth lies in keeping yourself productive.

If you know someone who doesn't produce to his potential, motivate him/her. Because productivity is the basis of successful life.

regards

Dr.Hemant Mittal (MBBS, PG.DPM)

http://www.mindmantra.in/

email- eksoch@gmail.com

5 health problems that are killing coorporate employees

The Silent killers in corporate India

The corporate world is one of the biggest employers and financial movers of modern India. The financial power with which it enriches its employees many a times overpowers the health hazards it exposes them to.

“Silent death” or a number of unaccounted deaths among corporate sector employees is on an alarming rise. While multinational corporations are in a hurry to make good profits, its employees battle to keep their mind and body, healthy and productive.

5 common health problems faced by corporate employees are:

1. Eye and Eye-sight problems- Long hours before the computer induce irritation and dryness of eyes. This leads to itching, redness, tearfulness and soreness of eyes.

The constant stress on the eyes leads to decrease in vision. Common complaints of long lasting and persistent frontal headaches are mostly related to eye-sight problems.

2. Obesity- poor eating habits mainly indulgence in high calorie and high fat foods. Lack of exercise and sedentary life-styles has lead to dramatic increase in number of obesity cases among corporate employees. This has ensured fat incomes for all those working in weight loss industry, medical field related to heart disorders, blood pressure and heart attacks.

3. Lower back and neck pains- Poor sitting postures, and poor non-orthopedically designed office chairs increase the strain on lower back and neck. Over a period of time this leads to internal compression of nerves and muscles, manifesting as acute, throbbing and shooting pain predominantly in the lower back and neck regions. The Orthopedicians are jumping in glory with the rise in number of cases of spondylitis (increase in bone size of neck), sexual problems due to lower back disorders, vertebrae (back bone) disorders, sleep difficulties, needle pricking sensations and numbness feelings in the soles and legs.

4. Air conditioner induced problems – Air conditioning is a very integral part of every corporate office. Proper maintenance of Air conditioning and disinfection of rooms are many times neglected in offices. The low temperature, painted walls, carpeted flooring and external warm temperature provides excellent environment for all bacteria to grow and flourish. These bacteria affect majority of office air, leading to respiratory diseases (like asthma, difficulty in breathing), skin diseases (like acne, rashes) and allergic reactions.

5. Sleep disorders – Today’s work environment revolves around productivity and competition. To be efficient in duties, an employee requires to maintain high productivity level. This increases stress levels to alarming levels, as it requires longer hours of work (without extra payment), more efficiency in producing quality work in given deadlines and battling office politics. The major side effect of all this is sleep deprivation, increased time to fall asleep, increased preoccupation with office-related thoughts, fractured sleep due to constant ringing of cell phone or blackberry updates and decreased sense of freshness in the morning. This in turn takes a mental toll on an individual by subjecting him to chronic fatigue disorder, irritability, clinical depression, generalized anxiety disorder, high blood pressure and decreased immune system.

It’s the duty of a company to take care of its employees. Sadly in corporate India, every employee is by himself. The occupational therapy programs are quick fix capsules to please everyone in the heirchey rather than benefit the employee. Feed-back mechanisms to keep a tab on employee progress are totally focused towards his productivity and not even 20% consideration given to his health.

Large attrition rates, high number of holidays from work and lesser output in productivity can easily be tackled if the companies would develop a more humane angle to employee health than just ultimate productivity.

Regards

Dr.Hemant Mittal (MBBS, PGDPM)

http://www.mindmantra.in/

email-eksoch@gmail.com

Relationship Health - When just keeping a Check becomes destructive - Real life cases

It's been 5yrs since Roshan and Maria (both names changed to maintain secrecy) got married. Not a single day has passed-by when some friend or family member hasn't been jealous and envious of this "picture-perfect couple"... In words of Maria herself, if they were to get 100 rupees for every "such a cute couple", "you both look perfect together" or "whats the secret of your happiness" compliment, they would be billionaires by now.

Roshan smiling and loosing himself into a bygone memory, told me how his friends would call him before or morning after a party and taunt "Hey dude, can next time you guys just tone it down!! Please don't look so good together, it becomes so difficult to handle comparisons at home later?"

But everything wasn't in the pink of health under this umbrella of love and perfection. Neither of them remembered when exactly the storm started. In the beginning it was just small naughty and playful taunts Maria would throw randomly onto Roshan. She would cutely and lovingly accuse him of eying other woman or finding them more attractive. He would play along and after a few minutes of teasing would finally end up professing his unconditional love for her. Like any other couple, it was all in good humor and a great way to spice up their relationship.

Somewhere down the line, things started to change. A year and half into marriage,
Under this umbrella of love and perfection, everything wasn't perfect. Even if they tried, they 
many times his friends questioned him,
5yrs ago. has been married since 5years. On wedding day, everyone who saw the couple couldn’t stop from commenting on the amazing compatibility and soul-connect they shared. For the next 5years they remained example of “picture-perfect love” to both family and friends.

Within the cocoon of their private life a disaster was waiting its turn to create havoc. Slowly over a period of time, her happy married life turned into a living inferno. She started believing that her husband was having an affair with his secretary. The stress of being cheated had bulldozed her mind to keep a constant track of him. She would call him 30 times a day, call his office 40times a day, would scrutinize his belonging and documents for any clues. What initially was seen as a cute lovely behavior slowly turned into a disastrous obsessive compulsive daily torture. The friends were the first to intervene. When they failed, matters were taken to the elders of the family. A number of detectives where secretly hired to make her believe in his faithfulness. Everything proved to be futile as she refused to believe anyone except herself.

After numerous holistic, elders and friends counseling failed to help her, she was brought to my mind mantra clinic. All this had already made her believe that everyone was supporting her husband. This naturally was the ultimate ploy to prove her mad, so he can get an easy divorce and marry that new girl.

On my initial interaction, I let her speak. She first pleaded and then cried. Finally she understood I was harmless in all respects, she started speaking. She spoke for 45min. She poured her heart out and trusted me with her deepest fears.
At the end of my evaluation, I concluded she was suffering from Othello Syndrome”


What is Othello Syndrome?
It’s a psychiatric in which a person holds a false, firm and fixed belief that their spouse or sexual partner is being unfaithful.


What are the symptoms of Othello Syndrome?
They are as following:
1. An affected person typically makes repeated accusations of infidelity based on insignificant or minimal evidence, often citing seemingly normal or everyday events or material to back up their claim.
2. They also take great pains to test their partner's fidelity and can go to considerable lengths to monitor their behavior and movements. For example- They might contact “private-detectives”, daily scrutinize the movements of their loved ones, or secretly follow their partners to work.
3. It starts with what seems as cute possessive behavior, but it can move into violent outburst of emotions. Episodes of verbal or physical abuse are commonly reported. Normally they come back pleading for sorry after such episodes are typical behaviors.
4. Constant preoccupation with this topic is noted in their thought and talk.


Who are susceptible to develop it ?
It’s found among both men and women. It can develop in any person. Normally the affected individual have one or more of the following:
a. inferiority complex – this can be due to low body image, low self-esteem.
b. High possessive behavior about friends
c. Lack of love or traumatic childhood.
d. sexual dysfunction.and a dis-satisfied sexual life.
d. Untreated long standing Clinical Depression
e. Alcoholism, cocaine addictions, cannabis addiction and ampthetamine addictions
f. Paranoid, schizoid, obsessive compulsive personality disorders
g. Family history or personal history of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.


What is the cure?
It’s an illness that develops over a period of time.
a. In initial stages- it can be treated with proper counseling.
b. In later stages- it causes change in secretion of neurochemical dopamine in the brain. It requires medications that help in bringing the level of dopamine to normal. A neuro-psychiatrist should be consulted in respect.

If you know someone who has such a problem or who shows signs of developing such problem, immediately help him. Timely intervention can bring him/her back to normalcy. They might not realize it at that stage, but will thank you all their life.

Regards,

Dr.Hemant Mittal (MBBS, PGDPM)
email - eksoch@gmail.com
website - www.mindmantra.in

Childhood Depression- the Monster Within!!!!

Childhood Depression - The monster within!!!

“Ronnit, 9yr old walked into the mind mantra clinic very angry and irritable. If it was not for the towering presence of his father, he would have thrown verbal and physical tantrums. His parents were worried with his increasing bad behavior complaints from school and decreasing grades over the last one year”

“Mona, 12yr old entered the mind mantra clinic with tears in her eyes, hugging her teddy bear very tightly. Since 2yrs she stopped taking interest in studies, would sit long hours at one place, wouldn’t play with her friends and would cry without reason. The preoccupied parents had taken her to every astrologer, tantric, general physician in the area, but nothing had helped.”

Both of them were cases of Childhood depression.


What is Childhood Depression?

Clinical Depression is a scientifically proved illness. The most deadly form of this illness is its childhood manifestation.

In a child or adolescent the brain is very young and in developing stage. If such a brain is exposed to untreated clinical depression, permanent changes start happening in the brain structure and its blood circulation. This makes the child vulnerable to develop adult psychological illness like dysthymia (chronic depression), generalized anxiety disorder, uncontrolled anger, impulse control disorder, self-harming behavior and personality disorders.

These illnesses cloud the happiness seeking behavior of an individual, and lead him to walk the deep dark streets of altered socially-unacceptable emotional and sexual behaviors patterns.


Symptoms of Childhood depression?

The child has to be between 5-14yrs. If over the past 2months has developed 3 or more of the following, parents should seek professional help:

• several episodes of sadness, crying and tearfulness seen over the day, and more than 5 thru out the week.
• Decreased interest in previously enjoyed activities.
• negative thoughts are prominent
• Constantly bored, and complaints of low energy.
• started losing friends, becoming alone. isolating himself from friends.
• Low self esteem and guilt
• Extremely sensitive to failure, rejection or minor scolding.
• Increased irritability, anger, or hostility. episodes of breaking or throwing objects.
• Difficulty in carrying a happy and nice conversation. Constant use of sarcasm, foul language, or taunts.
• Frequent complaints of headaches and stomachaches without any medical condition being present.
• Frequent absences from school or complaints of inattentiveness from teacher
• Poor concentration and dramatic decrease in grades compared to previous years.
• A change in weight or eating pattern. A change in sleeping pattern.
• Trying to spend more time with friends than with family members. any episode of running away from home.
• Thoughts or expressions of suicidal or self-hurting behavior.


Why does childhood depression progress?

The illness reaches alarming proportions because all multi-fold therapies are not applied together. In fact they are done in a phased way which decreases their curing potentials.
Parents normally notice change in behavior within 3months of starting of the problem. The normal ritual followed is:

a. 1st they try counseling the kid.- unfortunately in most households this phase is mishandled. Parents compare the kid to their own situation. Instead of motivating the kid, the child’s mind starts feeling guilty and more depressed.
Some parents compare the child with some relative or friend. This again triggers more depression as the child’s mind starts feeling worthless in front of his only support system.
The last technique is parents tell a child what actions to take to tackle the situation. Since these actions are based on the socio-cultural exposure parents have got, not what the child has got, it has a high chances of failing.
e.g. In the case of Ronnit, he was being teased by a few classmates for being shorter. His mother told him to ignore them, and father told him to fight. When he tried to fight he was beaten up. This broke his trust in parental advice.

b. 2nd is to meet some holistic healer. – help by providing amulets, prayers and mantra’s for success. Since the results aren’t immediate, the depression keeps ruminating in the child’s brain.
Many times the rituals themselves make the child feel hopeless.

c. 3rd is to consult their pediatrician or general physician- most of them give good counseling. It helps the child in confidence building. Since a child requires constant boost of confidence, and consult the doctor is not feasible, over a period of time, the single episode of counseling loses its effect.

d. 4th is to finally consult a psychiatrist. This happens when 90% parents get frustrated by the failure of all “holistic” therapies. By this time the communication gap between parent and child normally reaches alarming levels. The behavior, emotional self and scholastic performance of the child is highly unacceptable by both parents and society.

If you identify a child with possible depressive symptoms, alert his parents. Make sure he gets proper  professional help that tackles all aspects of the problem. Emotional, psychological and spiritual.


Thank you,

Dr.Hemant Mittal(MBBS,PGDPM)
http://www.mindmantra.in/
email- eksoch@gmail.com

5-Deadly Effects of CELL PHONES

5-Deadly effects of Cell Phones

Do you get frequent headaches?
Are you not able to sleep well?
Have you started getting angry or irritable easily?

If you are a regular cell phone user, you might be experiencing the deadly effects of cell phone emitted radation. If exposed for long periods of time, cell phone emitted radiation has fatal effects on the brain and its cells.

Over last few months,many indian news channels have demonstrated the dangerous radioactive waves emerging from cell phone towers that are affecting the public of all major cities.This has even prompted some state governments to revise their outlook towards the usage of cell phone and cell towers.

The nature of this slow poison, prompted me to think and research on it. I contacted some european and USA individual researchers to gain deeper insights into the topic. It was astonishing to find out that big buisness houses had used power and money to suppress the publication of many truth revealing researches on in area.


Five common symptoms, I have come through in chronic cell phone users( a person with more than 2hours of cell phone usage per day) are as follows:


a) Headaches- headaches that normally start from one side of the brain and might progress throughout it.Their repeated nature can make them a serious chronic problem. These headaches differ in seriousness from mild to very severe.

b) Memory and concentration problems: Chronic cell phone users report of decrease in the memory and concentration power.This gives rise to a decreased reaction time, which hampers with their personal and professional lifes.

c) Medical complications- Increased heart rate, Palpitations(feeling one's own heart beats) and increased blood pressure are some of the common general medical findings frequently discovered in such cases.

d) Sleep disturbances- Failure to get a peaceful sleep. Problems in either starting or maintaining a continous sleep are very commonly reported. The lack of sleep leads to sleepiness throughout the day which in turn might cause serious issues like dizziness, nausea and vomiting.

e) Emotional effects: Episodes with Outburst of uncontrolled emotions. The most commonly observed effects are increased susceptibility to anger, irritation and sadness. Lesser tolerance to stress and development of explosive behaviour are very commonly reported by friends and family.This indicates an increased stress load on the nervous system, taking it closer to breakdown point.

Cell phone usage is unavoidable in many circumstances due to social, financial and personal reasons.
Every person needs to understand these invisible dangers. Only through knowledge can be develop healthy cell phone usage and protective mechanisms against such a neuro-degenerating danger.


regards,

Dr.Hemant Mittal
Neuro-Psychiatrist
www.mindmantra.in
email- eksoch@gmail.com

the TRUTH BEHIND PSYCHIATRY?

“ I am not mad”
“ I don’t need a doctor for the mad”
“ Do you read minds?”
“ok, tell me what is going to be my next act?”
“are you a doctor... i didn’t know there was an M.D. in psychiatry”

Did you know that movie actors his Konkona Sen, Ajay Devgan, Priyanka Chopra, Sanjay Dutt, Akshay Khanna, Hrithik Roshan, Praven Babi, Zeenat Aman, Princes Diana, Micheal Jackson,Sushmita Sen have all battled psychiatric disorders.

What is psychiatry?
its a specialisation within the field of medicine. It deals with mind-body interactions.


What is based on?
last 30yrs psychiatry has evolved from just treating behaviorally unstable patients to patients with emotional, behavioral and sexual problems that originate from the brain.
today its based on thousands on researchs done by looking at MRI scans, CT scans, EEG's and neuro-chemical (brain chemicals) analysis.
This has helped the clinican to identify specific lobes and areas of the brain that are working in altered way to introduce certain unwanted thoughts and actions.


Difference between psychologist and psychiatrist?
A psychologist is an art-stream graduate who has been trained in analytical theories about the mind-behaviour.
A psychiatrist is a medical doctor. After 5 and half years of MBBS, he does another 2-3years specialization in psychiatry thru DPM/MD.  He studies MRIs, CTscan, EEG scans, neuro-chemical changes, medications along with study of psychology and neurology. 


Does it want to prove me mad?
No.
Psychiatry has stoped just focusing on the so called "mad" people.
The new research has expanded its base to include a lot of common man problems like-
a. clinical depression
b. stress and anxiety- family, in-laws, children, job, workplace harrasement, exams, interviews, public speaking.
c. phobias
d. inferiority complexes
e. anorexia or overeating problems
f. addictions- alcohol, nicotine, cannabis, cocaine, etc
g. new age addictions- Television, internet, cell phone, shopping
h. sexual therapy- sexual anxiety, error in sexual behavior, sex education, masturbation and its effects.
i. memory complains, sleep complaints,
j. children problems- adolescent anger, children behavioural problem, stammering problems
k.obsessive compulsive disorder
l. bipolar disorder
m. schizophrenia


Psychiatrist always prescribe allopathic medications?
No.
The mark of a good psychiatrist is to use the combination of counseling (popularly called as talk-therapy), and alternative medicine (homeopathy, ayurvedic medication) as first line of defense.
If these fail or if the case is extremely advanced than start using very low dose allopathic medications, and explain the client and his relatives every single detail about medications


Psychiatrist just prescribe "tranquilizer and sleeping pills"?
The old and dirty drugs of psychiatry had an extremely high potential to induce sleep. 30yrs ago there were only 4 drugs in psychiatry, today there are more than 100.
The new age medications are non-sedative, and non-addictive.
Its a client right to ask his psychiatrist for the same.
Prescription of old and dirty drugs is something that should be avoided.


Once started on psychiatric medication, they should continue life long?
No.
early detection and cure can help in as low as 5 day medication.
In fact I use a lot of nutritional changes, meditation, yoga, deep-muslce relaxation, self-hypnotic techniques to provide a holistic approach to sub-clinical and clinical psychiatric diagnosis.
I personally dont encourage more than 20days medication. I have seen some amazing cures happening if the will and might of a person are stimulated. The medications are used more as adjunctive catalysts in the motivation of a client.
in very rare extreme and severe conditions, where the disorder has been present for so long that the blood circulation in the brain, the structure of the brain and the neuro-chemical system of the brain have been damaged beyond repair does a person require long term medication.


why take help of a psychiatrist?
the prime objective for optimum functioning of human mind and body is to be happy.
Happiness is an emotion that starts at a psychological level and spreads its self through positive neuro-chemicals and hormones towards the entire body.
If a person remains stressed, sad or obssessed with a thought or action for a long period of time, it will urge the mind to adjust to this deviation from its natural objective of remaining happy.

On a long run, this introduces changes
a. in the body -increased BP, hair loss, heart problems, respiratory problems, decreased physical health, increased/decreased weight, wrinkles, acne, headaches, body pains, decreased immunity.decreased sexual health

b.- in the brain- increased fatigue, sleep problems, memory complains
on a microscopic level- it introduces changes in the brain structure, neurochemical production and blood circulation.
a combination of professional, objective and personally customised psychiatric consultancy can help in stoping such long term health deteroation. And provide an holistic approach to achieving happiness.


PROTECT YOURSELF AND YOUR FRIENDS TODAY. LEAD A HEALTHY LIVING.

regards,

Dr.Hemant Mittal (MBBS, PGDPM)
http://www.mindmantra.in/
eksoch@gmail.com

P.S. -My effort is to spread the word of wellness through right knowledge. Be part of my chain of health ambassadors.