Alprax, Restyl or Xanax (Alprazolam) - The Killer in your house

While Psychiatrists are easily blamed for prescribing "sedative medicines"... You will be shocked to know that one of the most sedative and addictive medications of modern times is rampantly prescribed million times more by local doctors then professional psychiatrists.

Sold as a "sleeping pill", it is invariably one of the most deadly medications used. And to my surprise 90% of medical and para-medical professional who prescribe it or sell it, have no idea of its consequences.

A flaw within the law of the nation, alprazolam-addiction is equal to that of alcohol within the boundaries of India.


By Definition - It belongs to a group of drugs called benzodiazepines.


By Purpose - Its an old age sedative-hypnotic drug that was manufactured to help relieve nervousness, tension, and other anxiety symptoms by slowing the nervous system.
To do this, it blocks specific chemical within the nerves of the brain, causing decreased nerve functioning, leading to sedative effect.

The Side effects - Alprazolam doesnt stop functioning after you wake up. It remains in your body.
Even the minutest of doses leads to drowsiness and reduced mental alertness.
It has extremely high habit-forming tendency. I have met patients who got addicted to it within days and now have been taking it for years.
Discontinuing Alprazolam causes withdrawal symptoms like anxiety, nervousness, headache, because of which people are hooked onto it.

A patient who has been taking alprazolam for more than 12weeks, will suddenly increase the doses of the same, and cannot go to sleep without it.

Secretly since it causes reduced brain functioning, it also leads to other side effects like - Decreased sex drive, weight gain and menstrual disorders.
Many people dont even realize the presence of these.

Alprazolam has been associated with both diarrhea and constipation, as well as tremor, muscle cramps, vision disturbances, and rash.

"AS A CHILD, WE ALL WERE TAUGHT THAT PLAYING WITH FIRE ONLY BURNS YOU"...

BE SURE YOU CONSULT A PROPER PSYCHIATRIST BEFORE YOU FALL INTO THE TRAP OF BUYING "SLEEPING PILLS" AND GET ADDICTED TO THEM FOR LIFE.

Dr.Hemant Mittal  (Neuro-Psychiatrist)
Email - eksoch@gmail.com
website - www.mindmantra.in

Shani Dev and Human Psychology

Shani Dev, son of sun, is one of the most popular, most misunderstood and most feared deities within the hindu religion.

One of the great things about being a psychiatrist in India is that I know 70% of people who visit me have earlier consulted a multitude of astrologers, babas, peers...

Over the last few years, I have asked some of them, what did these astrologers tell them, and found that the name of Shani Dev featured very prominently.

I have seen people being terrified of this deity...
I remember one lady who had spent nearly hundred thousand rupees in getting various "solutions" to neutralize the effect of Shani Dev in her life.

Intrigued by this amazing, all powerful divine self, I decided to do some research on the same.
I asked some very accomplished astrologers and spiritual leaders to guide me and enlighten me ignorance about this "the dark knight".

Slowly I discovered how Shani Dev was actually present there at a daily basis...
He is a very prominent part of Human Psychological cycle, but we just don't focus towards him.


1.The stern teacher. - A guru that lays a frame-work of rules and regulations which he expects all his disciples to follow.
Havent we all met such a person in our lives. That boss, teacher, grand-parent or parent who always wanted the best for us, but was very strict in his approach. How many liked such a person? How many desired to becomes like such a person?
When having fun or pleasing our senses is the only goal then we tend to forget the right and wrong.


2.The rules and regulations - Shani Dev is an enforcer of patience, faith, effort, endeavor, endurance, Hard work and pragmatism.
Of all these virtues, Patience is the one people least possess.
If you look into yourself and the society around you'll find that faith, effort,endurance and hard-work are virtues that are slowly
disappearing. We want everything at this very moment without much effort.

3.Punishment - Whenever we break the rules and commit a mistake, its the job of the teacher to punish us. Punishment is meant to make
us understand our mistakes and bring us back to following rules and regulations.
While breaking rules can become a habit, punishment for the same is something no one accepts.
Just like the parent who punishes a child for going the wrong way and the child objects to being punished.

4.Reward - When one follows the rules and regulations the guru rewards his hard-work. Those who aren't rewarded develop a complex. They
compare their situation and curse the guru for being baised, curse their destiny for not being rewarded.
They feel they have done enough efforts to deserve the rewards, they forget that the real judge is the guru.


5.Slow and Steady - No learning is effective if it isn't done slowly, steadily over a period of time. No punishment is effective if it
isnt give for enough time to make a disciple realize his mistake and want to improve on it.
No reward is effective if it isn't enjoyed only for a period of time.
One doesnt develop desire to work in righteous direction if he doesn't experiences periods of both happiness and sadness.

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

When you’re right, no one remembers. When you’re wrong, no one forgets.!!!

When you’re right, no one remembers. When you’re wrong, no one forgets.!!!

One of the great capabilities of human brain is to judge people by the number of wrong acts rather than the number of right/good acts on performs...with every passing day the margin of error seems to be decreasing...

forgiveness has been linked to ego... if someone begs for forgiveness, and your ego is satisfied, you feel pleasure in forgiving... but if the same person extends a hand of friendship without asking for forgiveness, the ego plays a game and all his "wrong"acts are brought in front.

while many consider Ego as the definitive way of self-defense, its also the definitive way to self-destruction.

A few years ago, I was talking to a hotel management graduate friend of mine. He told me how during his internship at a 5-star hotel, the manager and clients behaved really bad with him. I asked him, how did he enjoy his job after so much humiliation. Thats when he told me, you'll learn to live by the lesson-
"When you’re right, no one remembers. When you’re wrong, no one forgets.!!!"

I learnt that - "In end you cann't keep everyone happy... so those who don't remember or those who don't forget, really don't count till I am doing my work honestly"


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

Visualization - imprinting patterns of success

Visualization is a fabulously powerful technique used as a performance enhancer by some of the top athletes and professionals of the world.

A relatively simple technique, used since hundreds 

of years, it involves the process of visualizing in your mind whatever it is you want to achieve.
So for example a sprint runner would visualize himself winning his race, he would view his success in his mind, he would experience in minute detail every aspect of the race, from a perfect start, to a perfectly timed finish. By the time he gets to the real race, he has already won it several times, in his mind he has already successfully executed every aspect of his race perfectly. The pattern of success is firmly imprinted in his mind. When the start gun fires, everything will run to his internal script automatically. This gives a powerful advantage.

Visualization is all about achieving things. This technique works for anything that we want to do, visualizing yourself achieving success at whatever it is you want to achieve, dramatically improves your chances of achieving it.

Visualization techniques can be applied to almost every aspect of human endeavour, from goal setting, sports performance, self-healing and memory improvement, to problem-solving and decision-making.

How to visualize?
1. While it can be done at any place, the best is a quiet, safe place with all disturbance electronics, like mobile/t.v./laptop is switched off.

2. The first step is to simple focus on the aim and the goal.

3. From there on, you have to slowly start building a mental image of how you start the aim and attain the goal.

4. Throughout the visualization be careful of only adding positive notes and images. As a simple negative image can be destructive for ultimate goal.

5. once you have created a visualization, play the same visualization many times without changing any part of it.

6. You will never perfect it from the 1st time itself.. it requires continuous daily practice for at least 3-6weeks.

7. Remember is a technique to positively re-enforce your mind to achieve success... but without you actually working nothing can be achieved.

Even seemingly impossible goals are achievable, thousands before us have reached for the impossible and achieved it; there is no reason why you can't.


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

Fun Read - 5 most common lies women tell men

FUN READ - 5 most common lies women tell men.

Lies women tell men 1: “I don’t know where it is! I haven’t touched it!”

Whether you’re a man or a woman reading this, you’re probably familiar with the scenario where she tidies up and suddenly his possessions go AWOL. On most of these occasions, the missing item mysteriously appears somewhere obscure, such as in her handbag (what could she possibly want with a beard trimming kit?). When questioned again as to how the missing item got there, she suddenly remembers that she put it there because it was making a mess around the house so she wanted to shove it somewhere out of sight. Men can’t seem to leave anything anywhere without it being swept up and taken elsewhere. If you’re going to move something ladies, at least remember where you moved it to and don’t tell the “I haven’t touched it!” lie to your man. Men know that they need a little help keeping the place clean every now and then, but what’s wrong with putting his things where he can see them? We rest our case. Oh wait, where did that case go? Anyone seen a case?


Lies women tell men 2: “No way! I love that too!”

Women have hobbies – granted. Why is it though, that whatever their love interest enjoys doing in his spare time, this is suddenly their favourite hobby too? A man could tell a woman something random like “I enjoy rock climbing with a purple crayon in my rucksack” and she’d say “no way! I love that too!” Ladies like their love interests to think there’s some sort of profound, deep-rooted connection that makes you love all the things they love and vice versa; this is more weird than impressive when they take it to the extreme though. Gents, next time a lady blatantly pretends to like something just so she can connect with you on guy level, take her to a boring match and snigger quietly into your chips as she struggles to hold her passionate smile in place for a moment longer.


Lies women tell men 3: “I wouldn’t change a thing about you”

When a woman says this, her pants are on fire. A woman might think that there’s nothing she would change about her man, but that’s until she realises his annoying habits and then compiles a dossier of her perfect man in her mind. If they wouldn’t change a thing about men then why do they nag their other half to clean up after themselves, have a shave, and stop leaving the toilet seat up? A woman may say that she loves these mannerisms because “that’s what makes you, you” (alongside all the other men in the world who share the same habits), but when they’re red in the face from yelling at their partner you realise they were just saying that they wouldn’t change anything about them out of politeness. Bless women for being so sensitive towards your feelings.


Lies women tell men 4: “I’ve not had many sexual partners”

When it comes to sexual partners, women are notorious for being economical with the truth. In fact, a recent survey published in the Journal of Sex Research states that a massive 68 per cent of women take a few notches off the bed post when asked about their past sexual encounters. Why? Because no matter how much we try to gloss over it, there is still a large amount of social stigma attached to women who have had their fair share of sexual partners and, with the derogatory labels used to define them, it’s no surprise that women would rather keep the truth to themselves. There’s a general rule of thumb that suggests that when a man says how many women he’s slept with, you should take three off to get an accurate number. For women, you add three on. In a society that has advanced as far as it has today, women should perhaps be treated equally to men, yet unfortunately they still feel pressured to tell porkies when this subject arises.


Lies women tell men 5: “I won’t get mad if you say I don’t look good in this dress”

Ahh this is an old classic. Women want the truth so that they know whether they can wear that dress or not, but when they’re told they look great, they never believe the poor worried man who just dished out this compliment. The reply is often something along the lines of “Great? I look great? Can you not see my muffin top?” When a man says “maybe you should change into something else”, suddenly he becomes the insulting bad guy who hates his other half’s body. This is the ultimate trap that most guys fall into at some point during their life. As soon as a man sees his partner changing into a new dress, he should run for the hills. Either that, or women should just say something along the lines of “tell me the truth or tell me a lie, either way I’ll be mad at you”, to give their partner a chance to hide.

(original article from Yahoo india)

Dr.Hemant Mittal
neuro-psychiatrist
email - eksoch@gmail.com

Internet or Online Gaming Addiction

Over the past few weeks I had many emails and personal counseling sessions with parents who are extremely worried about their child's mental health. The main reason is "internet or online gaming addiction".
The adolescent is emotionally unstable and losing on social and scholastic performance.
It's very nice to see that parents are becoming so searching and becoming very knowledgeable about a phenomenon that earlier many considered treated as "passing adolescent phase"

Hereby a small over-view of what are the prominent signs and symptoms, indicating presence of internet/online gaming addiction.


1. Preoccupation
Someone who is addicted to computer, video, or Internet gaming often exhibits an unusual preoccupation with the game or computer when he is away from it.
The teen/adult could seem distracted, irritable, or disinterested in any talk. Though he may talk about the game almost constantly.

2.Downplaying Computer Use
It's common for someone with addictive, computer-related behaviors to downplay the amount of time he/she spends in front of the TV or computer.
The person initially starts by denying that he/she is spending excessive time on the game/internet.
This is followed by decreased performance at work/studies.
Then the person starts getting irritable on being question.
Finally he/she starts to outright lie about their use pattern.

3. Lack of Control
A person who is addicted iis unable to control the amount of time he/she spends on the computer.
He may go online with the intent to spend 15 or 20 minutes, but will keep extending the time until several hours have passed.

4. Loss of Time
A person may sit down at his computer, again with the intent to spend only a few minutes, but completely lose track of time and suddenly find that several hours have passed. It is not unusual for someone with a addiction to play a game or surf the internet through the night and only realize how much time has passed when the sun begins to rise.

5.Negative Impact on Other Areas of Life
Because the person spends so much time on the computer or video game console, other areas of life are neglected. He may grow distant from friends and family who had previously been close. Homework may go unfinished, causing grades to slip.

In more extreme cases, the may even neglect personal hygiene, choosing to play video games rather than taking a shower.

6. Hiding From Negative or Uncomfortable Feelings or Situations
Some people become addicted to gaming because they use it to self-medicate. When confronted with situations or feelings that are uncomfortable (feeling sad, arguing with a friend, or getting a bad grade), the person may "hide" in the game as a method of avoidance.

7. Defensiveness
When confronted or asked about his time spent gaming, a person may become defensive. Denial is often an indication that something is wrong, especially if the person seems unconcerned that friends and family feel neglected or left out of his life.

8.Misuse of Money
Someone who is addicted to video, computer, or Internet gaming will spend a disproportionate amount of money on computer-related items.

9. Diet
A change in diet is observed. Such a person will rely more on instant food like colas, burgers, high-sugar level candy bars, sweets, coffee and nicotine

As result of this there might be a drastic change in his weight within a few months.

10. Mixed Feelings
As with any addiction initially causes euphoric feelings, but that euphoria is quickly followed by guilt. Person repeatedly promises himself/herself and promises the parents/family members he will not indulge in the same again.
This slowly becomes a ritual which he/she learns to manipulate to buy more time to be involved in the addiction.
I have seen cases were an adult would swear by parents, god, even on his kids.. or perform some great pooja denouncing the use of internet/games again.. only to fall back onto the game within 15days time.


presence of the following 5 signs for more than 1 month, indicate one needs to contact a psychiatrist/psychologist immediately:

1. You feel really happy when you're online or when you're playing games, but as soon as you have to stop, you get angry or upset.

2. You think about going online or playing when you are supposed to be focusing on other things, like work or having dinner.

3. You spend more time with your computer or mobile than physically hanging out with your friends.
You are more comfortable communicating with people through computer/mobile rather than meeting them in person.

4. Your friends or family ask what you spend all your time doing, and you lie about it or laugh it off, but inside you know they may have a point.

5. You get up in the middle of the night to check your e-mail or your facebook comments because you're having a hard time sleeping. or you constantly are thinking of what moves to play in the game.


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