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Psychiatrics, General Hospital
With our tips we will try to make your brain secrete hormones called endorphins, which are known as "happiness hormones". They are substances that our bodies naturally produce and are responsible for our quality of life. They will make you experience feelings of joy and well-being, and make the muscular and mental tension that make you feel bad disappear.
This feeling of well-being will contribute to the prevention of possible anxiety/depression and/or the relapse of these disorders. For example, chronic pain often makes people feel depressed, but this hormone contributes to you having less pain, increases your immune system, and therefore helps you feel better and stronger.
These tips will also help you increase your ability to face situations that can and do create discomfort.
1. Exercise
When the body starts doing exercise the level of endorphins increases.
Choose your favourite kind of exercise. If you don't like going to the gym, try walking or running, which will bring you lots of physical and mental benefits without having to spend money. It can also give you a certain sense of freedom.
Diet has a fundamental influence on your mood, for example, if you do not ingest enough protein, it will be harder for you to secrete endorphins.
Enjoy meals and the accompanying sensations (smells, flavours, etc.), company, etc.
Try to sleep at least seven hours a night, which is the amount of time the body and mind require "to repair themselves" and to feel refreshed.
Practise yoga, pilates, relaxation techniques such as guided meditation, mindfulness, visualisation, Jacobson's progressive relaxation technique, chromotherapy, aromatherapy, music therapy, and so on.
Practising these activities removes muscular contractions and causes you to experience a feeling of well-being and profound relaxation.
Expressing your difficult thoughts or feelings will take a weight off and your mood will improve significantly. The caresses and hugs of your loved ones can also help increase your well-being.
Try to see the positive things that surround you and use nice words to convey them. Be grateful.
Learn to forgive and forget, you will have a calmer life without accumulated resentment.
Enjoy the little everyday things, try to escape from routine and boredom. Always leave a door open to new projects.
Think that the unpleasant situation that you may be experiencing is just a momentary obstacle and this will help you to tackle problems with more motivation.
Avoid toxic comments or situations in which negativity predominates (complaints, gossip, etc.).
If there is no-one close by with whom you can offload, starting to write is a good way of freeing yourself of negative thoughts. Express your thoughts and feelings in writing.
The sun is an excellent anti-depressant. Look for sunny places so that your brain can continue secreting the happiness hormone: the beach, the mountains, etc.
Also, observe carefully everything around you in the place you have chosen (the colour of the sea, the clouds, the intense green of the trees, the sound of the waves, the birds...)
If you feel yourself beginning to feel sad or anxious, you can do activities that you know make you feel good when you are emotionally stable.
You may not want to start doing them again right away, but think about the result you obtained when you used to do it. If you liked going to the cinema before and now you don't like it, try to remember how much you enjoyed watching a good film... maybe this will encourage you to try again.
If you're not sure about what you like most and what gives you most satisfaction in life, try different activities such as doing a cooking workshop, gardening, drawing, playing an instrument, dance lessons, singing...
Being part of a group often has good results for keeping you healthy and preventing possible depression. So, travel, walk, go for dinner or to the cinema with a group of people.
Respect the environment, be more supportive, help your neighbour...
For example, signing up for volunteering will increase your self esteem. Helping others brings with it a feeling of physical, emotional and intellectual well-being.
Do something that you like and that makes you feel better. For example, a relaxing massage or a hot shower will cause the nerves of your skin to release endorphins; eat something that you like, walk along the beach or park, sunbathe, if you have a pet, go outside with it, watch a film, start a good book...
It can help keep you company and focus your attention on something else. Animals provide unconditional love and they can be useful in less motivated moments.
Stroking your cat or dog can make you feel very good.
Record all the activities you do throughout the day. It's important to assess the good times in the day and make an effort to change the less good ones.
Smile and laugh, and if you cannot find anything to laugh at, join laughter therapy workshops. Laughter is undoubtedly one of the factors that increases our levels of endorphins.
Laughter makes your soul grow and gives you a simpler life perspective, without overwhelming problems or unpleasant situations.
Autism spectrum disorder is a neurodevelopmental condition with an estimated lifetime prevalence of 1%. Basic symptoms include a lack of social communication, restricted or repetitive interests and activities, and sensorial anomalies starting during early childhood.
Autism was described for the first time in 1943 by the child psychiatrist Leo Kanner. Currently, according to the 5th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V), the term Autism Spectrum Disorders refers to all those conditions that involve a lack of social communication, restricted or repetitive interests and activities, and sensorial anomalies starting during early childhood. All these conditions start to appear in early childhood even if they do not fully manifest until the person’s limited capacities stop them from responding to social needs.
Depending on the severity of the symptoms and the level of assistance required by the person, three different levels of intensity have been described (Level 1: requires help, Level 2: requires significant help, Level 3: requires large amount of help). It is important to determine whether the person also has an intellectual disability or language difficulties, if they are linked to a known medical or genetic pathology or environmental factor, if they are associated with another mental or behavioural neurological development condition, and if they are associated with autistic catatonia.
Genetics plays a fundamental role in the aetiology of autism spectrum disorders, together with pre-labour and neo-natal risk factors.
The common symptoms of all autistic spectrum disorders are:
Issues with socio-emotional reciprocity, non-verbal communication, and the development, maintenance and understanding of social relationships. And then, at least two of the following:
a) stereotyped or repetitive movements, use of objects, or speech.
b) cognitive rigidity
c) restricted interests and
d) hyper- or hypo-reactivity to sensorial stimulus or an unusual interest in the sensorial aspects of their surroundings
Autism spectrum disorders can be observed in people from around the world from all types of racial, ethnic and socio-economic groups. This disorder occurs 4 times more frequently in boys than in girls.
Diagnosis is based on observation by a child psychiatrist and paediatric neurologist.
An evaluation by a multidisciplinary team is also recommended. It is necessary to include an evaluation of the individual, an interview with his or her carers or other informants, information from the school or workplace, and to perform a cognitive and linguistic evaluation. Furthermore, a medical examination (blood and genetic tests and CAT scan) should be carried out in cases where a specific aetiology is suspected. Genetic tests can detect an aetiological cause in up to approximately 10% of cases.
At this stage, there is not enough scientific evidence to routinely recommend a specific pharmaceutical drug to address the symptoms of ASD. However, there are effective pharmaceutical drugs to treat the medical or psychiatric comorbidities that commonly occur with these disorders.
It is important to begin psychotherapeutic treatment as soon as possible, as well as to adopt educational strategies in the classroom in line with the seriousness of the psychiatric disorder.
Early detection, psychotherapeutic treatment and various educational approaches substantially improve the learning and social behaviour of the person affected, helping them to have an everyday quality of life with a certain degree of autonomy and independence.
Research into the brain’s structure and connectivity in parallel with genetic studies is paving the way towards being about to think more about effective treatments for this disorder. In fact, there are currently various clinical trials under way whose therapeutic target is the basic symptoms of ASD.
There is a series of clinical trials that can help rule out other associated presentations or a specific aetiology such as electroencephalography and CAT scans, as well as analytic tests to rule out metabolic illnesses. A genetic test is required if there are suspicions of a specific genetic alteration.
Visits to the paediatrician to monitor the evolution of a healthy child are fundamental for early detection.
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