Health Blog » Anti Depressants-Sleeping Aid http://healthblg.com Health Articles and Information Mon, 21 Nov 2011 09:15:52 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1 STRESS BREAKDOWN: IGNORING IMPORTANT PROBLEMS WHILE BECOMING PREOCCUPIED WITH TRIVIA http://healthblg.com/2011/05/stress-breakdown-ignoring-important-problems-while-becoming-preoccupied-with-trivia/ http://healthblg.com/2011/05/stress-breakdown-ignoring-important-problems-while-becoming-preoccupied-with-trivia/#comments Sun, 29 May 2011 10:09:38 +0000 admin http://healthblg.com/?p=183
As a result of being unable to respond to problems which would normally have top priority, the over-stressed person might become apparently hopelessly disorganized, ignoring important decisions and busying himself with trivia.
For example, an over-stressed company general manager has to make some significant response to a real threat of industrial action from employees in a factory where a workmate has been killed accidentally. The union is concerned over safety procedures. The manager knows full well that a whole section of the factory is potentially unsafe and really needs rebuilding. However, the Board of Directors has made it clear that the company is just surviving, and the general manager knows that the extra expenditure to fix up the factory floor will be the trigger for closing down the business and result in the loss of many jobs, including his own. To make it more complex, the dead employee was clearly defying normal safety procedures, and the crisis might in fact be negotiable with the union.
However, the general manager has just come out of hospital following an operation for suspected cancer, and his wife’s father has just died. He is suffering from stress breakdown symptoms.
The day he is to meet with the union representatives, he seems not to be able to arrange an agenda for the meeting, but instead is preoccupied with ringing up to order more paper clips for his office.
The big problems appear not to be noticed, appear not to ‘register’ as important, as top priority, but the person instead reacts to little problems as before. When this behaviour is not recognized as due to stress breakdown, wrong assumptions may lead to totally inappropriate responses from others.
The spouses of over-stressed people might complain that the over-stressed person seems to have changed his priorities, or is deliberately ignoring the glaring needs of the family. Misunderstanding this symptom can lead to people feeling emotionally hurt at the apparent about-face in attitudes of the stressed person. ‘He’s so callous, doctor, and he just doesn’t care anymore. He thinks more of taking that dog for a walk than he does about helping me since I had my heart attack!’
It is obvious that a person who is switching off in response to major problems and strong stimuli is not capable at that time of organizing his life in such a way as to reduce the stress he is experiencing. A person in these circumstances needs to be rescued by someone else who will help that person get out of the increasing mess he finds himself in.
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]]> http://healthblg.com/2011/05/stress-breakdown-ignoring-important-problems-while-becoming-preoccupied-with-trivia/feed/ 0 THE NATURE OF ANXIETY: THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF ANXIETY http://healthblg.com/2009/04/the-nature-of-anxiety-the-physical-basis-of-anxiety/ http://healthblg.com/2009/04/the-nature-of-anxiety-the-physical-basis-of-anxiety/#comments Wed, 29 Apr 2009 08:30:59 +0000 admin http://healthblg.com/2009/04/the-nature-of-anxiety-the-physical-basis-of-anxiety/ If we are to learn to master our anxiety in an enlightened fashion, we must first know something of its nature. What is anxiety? Unfortunately there is no complete agreement among psychiatrists on this subject, but it is possible to make a number of general statements that help to define anxiety. The ideas which I offer you now are a summary of a theme which I have developed elsewhere.

The Physical Basis of Anxiety-Our brain is continually receiving a great number of nervous impulses. Some of these are conscious, but the great majority are unconscious. These impulses arise from three different areas—from our external environment, from our body itself, and from our mind.

Information concerning external environment comes to our brain through our sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. We are aware of some of these sensations, but a great deal of information of which we are not consciously aware also comes to our brain from all parts of the body. Thus the position of our limbs is being continually reported so that we can maintain our balance. The fullness of our stomach, the mobility of our bowels, and the functioning of all our other organs are likewise continually reported.

There is an even more complex stream of impulses which arise within the brain itself. At this level are our conscious thoughts, doubts and misgivings, loves and hates. Impulses come also from the unconscious activity of the mind. This includes all those problems and conflicts, worries and desires, which we can readily call to consciousness if we so desire. But beyond this mass of material which we can recall at will, there lies the unconscious itself with its memories of past experiences and all the hopes and fears which were associated with them. Although these unconscious memories are quite beyond our recall except under certain special circumstances, they have a continual effect on our mental functioning by virtue of impulses arising from them.

All these impulses—from the environment, from the body, and from the mind—have to be dealt with and integrated to allow the smooth working of the brain. If the number of impulses becomes too great the brain is unable to cope with the situation. There is in fact a level for all of us at which integration of the impulses becomes incomplete, and we experience this incomplete integration of the impulses as anxiety. The feeling of nervous tension or anxiety thus serves to warn us that all is not well in our mind.

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