Many believe that psychiatry is not real; it's a pseudoscience, trash, and a make belief science, it's all about hypnotism etc. However, psychiatry is a medical science of a different order that deals with the mind and its intrinsic and complicated nature. Many mental disorders or illness often having an effect on the mind as well as the body can be treated by a psychiatrist. Insomnia, anxiety disorder, panic disorder, abnormally high pressure moods, various personality disorders etc are some of the common cases under psychiatry.
Mental health professionals and staff thrive across the globe. Psychiatric counselling has helped patients a great deal in coming out of depressions, rectifying personality disorders, correcting insomnia etc. Aids Phobia is common among a large number of people. Possessing little or lack of knowledge about HIV, and misinformed about Aids, people panic and suffer from mental and physical aspects. There are many such psychic disorders and phobias, schizophrenic cases, nervous disorders that require the expertise of a psychiatrist to deal with these.
Anorexia is a very common psychological disorder and more so in today's young girls. Anorexia is a mental disorder where a person stops eating or eats less for fear of getting fat. Eventually such habit leads to a loss of appetite. The concept of hour glass figure is a growing trend among today's young girls and it has had disastrous effects on the body and mind. Anorexia nervosa is one of the most common psychiatric disorders among young women. 1% of all teenage girls suffer from the condition, while for boys it is 0.1%. The disease has physical side effects like infertility among women.
Like Anorexia, other common mental disorders include hallucination, depression, headache, fatigue, anxiety, confusion, erratic behaviour , hearing voices, and weight loss.
Psychiatry deals with what's inside the head. And what's inside the head is a result of some chemical imbalance which did not happen one fine day. The way people think, their beliefs, their culture and the experience, situations in life and a lot of other things tend to shape up their psyche, their thought pattern which might at moments or for a long time be seriously challenged due to circumstances. A psychiatrist through mental counselling and dosage of medicine try to revive the balance in the mind. The function of psychiatric treatment is to open the closed mind of the patient. The closed mindedness is what harms the patient who then undergoes tremendous depression, leading to symptoms of regular psychological disorder.
Schizophrenia is another common serious psychotic disorder and a consistent challenge in the field of psychiatry from a long time. It is an abnormal perception of reality that affects all five senses- sight, touch, smell, hearing, and touch. Hallucinations, bizarre delusions, abnormality in speech and disorganized thinking pattern, multiple and split personality traits, paranoia are common behavioral patterns among schizophrenic patients.
People with schizophrenia usually suffer from major depression and anxiety disorders. Substance abuse including hard drugs remains a common problem. Social problems, such as unemployment, poverty and homelessness, are common. The average life expectancy of people with schizophrenia is about 10 years less than those without. One major reason behind this is the high suicidal rate among schizophrenics. Although not hereditary, Schizophrenia tends to run in families.
Delusion is another very common psychological disorder. People can have various degrees of delusions. In such cases, the patient holds on to his own idea about something even if it is wrong. The person might become so disillusioned, that he would not budge from his viewpoint even if presented with the correct facts. A person might believe that some conspiracy is going on behind his back. This might happen in workplace or at home. This leads to unrest, abnormal behavior, and rash reactions if the degree of delusion becomes high. Sometimes the patient's beliefs get out of proportion and he might think of himself as Napoleon or Hitler or anyone else. Such short and long term delusions are common case studies in psychiatry.
Visual and/or auditory hallucinations must have had happened to everyone but the difference between normal and abnormal lies in the frequency of such hallucinations. People see things that are not there, or hear a voice as if someone called them. For people suffering from hallucinations, it happens often. Drug abuse is one reason for hallucination, where the treatment of drug abuse is more important than dealing with hallucination. For those hallucinating to a great extent without the help of any psychotic substance, psychological counselling and mild steroids and prescribed medicines work wonders.
The Department of Psychiatry in Vydehi Hospital provides exemplary clinical care, consultation services and treatment, both to inpatients and outpatients, along with crisis and emergency services. The department is devoted to the optimal recovery of patients suffering from psychiatric problems. The department has state of the art equipments for various therapies namely Biofeedback Therapy Relaxation therapy, Multi Behaviour therapy, Brain Polariser Sex Therapy, Aversion Therapy, Electro-Sleep Therapy, Electro-convulsive therapy. A different department deals with psychological issues and cases. The psychiatric services empower individuals to change their lives in a positive manner.
Article written by Ranadwip Saha , working for Vydehi Medical College Bangalore http://www.vims.ac.in Who use to write blogs and articles in web.
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