Mental Health

Myanmar's doctors are taking a stand. For months, many have joined a widespread civil disobedience movement – refusing to work in public hospitals in order to oppose the February 2021 military coup.  They're showing remarkable courage – and raising important ethical questions – in opposing a regime accused of killing at least 1,300 people and arresting thousands in the months since the coup. The military coup ended a decade of democratic transition in the Southeast Asian nation. The people of Myanmar have clearly spoken out by staging acts of civil disobedience, which has provoked a violent and worsening backlash from the military establishment. Physicians working in public hospitals, which are now under the control of the military, led some of the first walkouts. The doctors' decisions highlight an ethical dilemma balancing their responsibilities as physicians and as citizens. Doctors must provide medical care to those in need. They, more than anyone, knew the...

Mental illness goes hand in hand with the horror genre. As someone who suffers from trauma and PTSD, I can almost always find a piece of myself on screen. Scream 's Sidney Prescott survives and thrives over and over again throughout the franchise. In Antlers , Julia Meadows has violent flashbacks to her abusive past. But as someone who also suffers from borderline personality disorder (BPD), I don't really ever see myself represented. Borderline personality disorder, sometimes known as emotional dysregulation disorder, is characterized by unstable moods, behaviors and relationships. But that's putting it lightly. BPD is its own real-life horror, and perhaps too intense or complicated to accurately portray over the course of a 90-minute runtime. I found Daniel Isn't Real one evening after browsing through Shudder, and was stunned to see the darkest parts of myself accurately characterized by a toxic relationship: One between a boy and his imaginary friend. D...

Although they share some similarities, schizoaffective disorder and schizophrenia are two distinctly different disorders. Each has its own diagnostic criteria, as well as different treatment options. Both involve psychotic symptoms like hallucinations, delusions, and cognitive impairments, but schizoaffective disorder also has features of a mood disorder. Read on to learn more about these two mental health conditions. Schizoaffective disorder is a chronic mental health condition. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, the hallmarks of schizoaffective disorder include psychotic symptoms of schizophrenia-like hallucinations or delusions, with symptoms of a mood disorder like mania or depression. It's a rare condition, with a lifetime prevalence of just 0.3 percent. What are the symptoms? Symptoms of schizoaffective disorder need to be monitored, as they can be severe in some people. Symptoms can also vary depending on the mood disorder diagnosed (depression or bipolar ...

Unipolar depression is another name for major depressive disorder. The term "unipolar" means that this form of depression does not cycle through other mental states, such as mania. In contrast, bipolar conditions cause periods of both depression and mania. However, having unipolar depression does not mean that a person is depressed at all times. People with major depressive disorder may experience periods of remission that alternate with periods of depression relapse. They may also feel happier when circumstances change, especially if they have the subtype of major depressive disorder called atypical depression. Unipolar depression is one of the most common mental health diagnoses. As well as producing a depressed or sad mood, it can cause physical symptoms and significant difficulty managing daily tasks and relationships. In 2019, 7.8% of all adults in the United States had at least one major depressive episode. Keep reading to learn more about unipolar depression, includin...

Auditory hallucinations, or "hearing voices," is one of the most prevalent symptoms of schizophrenia, reported by as many as 75% of patients. 1 It is also seen in other psychiatric conditions, such as bipolar and unipolar depression and personality disorders, as well as in nonclinical populations. Auditory hallucinations in schizophrenia are heterogenous in nature. According to Simon McCarthy-Jones, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, "Hearing voices is a varied experience. It can involve hearing single or multiple voices, whose identity the hearer may or may not know, who speak in turn or all at the same time, who may be saying new things or repeating what has been heard before, and who can give comments or commands, insults or encouragement. Most commonly though, people diagnosed with schizophrenia will hear multiple voices that are male, nasty, repetitive, commanding, and interactive, where ...

Posted on 01/02/2022 Psychosis is when people lose some contact with reality. Mass formation psychosis is when a large part of a society focuses its attention to a leader(s) or a series of events and their attention focuses on one small point or issue. Followers can be hypnotized and be led anywhere, regardless of data proving otherwise. A key aspect of the phenomena is that the people they identify as the leaders – the one's that can solve the problem or issue alone – they will follow that leader(s) regardless of any new information or data. Furthermore, anybody who questions the leader's narrative are attacked and disregarded. There are four key components needed for an environment to experience a mass formation psychosis: lack of social bonds or decoupling of societal connections, lack of sense-making (things don't make sense), free-floating anxiety, and free-floating psychological discontent. Free-floating anxiety is a general sense of uneasiness that is not tied to any...

Reality shifting has become a popular TikTok trend as people think they can access alternate worlds. Experts say it's often harmless but could exacerbate mental health conditions in some people. In extreme cases, shifters are encouraged to die in order to permanently change realities. Loading Something is loading. "We're actually shifting dozens of times in every moment that we...

Case report 1 (AA): premenstrual psychosis AA is a 23-year old single Omani woman. She was brought by her parent to the psychiatric clinic with a 3-year history of the cyclical presentation of a short episode of clouded sensorium and abrupt onset of psychosis. Her thoughts and emotions had been impaired to the extent that her family had begun to believe that she had been 'possessed' by a malevolent spirit. Her mother noted that her distress occurred during the second half of her menstrual cycle and ended at the onset of menstrual bleeding. During the second half of her menstrual cycle, AA was reported as showing symptoms of dysphoric mania, isolating herself and crying unremittingly without substantive reason. The episodes of negativistic behavior tended to be superseded by a state of overactivity and euphoria characterized by grandiose beliefs, inappropriate irritability and social behavior and increased talking speed or volume. AA's symptoms were reported to recede upon t...

Signs of inflammation in the blood reliably predict and identify severe depression in pregnancy, reports a new study led by scientists at Van Andel Institute and Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services . The team's analysis established a set of 15 biological markers found in the blood that can predict if pregnant women will experience significant depressive symptoms with 83% accuracy. The findings could give physicians a much-needed tool to identify women who may be at risk for depression and better tailor their care throughout pregnancy. Nearly one in five new mothers experience severe depression during or after pregnancy and an estimated 14% have suicidal thoughts. Inflammation can lead to worsening depressive symptoms, and pregnancy is a major inflammatory event. "Depression isn't just something that happens in the brain -- its fingerprints are everywhere in the body, including in our blood," said Lena Brundin, M.D., Ph.D., a VAI professor and co-senior au...

Actor Jim Carrey portrays a man named Truman whose life is filmed 24/7 in the 1998 film "The Truman Show." Paramount Pictures In the film "The Truman Show," Jim Carrey plays a man who is an unknowing star of a TV show. His life is streamed to an audience at all times. The movie spawned a moniker for a psychological delusion in which patients believe they're being watched or c...