Are you REALLY in Love?

What Is Dr. O’s Definition of Love?

Ten clues to help you recognize when you are really in love:

1.  After an argument or slight disagreement, you and your partner usually don’t hold a grudge against each other.
2. You enjoy your partner’s post-work scent. (bad or good)
3. You are willing to have morning sex before a bath.
4. You kiss each other before a toothbrush has been used by either party.
5. You will wait for your love outside in the cold and rainy weather.
6. You don’t ever feel obligated to pay your partner’s bills.
7. You have sex more than once a day.
8. You will run up your credit card buying gifts because you want to, not because you feel obligated to or out of habit.
9. You will stay home from an important event just to make love with your partner.

10. You will take an extended lunch, outside of work, for midday sex with your partner.

Another  key point is that when an individual has significant relationship problems, this can lead them to depression, anxiety and lastly a psychotic break. This is why marital therapy and counseling becomes important when there is discord in your primary relationships.  I always see each party, in a relationship, individually to be sure that neither party is psychotic before starting marital therapy.

Questions:

1. How would I know if I am having a “nervous breakdown? ” You may began experiencing auditory and or visual hallucinations. Your thoughts can also be disorganized and you may began acting paranoid and or strange.  Occasionally your behaviors can become  disorganized.  This is a medical emergency.
2. What should I do if I am experiencing any of the above symptoms? You should go immediately to the nearest Emergency Room. Do not attempt to wait for the next outpatient primary care appointment. You can become very paranoid and attempt to hurt yourself or others. The above symptoms should be taken very seriously.
3. How long should an average nervous breakdown last? A psychotic break should last less than 30 days. If the episode lasts more than thirty days,  your mental health provider should consider other diagnosis. (i.e. Schizophrenia and or Bipolar Disorder with Psyshosis)
4. Are there any diagnositic tests  to confirm this diagnosis?  At this time, the clinical interview is used to rule in or rule out this particular diagnosis.  Please be sure that you have  a competent mental health provider.  There are a couple of quick in office test, i.e. SCL-90, HAM-D, and or PHQ-9, that may be used to clarify certain mental ilnesses but psychological testing is not usually required to make a  firm mental health diagnosis.
5. Are the any current treatments that are effective? Yes, there are a number of novel antipsychotic, antidepressant and anxiolytic medications that are effective to treat the patient who is having a “nervous breakdown.”  However, it is important to see a Psychiatrist (preferable board-certified) to develop a prudent treatment plan. Oftentimes,  non-specialist can not handle the psychotic patient.

The bottom line is that a “nervous breakdown” is a very serious medical emergency and should be treated as such. If you notice strange behaviors in family members or friends, go immediately to the nearest emergency room. There may be a little or a lot of  resistance. If the resistance is significant, you should call the police. The police has what is called “parens patriae.” This simply means that “the nation has the power.”  In essence, the government has the right to intervene or take care of persons who can not take care of themselves.

Discussion Point: Do you feel that you have a family member, supervisor or friend that is currently psychotic or experiencing a nervous breakdown? I want to hear from you and I need you to share some of your observations.

1. Physicians are now becoming a little more skilled and less afraid to make the diagnosis of ADD.

2.  Patients are becoming more compliant and take the medications daily as being scheduled by the providers.

3. The demand exceeded the supply produced in 2011.

4.  The FEDS control the amount “amphetamine mixed salts” produced yearly.

5. The world is coming to an END! LOL

#5 is how many of my patients felt when they could not get their medication at the end of last year and the beginning of 2012.  It is nothing worse than preparing for final exams and not being able to retain the  information that you will be tested on during finals.  It is nothing more scary than being written-up, by your supervisor,  because you are forgetting important details in your work.  Finally it is certainly nothing worse than coming home from a hard day’s work and being bombarded by phone-calls from your son/daughter’s teachers because they are under performing.

I believe that we now have the problem under control.  It is my PHYSICIAN’s prayer and hope that this never happens again to my poor patients. One student told me, “Being without my Adderall, I felt like a fish out of water during lecture-breathless.”

Points to Ponder:

1. If they run out of Adderall, they are other safe alternatives so talk to your doctor and don’t be afraid to try something different.

2.  Take your medications as prescribed. Don’t lend, don’t borrow and you know exactly what I mean.

3. Keep all of your scheduled doctor’s appointments.  These medications are controlled and you must have an original script.

4.Keep your medications in a safe place. They usually sell for between $10-$15 a pill on most college campuses.

Enough Said Until Next Time,

Dr.O

New Study Says Breakups Cause Real Physical Pain……

Breakups are not easy. But come on y’all… breakups are NOT the end! I see people become so paralyzed by the idea of a “broken heart” that they literally stop pumping blood to their brains!

Relationships end for a reason. Yet, some people take mourning a past relationship too far and claim to feel more than just emotional pain. To validate this theory, a recent study suggests that someone might legitimately “feel sick” or “hurt inside” by the loss or rejection of a loved one. And to think, I thought these were just overused dramatic expressions… My bad!!

Edward Smith, a psychologist at Columbia University, assessed the brain images of 40 volunteers who were recently rejected by loved ones. Using MRI scanners and collecting response data, Smith assessed the correlation between different stimuli and the subjects’ associated levels of actual physical pain that resulted from the exposure.

1. Participants were asked to rate how much they hurt when viewing a picture of their ex compared to a picture of a good friend.
2. Next, they rated the level of pain experienced during physical stimuli that makes actual contact with the participant’s body (like the heat from holding a hot cup of coffee or the touch of a heated probe).
3. Then, the team of researchers were able to measure if emotional triggers can actually make us feel pain on a physical level.

Results indicate that when volunteers viewed pictures of their recent ex, the brain evoked activity in the same neural pathways that respond to physical pain. This finding suggests that emotional pain- feeling rejected or sad, or grieving a lost one- can tap into the same nerve networks that are responsible for giving pain its negative tinge.

Thus, Smith suspects that the intensity of being rejected by someone you love triggers the physical component of pain sensation.

“What we are finding is that in addition to emotional distress, there is another component, and that’s the sensory experience of pain,” says Smith. “If you up the ante in the magnitude of the rejection experience, you now find that brain areas involved in the actual [physical] sensation of pain are involved as well.”

All I can say is- I guess some of y’all who check out on life after a breakup now have a VALID point! However, at some point you need to open the blinds and see the sun again. I’m definitely not advocating for you to use this as an excuse to mope. You know what they say about the fish….in the sea.

What do you think? Have you ever been in an extremely bad breakup..where you felt physical pain? How did you deal?

Well, as some of you may or may not  know there is a time factor needed for a diagnosis of depression. The signs or symptoms of a mood disorder must be present for at least 2 weeks.  What many of you may not know is that “lack of interest in all activities” is another base for a diagnosis of Clinical Depression. If a patient meets either of the two; 1) Depressed Mood for 2 weeks and or 2) Anhedonia (which is a lack of interest in all activities) for two weeks this is the diagnostic category that  has to be looked at a little more closely.

If you have had either of the two and at least (5) of the other signs and symptoms listed below, you should schedule an appointment with a mental health provider of your choice.

a) insomnia-too much or too little sleep

b) Guilt or Hopelessness

c) Problems Concentrating

d) Eating too much or too little (that is probably all of us)

e)Feelings of retardation and or agitation

f) Suicidal thoughts or recurrent thoughts of death and or dying

If you have been having problems for at least two weeks with the above symptoms, you most probably do have depression. Remember depression is a treatable illness if brought to the attention of the appropriately licensed clinician.

Points to Ponder:

1) Have I been sad or down a lot lately?

2) Have I been isolating a lot from family and friends?

3) Is life still worth living?

4) Is the world against me, again?

Too many yes answers to the above questions could also be a  signal of mental illness. Go and take care of yourself and remember

….A Healthy Mind ….A Healthy Body

Dr.O