Agoraphobia is a serious psychiatric disorder that afflicts millions of adults. If you or someone you love struggles with agoraphobia, you know that it can be a severely debilitating disorder. Individuals with this disorder are frequently portrayed as having “a fear of everything.” However, the underlying issue for agoraphobics is the often paralyzing fear that …
Social anxiety disorder is a challenging psychiatric condition that affects tens of thousands of Americans. Those who suffer from it find normal social interactions extremely uncomfortable. As a result, they go out of their way to avoid interacting with others, often to the point that it interferes with their daily life.
Methods and techniques for treating addiction are contiually evolving. Physicians, clinicians, therapists, and other addiction specialists are constantly looking for the best ways to help their patients beat this devastating disease. Doctors and researchers develop new medications and learn more about the way addiction affects the brain and counselors and psychiatrists come up with new …
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The Internet has become a central part of life. Dwarfing the perceived prominence of the television as the center of family life over the last few decades, the Internet is a main source of information, entertainment and communication.
The use of animals in medical therapy is not new. For years, scientists have encouraged the bonds that can be created between a patient and an animal and have recognized the power those bonds hold in healing a patient. Recently, the use of horses has been used to increase the development of individuals diagnosed with …
“One of the things I learned the hard way is that it doesn’t pay to get discouraged. Keeping busy and making optimism a way of life can restore your faith in yourself.” – Lucille Ball, American comedienne, film, television, stage and radio actress, known the world over simply as “Lucy” (1911-1989) We often find ourselves …
Many adults look back on their childhood days as care-free times. Compared to their stressful adult life of balancing work, family, finances, and personal issues, childhood is recalled as joyful and easy. But it’s not easy for all children. According to Dr. David Fassler, clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Vermont College of …
People get addicted to drugs and alcohol for any number of reasons – sometimes there’s a family history, sometimes early experimentation turns into a lifelong problem. For as many as 30 to 60 percent of addicts, drug or alcohol problems coincide with a history of abuse, neglect or other traumas.
Relapse is a situation that occurs when a recovering addict breaks sobriety and returns to his or her addictive behavior. While non-professionals commonly use the term for even small lapses into addictive behavior, doctors and mental health professionals typically only use it to describe serious lapses that potentially endanger the course of recovery. Any recovering …
The debate over whether to allow marijuana to be used for medicinal purposes has battles scattered over every state. While some cite the benefits of the drug for those who suffer from chronic pain from injury or from a serious disease like cancer, others believe that the benefits do not outweigh the risks.