Posted: under Cancer.
Cancer actually helped me develop more confidence and to be able to look after myself. GiulianaMany writers on cancer use a ‘journey’ metaphor to illustrate the process of the whole path from beginning to end of recovery and its outcomes. We also view it as a series of fun park adventure rides: the highs and lows like a ‘roller coaster’, the fear of the unknown similar to the ‘ghost house’ and the calming serenity of a ‘merry-go-round’. There is no way of really knowing what your reactions to the ride will be like until you have actually experienced it. Yes we can anticipate and have a sense of it based on others experiences, and like a roller coaster all our reactions whatever they might be are totally normal. A human response to uncertainty.Coming to terms with a cancer diagnosis, its treatment and impact on all elements of life provides one of the biggest challenges of living with cancer. There was a consistent theme of grieving for some changed aspect of themselves – physical, emotional, sexual, psychological and professional. Most felt that the ‘physical’ management of cancer was the easy part. During the cycle of recovery, this sense of loss initially created a total preoccupation with their illness, many felt that their life had changed forever. None felt adequately aware or prepared for it. Few had previously given time to reflect or have high levels of sell-awareness on how they might react when extremely challenged. Some kept a diary that helped ‘get’ their feelings out, and helped them see how they had progressed. This was an excellent means of communicating when they had trouble-communicating with others. Despite their reactions, all 0u contributors have rebuilt a meaningful life, resulting in stronger physical, emotional and psychological identity.It was never ‘why me?’ it was ‘why now?’ It was never an appropriate time at all for this to happen. Just take it into stride and move on. It never fazed me. I was never devastated that I had vulva cancer.Lillian*45/144/5*
Jul 22 2011
Posted: under Anti-Psychotics.
As we established earlier, wisdom and competence come with age. Does this mean that as we age, we acquire these precious traits as a matter of course, the way we acquire gray hair and wrinkled skin? (That would be nice, wouldn’t it?) But it does not happen in an assured, preordained way. In a book of interviews published by the renowned Australian radio journalist Peter Thompson, the subtitle is as important as the title: Wisdom: The Hard-Won Gift. The gift of wisdom is a reward, not an entitlement. It has to be earned. And likewise you have to work for your competence.To revert to the language of the brain, both wisdom and competence are attained through the accumulation of attractors allowing pattern recognition in important situations. Well, then, it stands to reason that some people spend a lifetime accumulating such patterns, and others… less so. Every human being accumulates a certain pattern-recognition capability in the course of his or her lifetime. But not every human being accumulates the patterns necessary for the solution of problems of genuine importance to a significant number of other people. Generally speaking, people who have spent their lifetime dealing with strenuous mental challenges and who have been good at it, in other words people who are both bright and have been mentally active most of their lives, are rewarded with extra mental resistance to the effects of aging.This became quite apparent when the relationship between reasoning ability and general knowledge (including language vocabulary) was examined. In people with low reasoning ability, general knowledge and vocabulary were either constant as they aged or showed actual decline. But in people with high reasoning ability both knowledge and vocabulary actually continued to increase with age—all the way to the age of eighty years old!So it appears that the gift of effortless and powerful pattern recognition as a way of solving problems that faze other people is the culmination of and the reward for a lifetime of facing up to such mental challenges. In those who earned this reward, the gift of wisdom, to use Peter Thompson’s turn of phrase, has an amazing staying power in the face of aging and of all manner of neurological assaults on the brain. The great American psychologist William James was right when he said: “Could the youth but realize how soon they will become mere walking bundles of habits, they would give more heed to their conduct while in their plastic state.”Those in whom “the bundles of [acquired] habits” include genuine competence continue to reap its benefits well into old age. Today, an increasing number of aged individuals elect to remain active in the workplace. This is a very welcome and demographically realistic development. But it has also triggered the concerns that their performance on the job would be compromised because of age. But the concerns proved to be basically unfounded: Studies have shown that there is no relationship between aging and job performance. It simply does not decline with age.Job-related competencies are reflected in so-called “tacit knowledge,” the kind of procedural knowledge helpful in solving everyday problems arising in the workplace that is not taught explicitly as part of formal training. Research has shown that tacit knowledge does not suffer any appreciable decline with age, which may explain the lack of a negative relationship between aging and job performance. In fact, tacit knowledge declines far less than the isolated mental faculties (memory, attention, and so forth) usually assessed through formal neuropsychological tests. This means that an aging professional is likely to continue to be sound on the job, despite the decline in memory and attention.*30\302\2*
Jul 15 2011
Posted: under Anti Depressants-Sleeping Aid.
“Idiopathic” comes from a Latin word that, in rough translation, means “we don’t know what causes it.” As an example of this poorly defined disorder, let me cite the incident of a patient whose nightly ritual after dinner was to load the dishwasher and take out the garbage. One night before retiring, however, she went to unload the dishwasher—and found the sealed plastic bag of garbage sitting in it, all freshly washed, rinsed, and dried. She found the dinner dishes, of course, in the garbage can. To this day we don’t know what caused her problem.Also called non-REM narcolepsy, idiopathic hypersomnia can make patients feel constantly sleepy without overwhelming them with sleep attacks or cataplexy. Sufferers usually sleep well at night, although their sleep may be prolonged and they may have difficulty rousing. If they take naps, as they often do, the naps are long and unrefreshing. Clinical tests reveal that these patients fall asleep relatively quickly, but REM sleep is not usually present during naps as it is in narcolepsy. In some cases treatment with CNS stimulants or methysergide (Sansert) may help.*165\226\8*
Jul 09 2011