LONDON (Reuters) - Stimulating a certain area of the brain can produce a creepy feeling that someone is watching you when no one is, scientists said Wednesday.
Swiss researchers made the discovery while evaluating a young woman for surgery to treat epilepsy. They believe their finding could help explain feelings such as paranoia which afflict patients suffering from schizophrenia.
When they electrically stimulated the left temporoparietal junction in her brain, which is linked to self-other distinction and self-processing, she thought someone was standing behind her.
If they repeated the stimulus while she leaned forward and grabbed her knees she had an unpleasant sensation that...
There are two main catagories of stress: acute and chronic. Acute stressors include unpleasant films, understimulation/work underload, overstimulation/work overload, unexpected or uncontrollable noise, prestige or status loss, electric shock, uncontrollable situations, physical illness, surgery, threats to self-esteem, and traumatic experiences. Chronic stressors include sleep deprivation, daily "hassles", work overload or underload, role strains, or social isolation. There are, of course, many more things that can cause stress, but these are the stressors most commonly used in experimental research and most commonly seen in the general population (Elliott and Eisdorfer, 1982).
While there is no way to predict conclusively how an individual will respond to different stressors, stress does cause...
In a 1994 report on the current state of emotional literacy in the U.S., author Daniel Goleman stated:
"...in navigating our lives, it is our fears and envies, our rages and depressions, our worries and anxieties that steer us day to day. Even the most academically brilliant among us are vulnerable to being undone by unruly emotions. The price we pay for emotional literacy is in failed marriages and troubled families, in stunted social and work lives, in deteriorating physical health and mental anguish and, as a society, in tragedies such as killings..."
Goleman attests that the best remedy for battling our emotional shortcomings is preventive medicine. In other words, we need to place as much importance on teaching our children the essential skills of Emotional Intelligence as we do on more traditional measures like IQ and GPA.
Exactly what is Emotional Intelligence? The term encompasses the following five characteristics and abilities:
1. Self-awareness--knowing your...
All I can remember about how my panic started is that we (my sister and kids) went to a birthday party. Suddenly, my sister took her glasses off and while sitting on a rolling kitchen chair, rolled herself to a wall, and began to have what I SWEAR was a seizure. She was shaking uncontrollably, drooling and twitching. Her friend called 911 while the husband tried to keep her awake and calm and breathing, and I was left to heard all the children out of the kitchen and into another area of the house so they would not be wigged out by what was happening in there. This was 10 yrs ago (she went to the hospital and they told her she had a stress attack, gave her xanax, and when the twitching stopped, they sent her home).
The next evening we all had plans to play cards (a weekend event) at my sister's apartment.
(we would switch places every weekend). During that evening, I could not sit still, pay attention, communicate. It felt like I couldn't breathe right. I had to stop playing so I could keep going outside for air. So, I took my own daughter, and went home, where I still could not function properly. It was still early when we got home so my girl asked could she go out and play with friends. I said, "No". But I did tell her she could have 1 person over but not to make any sound. I am sure she was like WTF? but at that time I was really scared. I didn't was anyone near me, her included, but I didn't want her out of the house, either. After about an hour, I had her call my aunt and I talked to her. She brought me a Xanax (my other aunt has a LONG history of panic) as she seemed to figure out I needed to calm down. Well, that little pink pill knocked my butt down for the count.
A lot of it is a blur, but maybe a month later, I was in the ER for a major panic! Thought my heart was going to pump out my chest. While in the ER, a father came rushing in to triage and was yelling for help, as his son was having a heart attack! Well, you can guess what I was thinking!
Yup! We are going to die, me and that young man! (don't know how or where he is). Was given the whole battery of tests and whatever, and sent home. No meds. Go home, it was panic.
Fast forward a year, (or 2 or 3 ) still panic but with an added element...depression. Insurance was changed at work, to HMO so had a quack give me Zoloft...later it was Paxil, and later still was followed by Prozac, Welbutrin, Trazadone, Lexapro, still have my Xanax (also saw 5 doctors in between, remember this is over a period of 10 yrs).
One thing I hadn't thought of till some family member brought it up, was during a lot of that time, I had lost two family members, although we were estranged, were still my family. (brother and sister, lost in car accidents, 6 yrs apart), moving, new jobs, new meds, extended family (I am raising my deceased sister's boys) and over time, "IT" just got the better of me. None of the meds really helped, was never given correct dosages, or even a combo of meds to control these feelings. I also tried therapy over last summer and still no relief. Also, a psychiatrist and she wanted to put me on some stuff that would raise my blood sugar and pack on the pounds. (diabetes runs in the family!) She said it would contain my "RAGES", as that was her diagnoses, in ONE VISIT!
In one year, (2002) in order, I have lost the following: 3/02, my father (who raised me from 14 till adulthood) 6/2002, my mother in law, 7/02, my daughters great grandma, 11/02, her grandma,
(her dad's side of the family) 12/02 my sister in law, 01/03, my niece. We had driven over 2,000
miles just to say good bye to these family members.
I know that without you tAPirites, I would have surely lost my mind by now. I have heard your tales of woe, and some pretty funny things in here. I also have my husband of 4 years to help me with the spiritual side of things and just his presence to help me along. My kids...they are awesome. I used to try to hide it, but since it is a part of me, I have had to let them in at some point, but only when they were old enough so I wouldn't scare them.
Sorry this was so long, but it is also cathartic. I am slowly finding the ME that was left behind 10 yrs ago.
Wishing everyone here the best...
People who buy medicines over the internet could be unwittingly putting their health at risk, warn UK doctors.
Some drugs are fake and contain ingredients bearing little resemblance to the medicine named on the bottle, the Sunderland team told the Lancet.
Even if patients get the right drug, there is a risk of unchecked side effects and dangerous interactions.
The team reports the case of a woman who damaged her vision with oral steroids bought online from Thailand.
The 64-year-old woman had taken the drug for four years after making a self-diagnosis of chronic fatigue syndrome.
In February 2006, she went to the accident and emergency department of the Sunderland Royal Infirmary because she had noticed her eyesight failing for the previous six months.
The doctors who examined her discovered...
Morning Edition, August 29, 2006 ยท Mental health problems roughly doubled in the months after Hurricane Katrina, but thoughts of suicide among those with mental health problems actually decreased, according to a new study. The finding of reduced suicide runs counter to many other reports.
The study, published in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization, is the first report of a federally funded tracking survey of the mental health needs of about a thousand adult pre-hurricane residents of Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi.
It found serious,,,
A 32-year-old woman compulsively sent her ex-boyfriend text messages (repeatedly asking him to meet her, chastising him for leaving her, and expressing love for him) after he ended their relationship. He told her to stop contacting him because he wanted no communication with her. Her messages were alarming and disrupted his life. She continued, however, despite his attorney threatening legal action against her. Any effort to resist sending a message resulted in increased tension until she sent a message, which was followed by a short period of relief that "a link [between her and her ex-boyfriend] was maintained." Her growing tensions were only relieved by...