Soulful by Ambika Chawla

02/02/2021

17/06/2020

And here we receive the news of yet another incident of Su***de. Well, su***de or su***de attempt is a significant indicator of the condition of Depression. The person may not sometime realises that he is suffering from the condition and it keeps growing inside the person. It hijacks the person's thinking and behavior, the person starts to feel that there is no way left that he can come out of it, feels like “A dead end”. This fear and feeling of hopelessness motivates a person to put their life at risk and rationalises the action of su***de or self harm.

The condition of depression is not visible as physical illness, but it can be felt – by the person, it can be observed – by others. The person experiencing it may find it as usual changes in his routine, whereas it can often be seen as major changes in the person’s mood, responses, or behaviour by family members, colleagues or friends. These changes should be seen as red flags or warning signs. This is the time when others can come as help. This is the time where one should ask – if anything is wrong, if they can help the person in any way, is there something he wants to share, is there any difficulty faced by the person. All the questions that we start feeling were important but after they have no meaning left, because the person is no more there to ask.

For a person suffering from depression, a small talk of emotional expression can help him pass through the day. The person may feel connected back to life, may see a ray of hope for the day. This is how magical the small talk can be. Its important to ask, to be present, to extend a hand of help. So look around and see if someone you know needs help. Let’s talk.

27/05/2020

This is the time where everyone is keeping a constant check on their physical health, and is rational so. Can we say that it is not harming us mentally, being anxious all the time, keeping our guards up, checking up on everything??
Look out for it, be careful about your mental health too. It is as necessary as physical health.
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The psychological harm of lockdown hits people with existing conditions hardest.

24/05/2020

World Schizophrenia Day. Here is some piece of information on it. 👇👇👇Contact for more information.

Schizophrenia is one of the severe psychological illness in the spectrum of psychotic disorders. It literally means 'splitting of the mind', whereas the actual phenomenon is not equivalent to splitting of the personality. It was previously known as 'Dementia Præcox', meaning to be having a condition similar to Dementia at an early age. It was then changed to Schizophrenia.

There have been known to be multiple changes in the person having the illness, but most commonly seen are disorders of thought and perception. The person having this kind of illness mainly loses touch with reality and starts to create his own world, having a different meaning to things, people and relationships. Two classical symptoms which have most commonly been seen in the people are delusions and hallucinations. The person starts to form strong beliefs, which are factually false, may not hold any true grounds, are ‘delusions’. There are variety of delusions that can be experienced by the person. ‘Hallucination' is an experience of a stimulus which is actually absent. It is a false perception that can occur through any form of sensory modality.

There can multiple causes to the disorder, like imbalance in the neuro chemicals, family history of psychological disorders, persistent stressful environment, can be some of them.

Apart from psychiatric treatment, the person will need intensive love, care and support from the family members. Acceptance of the person with the disease will ease out the treatment process for the family as well the patient. Arrangements around the beliefs (delusions) of the person can help in managing the symptoms better. Keeping the environment to be least stressful for the person would help in reducing the severity of the symptoms.

SOULFUL
By Ambika Chawla

22/05/2020

Sleep disturbance is one of the commonly seen concern in people, and with the whole practice of work from home in the lockdown, the day schedule has been disturbed all the more, making the situation a whole lot worse. A healthy sleep helps to relieve stress, increase physical energy, elevates mood, increase productivity and efficiency, to list a few benefits. Sleep is a simple process to recharge our body from the drainage of mental and physical strength and energy of the day.

Just like we all need to maintain personal hygiene, sleep hygiene is also important to be followed. It is a less known concept, but it holds its own benefits for quality of sleep.

Sleep hygiene includes the following:
1. Lighting of the room is dark or minimally dim (as preferred), it would help activate sleep area.
2. Screen exposure like using phones, laptops is stopped half an hour prior to sleep hours, screen exposure signals arousal area to be remain activated through eyes.
3. Fixing the sleep hours and making sure to go to bed by the time, it would help create a biological clock for your body.
4. Wearing comfortable clothes for sleep, reduce the chances of broken sleep.
5. Having a comfortable and temperature friendly cover up like bedsheet, blanket for sleep.
6. Try to make minimal use of sleep area for activities like work and restricting it mainly for sleep, it would cue the brain and body that the area is only for sleep and would activate sleep area.
7. Relaxing your mind before sleep, it is going to help you calm the mind and stop active processing by brain.
8. Not pushing sleep away when you feel sleepy, it is going to push the natural sleep hours of your body.

SOULFUL
by Ambika Chawla
Clinical Psychologist

19/05/2020

You still think you are immune to it. Take the help before its too late.

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Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella, in an interview, has said that permanently working from home can be damaging for mental health.

12/05/2020

Do you feel like you don't know your partner anymore, even after years of emotional investment? Is it right to end the relationship then? What to do, what not to do? Ask the expert. Get your first session free.

11/05/2020

It is normal to go through rough phases in relationship, but is it right to break up at the diverging points?? Get to know more from relationship expert. First session free.

19/11/2019

Complex childhood trauma is subtle but has long-term consequences.

03/09/2018

Yes, a national helpline must be executed before its too late.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader and presidential candidate Dr Arif Alvi has stressed the need for readily available psychiatric help including a 24/7

03/09/2018

Children exposed to maternal depression respond like those under chronic stress.