The Invisible Illness
With every passing day and advancement in technology and science the race for the survival of the fittest is becoming more and more though. The growing awareness for the need of mental health being equivalent to physical health has now made it easy to get insured for psychological health care.
In his desperate attempt to survive in this rat race man is pushing himself to the brink of his existentialist capabilities. Such a fast pace life is often giving rise to many forms of psychological disorders within him.
Psychological disorder is a state of mind which is very difficult to diagnose, and patients often live for months or years without any detection.
The causes of psychological disorders are many and varied. They can spring from various organic disorders like addiction to drugs or alcohol, sudden withdrawal from it. it can also happen from physical disorders like Alzheimer's disease, dementias. Adrenal dysfunction, head injury, calcium imbalance, metabolic disorder or physical trauma is also one of the many reasons responsible for psychological disorder. Excessive misuse of drugs and their subsequent anti reaction also cause psychological problem in a human.
The various symptoms of psychological disorder are confused activity, hallucinating various objects or scenes, getting to hear strange voices, severe headaches, depression, unknown anxiety factor, tiredness or fatigue and severe loss of body weight coupled with erratic behavior.
However a psychological disorder often goes undetected and undiagnosed because of the social stigma attached to it. Often parents overlook the signs of certain mental diseases in their kids and fail to take prompt actions. The depression in teenagers the anxiety disorders in adults are also left undiagnosed. People follow unhealthy eating habits and rely too much on drugs without bothering to care about their psychological impact.
It is reported that in USA alone every 1 in 58 people suffer from panic attack. Every 1 out of 43 people suffer from compulsive disorder. About 9.8 million US citizens suffer from post traumatic stress disorder. Social phobia haunts every 1 out of 27 people and another 18.8 million Americans are victim of depression. The other forms of psychological disorders affecting USA are Autism and Rhett's syndrome.
Treating a patient with psychological disability is an uphill task, because very often he/ she are not aware of his/ her mental state. In such a situation the counselor or the doctor needs to take the patient into his confidence and assure him that he is just trying to help him. Assistance from the family members is also very important. These problems don't have any medical solutions. A medicine can sooth him / her for a certain period of time but does not give him permanent relief. There are various types of people who cater to the needs of different psychological patients depending on the seriousness of their condition. They are mainly traditional counselor who can help identify the problem and psychologists and psychiatrists, who offer medical assistance under serious circumstances. However it is the love care and compassion of friends and family members that can alone heal a patient of psychological disorder.