Depression: Recognizing the Physical Symptoms?
© 2009 WebMD, LLC. All rights reserved.
Most of us know about the emotional symptoms of depression. But you may not know that depression can be associated with many physical symptoms, too. In fact, many people with depression suffer from chronic pain or other physical symptoms. ?

These include:

Headaches. These are fairly common in people with depression. If you already had migraine headaches,
they may seem worse if you’re depressed.
Back pain. If you already suffer with back pain, it may be worse if you become depressed.
Muscle aches and joint pain. Depression can make any kind of chronic pain worse.
Chest pain. Obviously, it’s very important to get chest pain checked out by an expert right away. It can be a sign of serious heart problems. But depression can contribute to the discomfort associated with chest pain.
Digestive problems. You might feel queasy or nauseous. You might have diarrhea or become chronically constipated.
Exhaustion and fatigue. No matter how much you sleep, you may still feel tired or worn out. Getting out of the bed in the morning may seem very hard, even impossible.
Sleeping problems. Many people with depression can’t sleep well anymore. They wake up too early or can’t fall asleep when they go to bed. Others sleep much more than normal.
Change in appetite or weight. Some people with depression lose their appetite and lose weight. Others find they crave certain foods — like carbohydrates — and weigh more.
Dizziness or lightheadedness.

Because these symptoms occur with many conditions, many depressed people never get help, because they don’t know that their physical symptoms might be caused by depression. A lot of doctors miss the symptoms, too.
These physical symptoms aren’t “all in your head.” Depression can cause real changes in your body. For instance, it can slow down your digestion, which can result in stomach problems.
Depression seems to be related to an imbalance of certain chemicals in your brain. Some of these same chemicals play an important role in how you feel pain. So many experts think that depression can make you feel pain differently than other people.
Treating Physical Symptoms
In some cases, treating your depression — with therapy or medicine or both — will resolve your physical symptoms.
But make sure to tell your health care provider about any physical symptoms. Don’t assume they’ll go away on their own. They may need additional treatment. For instance, your doctor may suggest an antianxiety medicine if you have insomnia. Those drugs help you relax and may allow you to sleep better.
Since pain and depression go together, sometimes easing your pain may help with your depression. Some antidepressants may help with chronic pain, too.
Other treatments can also help with painful symptoms. Certain types of focused therapy — like cognitive behavioral — can teach you ways to cope better with the pain.
WebMD Medical Reference?© 2009 WebMD, LLC. All rights reserved.

Robin Stern is a licensed psychoanalyst in private practice and the author of The Gaslight Effect: How to Spot and Survive the Hidden Manipulation Others Use to Control Your Life. March 19, 2009,
Identify “The Gaslight Effect” ?and take back your reality !
Identify “The Gaslight Effect” and take back your reality !
Published on March 19, 2009

In my book “The Gaslight Effect: how to spot and survive the hidden manipulation others use to control your life”, I describe an imbalance of power in an all too familiar, yet often subtle, kind of power-play in which the more powerful gaslighter attempts to define the reality of a less powerful gaslightee - and the person in the one-down position allows that to happen. As a result, the gaslightee begins to second-guess herself because she has allowed another person to define her reality and erode her judgment. She has given over her power. (I use “she” because that is the pairing I see most often; but, women can be gaslighters too, and men, gaslightees)
I wrote the book because I witnessed this dynamic for years in my private practice, and, among my friends. I saw even the most successful of women, come unglued — not to mention the thousands, if not millions of men, women and children, whose heads are spinning because someone is aggressively challenging their reality.
This dynamic-I call it the Gaslight Tango-occurs in all different types of relationships - at the office, in our friendships, between parents and children, and, between siblings. It is a form of psychological abuse.
The powerful gaslighter (he has power both because he asserts it and because the gaslightee gives it to him!) engages in an ongoing, systematic knocking down of the other, less powerful, person, purposely controlling the relationship by telling the other that there is something wrong with the way she sees the world or there’s something wrong with who she is — and– the gaslightee, by agreeing with him or allowing his perceptions define hers, over time, loses confidence, feels unsure and experiences a growing shakiness of self. Gradually, the gaslightee begins to question what she thought she knew—and gives up the power to stand in her own reality.
Recently, I was giving a talk about gaslighting - many people in the audience had an “aha” experience - then, when I said that there is good news about this destructi

I am so pleased with the look and feel of the “updated” (MHT) site!
Our company will be four in July and it is intoxicating to see how
many women have been touched by this site and our product.

Mountains are moving again for My Heart Ties.
In June we have our first CNN Radio interview
as well as an interview with Women Power Radio.
I’ll be posting the audio to the site as soon as it airs!

Here we GO…Stay tuned!

Learn the Facts
Domestic violence can be defined as: a pattern of behavior in any relationship that is used to gain or maintain power and control over an intimate partner.
Abuse is physical, sexual, emotional, economic or psychological actions or threats of actions that influence another person. This includes any behaviors that frighten, intimidate, terrorize, manipulate, hurt, humiliate, blame, injure or wound someone.
Domestic violence can happen to anyone of any race, age, sexual orientation, religion or gender. It can happen to couples who are married, living together or who are dating. Domestic violence affects people of all socioeconomic backgrounds and education levels.
If you or someone you know needs help, please call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at (800)799-7233. You are not alone.

The majority of domestic violence victims are women. 1 in 3 women report being physically or sexually abused by a husband or boyfriend at some point during their lives.
More than 32 million Americans are affected by domestic violence each year.
Domestic violence is the leading cause of injury to women.

“It’s a kind of insanity, you know, to be involved with a narcissist. You don’t realize what you’re doing to yourself when you’re involved with one, and if anything, you fight like hell to keep him in your life.”

“I never felt like I left him. I escaped…. But I wonder, do we ever heal? Is there a place that is just so ravaged, that there’s no moving on? I don’t know.”

“He took away the person I was. I have had to reinvent a new me. It was like a death.”

 ~By an eHow Contributing Writer

When someone close to you has narcissistic personality disorder,
you can feel like you’re the one who’s mentally ill. A narcissist
manipulates you and everyone else around him to maintain his own sense
of worth. Though people with narcissistic personality disorder are often
highly intelligent and charming, they’re much like toddlers in
their emotional development, insisting that they are the center of the
world.

Instructions

1. Step 1

   Realize that narcissistic personality disorder is a real
   disorder that makes the one suffering from it behave in ways that aren’t
   typical of an average person. At the same time, a narcissist attempts
   to make you feel like you’re the one with a problem, if not a full-blown
   mental illness.

2. Step 2

   Understand that the nature of the disorder makes it nearly
   impossible for a person suffering from it to seek treatment. If he does
   seek treatment, it’s highly unlikely that he’ll change his ways.
   Instead, he will often attempt to use what his therapist says to
   discredit and devalue other people in his life.

3. Step 3

   Decide to have no contact with the narcissist, if possible.
   Because you can’t change the narcissist, you should stay away from him
   to keep your own mental health and stability. Ignore him in social
   settings, don’t answer the door if he shows up at your house, don’t
   answer the phone when he calls and don’t return emails. If you live with
   him and it’s possible, either move out or demand that he does.

4. Step 4

   Avoid discussions with the narcissist unless you have a
   witness and the discussion is absolutely required, such as for legal
   reasons. People with narcissistic personality disorder are masters of
   manipulation whether it’s actively manipulating you or twisting your
   words so they mean something other than what you actually intend.

5. Step 5

   Join a support group to help you realize you’re not alone.
   While those around you who know the person with narcissistic personality
   disorder may be taken in by his charm and think you’re the one with a
   problem, other people who’ve had close relationships with narcissists
   share your experience and can help you feel stronger.

6. Step 6

   Attend therapy to heal from the abuse you suffered at the
   hands of the narcissist. Most narcissists are also abusers, generally
   abusing you emotionally until you feel like a deeply flawed person. They
   may also be physical abusers. A skilled therapist can help you recover
   from the abuse and return to feeling like yourself again.

7. Step 7

   Figure out why you were so drawn to the person with
   narcissistic personality disorder so you can avoid it in the future.
   Narcissists are generally charming people who seem to be
   larger-than-life, who exude excitement and who may offer excessive
   compliments. At the same time, though, you can often perceive that they
   lack genuine emotion and engagement even when you first meet them.

Here are some signs of Narcissistic Personality Disorder to look out for:
(If you’re reading this and feeling sick…. It’s time to end it.)

More on this subject to follow!

• Jealousy and possessiveness
• Excessive need to feel special, adored, loved, appreciated, or admired
• Rage attacks when you do not sufficiently meet his/her needs
• Controlling behaviors (trying to control how you spend your time, who you talk to, how you dress, etc.)
• Inflated self-esteem, or grandiosity (bragging, “fishing” for compliments)
• Dramatic, insecure behaviors
• Expecting you to take responsibility for making him/her feel better about him/herself
• Blaming you for behaviors or feelings (i.e., “YOU made me do this,” or “YOU made me feel this way.”)
• Not taking responsibility for angry behavior and justifying angry outbursts
• An attitude that demonstrates “the world revolves around me” and “you need to cater to my ideas, opinions, thoughts, and feelings.”
• An unwillingness to reflect on his/her own behaviors
  

Federal IBD Funding in Jeopardy

Wednesday, March 17, 2010 at 4:00am

The 2011 federal budget is currently set up to cut funding for the IBD Epidemiology Program administered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This program has been running for the last 5 years, but is now in danger of being lost.The Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America (CCFA) is organizing a campaign to let legislators know that we want this funding to continue because it is an important part of learning more about IBD. Congress will be voting on this budget, so it is important that we all let our senators and representatives know that this program is too important to cut.

The CCFA has set up a system that makes it very easy for you to contact your Senators and Representative by email. You can even add a picture of yourself to let them know you’re a real person dealing with digestive disease. Contact your legislators now.

Federal IBD Funding in Jeopardy originally appeared on About.com Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) on Wednesday, March 17th, 2010 at 08:00:36.

Historically, Crohn’s disease has been difficult to diagnose. In part, this is because its symptoms are similar to those of other bowel disorders, including ulcerative colitis and irritable bowel syndrome. A larger problem is that the small intestine has been difficult to examine using traditional methods.

Mayo Clinic has been instrumental in developing advanced imaging techniques that make it possible for doctors to thoroughly inspect the small bowel and was one of the first major medical institutions to use them.

Your doctor may order other tests, including simple laboratory tests and traditional endoscopy procedures. Over time, you may also need tests to monitor the disease and to watch for complications and side effects of medications.

Laboratory Tests

If you have symptoms of Crohn’s disease, you’re likely to begin by having one or more noninvasive laboratory tests, including blood tests to check for anemia and infection, liver function tests to screen for liver and bile duct problems, and stool studies to rule out bacterial, viral and parasitic infections.

Endoscopy

The next step in diagnosis at Mayo Clinic is usually a visual examination of the colon itself using an endoscope, a thin, flexible tube with a lighted camera inside its tip. The camera sends magnified images of the colon lining to a television screen. A sigmoidoscopy is an endoscopic examination of the lower third of your large intestine — the sigmoid colon. A colonoscopy is a more complete test that looks at your entire colon, sometimes including the very end of the small intestine (ileum). During endoscopic procedures, your surgeon usually removes one or more small tissue samples (biopsies) and sends them to a pathologist for further study.

In some cases, you may also have an endoscopic ultrasound (EUS), which uses an ultrasound probe attached to an endoscope to view problems deep within the intestine. EUS can diagnose fistulas — abnormal tunnels that develop between loops of intestine or between the intestine and other organs — and provides precise information about the location and size of unexplained bleeding. Mayo doctors have offered EUS for more than two decades and are among the most experienced in the world in endoscopic ultrasound techniques.

Mayo Clinic physicians have also been leaders in studying and using capsule endoscopy, another noninvasive procedure for evaluating the small intestine. The test is performed using a capsule endoscope, a device about the size of a large pill. The endoscope is composed of a strong light source, tiny camera and transmitter. Once swallowed, the endoscope travels through your digestive tract, taking thousands of pictures and transmitting them to a recorder that you wear around your waist.

Because capsule endoscopy views the entire 30-foot length of the small intestine, it can help find problems beyond the reach of traditional endoscopic procedures. In addition, the clarity of its images allows doctors to detect problems missed by other diagnostic methods. Read more on capsule endoscopy.

If you have unexplained bleeding that can’t be found by other methods, your doctor may perform a double balloon enteroscopy, a procedure that uses a scope equipped with two balloons to look at most of the small intestine. The balloons inflate inside the digestive tract, allowing a clear view inside folds of tissue.

Radiology Tests

CT and MR enterography are novel, noninvasive imaging techniques that allow doctors to see intestinal inflammation, abscesses and fistulas in the small bowel. Doctors in Mayo’s Inflammatory Bowel Disease Clinics now routinely use both imaging techniques. Noninvasive imaging has proven far more effective than traditional barium studies in detecting Crohn’s disease and its complications. It also helps your physician make treatment decisions and decide when surgery may be needed.

• Multiphase CT enterography: Multiphase CT enterography uses very fast CT scanning and a contrast dye to obtain detailed cross-sectional images of the abdomen. Mayo Clinic radiologists were instrumental in developing this procedure and have done more than 3,000 CT enterographies. Unlike a conventional CT scan, CT enterography provides an exceptional view of the small intestine. Read more on multiphase CT enterography.
• MR enterography (MRE): MRE uses a magnetic field and radio waves rather than radiation to create high contrast images of the small intestine as well as to locate problems outside the bowel. MRE spares patients exposure to ionizing radiation found in X-rays and CT scans. It’s especially important for tracking the progress of Crohn’s disease in younger patients, who may otherwise be exposed to undue amounts of radiation over a lifetime.

Possible cure found for Crohn’s disease

Pioneering stem cell treatment involves ‘rebooting’ patient’s immune system

• Denis Campbell as found on guardian.co.uk,
  Wednesday 24 June 2009 11.39 BST

People suffering from the debilitating bowel condition Crohn’s disease may be cured using a groundbreaking stem cell treatment, according to the British doctor leading the research.

Initial findings from the world’s first controlled trial of the procedure have raised hopes that it could banish the disease’s symptoms for many years in up to half of the patients who undergo it.

The pioneering therapy involves “rebooting” the patient’s immune system by first destroying the cells that have attacked the body’s immune system to cause the Crohn’s, and then replacing them.

Prof Chris Hawkey, a gastroenterologist at Nottingham University, is leading the Autologous Stem Cell Transplantation in Crohn’s Disease (Astic) trial. So far 15 patients from six European countries, including three Britons, have taken part, though others are being recruited.

“I’m hopeful that half or more of the partients that undergo stem cell transplantation may either be cured or have a long-term remission,” Hawkey said. “We think it’s likely that about 50% of people [in the trial] will be cured. We are encouraged. We have a lot of patients that seem to be very well.”

Hawkey, other specialist doctors and patients involved in the trial will today meet Alastair Darling, the chancellor, to press for the NHS to offer better treatment across the UK to the estimated 60,000 people who have Crohn’s and the 140,000 who suffer from colitis, a similar condition.

Crohn’s is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease that typically strikes teenagers and those in their 20s. A lifelong condition, it causes ulceration and inflammation of the digestive tract and is incurable. Existing treatments all involve drugs, which help sufferers control their symptoms but do not offer a cure. It wrecks lives because its embarrassing and painful symptoms – including diarohhea, stomach pains, fatigue and weight loss – can mean that those with the most severe form of Crohn’s find it hard to go to school or college, hold down a job or plan a holiday. It is those most acute sufferers who will benefit if the early promise of the Astic trial translates into a viable treatment.

The stem cell treatment, which takes two years, is very painful for patients, and involves risks including bleeding, infection and a 1-2% chance of death. The stem cell transplantation is used to kill off the patient’s old bone marrow that produces the harmful cells which cause the Crohn’s and generate new healthy cells.

Riding instructor Laura Hancock is one of the three Britons who are taking part in the trial. She had severe sickness and stomach pains after the chemotherapy element of the treatment as well as aching bones caused by injections of growth factor. The pain led to her also suffering lack of sleep, back pain and loss of energy. Ultimately, however, she benefitted from what proved an uncomfortable experience

She told the recent annual general meeting of the National Association for Colitis and Crohn’s: “Three months down the line I felt much better and I’m back to my normal energy levels. My recent colonoscopy showed that the Crohn’s disease seems to be quite under control.”

Helen Terry of the NACC said: “It’s not a pleasant treatment for patients because it’s painful and carries certain risks. It’s not an easy option. But it holds out the prospect of an effective treatment for some people with Crohn’s, for whom other, drug-based treatments have proved ineffective. It could mean that people are able to get their conditions under control and get their lives back. We hope that this will prove to be an effective treatment for patients.”

The study has been funded by the Broad Foundations, the Los Angeles-based venture philanthropy organisation run by Eli Broad, one of America’s biggest philanthropoists, and his wife Edythe. But Hawkey has applied for further funding, with which to finish the trial, to the UK Stem Cell Foundation, which is trying to progress stem cell techniques from laboratories to actual use in treating patients. It is due to make its decision next month.