“KMK, do you even learn to do redundancy check when you write?” If you are referring to the title, you’ll see why in a few minutes of reading my explanations below. In reality, there are some relationships those never go beyond the attraction stage, and there are some that deepen to friendship and lead to true love. Social psychologists have described three types of love: Romantic love, Affectionate love, and Consummate love.

Romantic love: It is also known as passionate love. It often prevails in the early part of a love relationship and has strong works of sexuality and obsession (Hendrick & Hendrick, 2004; Metts, 2004). It is the type of love referred to when we say we are in love with someone. What triggers this type love? Sexual desires are the main factors in leading us into romantic love and the main reason why we get married. Complex emotions are involved: fear, sexual desire, anger, jealousy, and joy, etc…

Affectionate love: It is also known as companionate love. It is the type of love that occurs when someone has deep caring affection for a person and wants him/her to be near for comfort. Affectionate love is what romantic love turns into once love matures (Berschield & Reis, 1998). The excitement sin exploring the novelty of another person as in romantic love has decreased and is now replaced by familiarity. Lovers at this stage either have deeply caring relationships or a distressed one full of loneliness, boredom, disappointment, hostility, etc…

Consummate love: It is the strongest, fullest stage of love consisting of passion, intimacy, and commitment (Robert J. Sternberg, 1998): Passion – physical and sexual attraction to another; Intimacy – emotional feelings of sharing, caring, closeness, and warmth; Commitment – concrete view of the relationship and intension to maintain it regardless of situations.

So are you in love, in love or in love?

By: Kaung | ChitChat247.com | KMKBlog.com

1. Long-Term, Predisposing Causes
2. Biological Causes
3. Phobias
4. Short-Term Triggering Causes
5. Maintaining Causes
6. Lack of Assertiveness
7. Medications
8. Hyperventilation Syndrome
9. Situation Specific Panic Attacks
10. Pharmacological Triggers

Long-Term, Predisposing Causes

Long term causes are known as heredity; panic disorder, the repeated and persistent panic attacks states, has been found to run in generations of the families, which conveys that inheritance genes play a crucial role in choosing the next victim in the families. However there are also results of people with no family history developing panic disorder as well. Environmental factors can bring cumulative stress over time to an individual growing up, leading the individual to develop the disorder, which can become long-term and persistent.

Biological Causes

Biological causes are either due to Vitamin B deficiency. Vitamin B deficiency is the result of poor diet or the depletion is due to a parasitic infection from a tapeworm, which in turn trigger anxiety attacks. How can a person acquire efficient amount of Vitamin B? The natural sources of Vitamin B are potatoes, chili peppers, bananas, liver, liver oil, tuna, turkey, molasses, and yeast. Although beer can be considered to be a type of yeast, filtered beers and alcohol can interfere with the activation of the vitamins in the body.

Phobias

Phobia, an absurd, extreme, continual fear of certain situations, things, activities, or people can also directly trigger panic attacks. A list of phobias, their terms and meaning can be found at PhobiaList.com.

Short-Term Triggering Causes

Unlike long-term causes, short-term causes are not the result of heredities, but rather the result of emotional, environmental factors of due to drug abuses. Major personal loss, including an emotional affection to a romantic partner, spouse or significant other, life changes, significant life changes, stimulants such as caffeine and nicotine, or the drug abuses of marijuana can trigger panic attacks and are all short-term causes.

Maintaining Causes

If a person worries a lot about a situation, an event or the environments, increase in anxiety disorder can result. Avoidance of panic infuriating events and environments, nervous negative self-talks such as too much thinking on what if this happens or what if that happens, stubborn beliefs such as falsely believing the symptoms are of a severe disease, and lack of assertiveness can indirectly build anxieties and cause panic attacks.

Lack of Assertiveness

People with passive communication styles of being polite and respectful all the time can be characterized as being unassertive. This unassertive way of communication can lead to panic attacks, and be consistently present in those who are already experiencing panic attacks, and later grow to panic disorder. For instance, no person can be unemotional towards outside harsh impressions and comments; those who always act to be polite and respectful inside may have their feeling hurt deep down inside and compilation of feelings to oneself can build up one’s anxieties toward a situation, later leading to panic attacks.

Medications

Panic attacks can also result form the side effects of medications. Almost all the antidepressants can increase anxieties during the initial usage period, and it is common for inexperienced patients to have panic attacks while accustoming to or off the medication. Panic attacks resulting from medications may be a temporary side effect only effecting during the initial usage of the medication or it could continue whenever there is a necessity for the patient to change medication due to resistance evolvement to the current one.

Hyperventilation Syndrome

Hyperventilation is when the breathing become faster and/or deeper than usual, reducing the carbon dioxide concentration of the blood below usual. Hyperventilation can cause symptoms such as numbness, tingling, dizziness, headache, slurred speech, chest pain, and lightheadedness which can trigger panic attacks. Increase in breathing rate, can cause over breathing, where excess carbon dioxide in relation to the amount of oxygen in the blood flow is exhaled. Hyperventilation syndrome can cause respiratory alkalosis (a condition reducing hydrogen ion concentration of arterial blood plasma) and hypocapnia (a state of reduced carbon dioxide in the blood).

Situation Specific Panic Attacks

Classical conditioning, association of certain situations with panic attacks, due to experience with one in the past, can create a behaviorally or cognitive predisposition to having panic attacks at the same certain situation as before. For instance, forgetting of the words for the speech, and getting laughed at can trigger panic attacks if the person were to make a speech the next time.

Pharmacological Triggers

Similar to the side effects of medication, pharmacological triggers can also contribute to panic attacks. Certain chemical substances, such as stimulants and certain depressants, can either contribute pharmacologically to a collection of frustrations, and as the result triggering the panic attacks or even a panic disorder. Pharmacological triggers also include caffeine, alcohol, amphetamine and many other biologically effecting substances.

By: Kaung | ChitChat247.com | KMKBlog.com

The symptoms of panic attacks involve physical, mental, environmental, and perceptual symptoms.

Physical
• A sensation of adrenaline going through your entire body
• Burning sensations
• Chest pain
• Choking or smothering sensations
• Dizziness or vertigo
• Exhaustion
• Feeling of claustrophobia
• Feeling of physical weakness or limpness of the body
• Grinding teeth or tensing other muscles repeatedly or for prolonged periods of time
• Headache
• Hot/cold flashes
• Hyperventilation
• Lightheadedness
• Nausea / stomach pains
• Racing or pounding heartbeat or palpitations
• Shortness of breath (dyspnea)
• Sweating
• Tingling or numbness in the hands, face, feet or mouth (paresthesia)
• Trembling or shaking
• Uncontrollable crying
• Uncontrollable itching

Mental
• Intense and/or frightening realizations of reality
• Extreme worried feeling
• Feeling like you are going to die any second
• Feeling of “going crazy”
• Feeling of anti-social behavior from other people
• Feeling of being threatened by something (often when nothing “threatening” is present)
• Feeling of excitement
• Feeling of extreme nervousness
• Feeling of impending doom
• Feeling of nagging from other people
• Feeling out of control
• Loss of cognitive ability in general
• Loss of the ability to react logically to stimuli
• Loud internal dialogue
• Racing thoughts (often based on fear; a repeated or illogical worry)
• Vision is somewhat impaired (eyes may feel like they are shaking.)

Emotional
• Terror, or a sense that something unimaginably horrible is about to occur and one is powerless to prevent it
• Becoming upset (either angry or sad)
• Extreme anxiety or nervousness
• Fear of death
• Fear of going crazy
• Fear of living
• Fear of losing control
• Fear that the panic is a symptom of a serious illness
• Fear that the panic will not subside
• Flashbacks to earlier panic trigger[citation needed]
• Intense “scared” feeling
• Uncontrollable crying

Perceptual
• Tunnel vision
• Dissociation, or the perception that one is not connected to the body or is disconnected from space and time (depersonalization)
• Dream-like sensation or perceptual distortion (de-realization)
• Feeling of loss of free will, as if acting entirely automatically without control
• Heightened senses
• The apparent slowing down or speeding up of time

Top 10 causes that trigger panic attacks can be found here.

By: Kaung | ChitChat247.com | KMKBlog.com

Panic attacks are the sudden, unexpected periods of intense anxiety, resulting from the physiological arousal, discomfort and fear which are linked to arrays of cognitive and somatic symptoms. Even though panic attacks may occur suddenly without having apparent triggers and seem to appear random, they all occur due to the evolutionary response known as fight or flight, as first described by Walter Cannon in 1915. The fight or flight response increases secretion of excessive hormones such as epinephrine or adrenaline into the body, which help aiding in being defensive from harm. It may appear that since panic attacks can’t be predicted, its occurrence can’t be that bad, but in reality, experiencing one is the most distressing, disturbing, painful and terrifying experience.

Panic attacks can be as short as a minute to a five minute or as long as the common ten minutes. These are the usual average time lengths, and panic attacks also can be in a cyclic periodical manner, repeating at certain intervals and lasting for extended period up to hours. Panic attacks have different effects on the victims; experienced victims may be able to endure the attack with little to none apparent internal symptoms or external symptoms, but the first time victims may even require calls for emergency services to become comforted. First time victims can also endure added burden of fear while experiencing panic attack because they fear this is the initial symptom of having a heart attack or a nervous breakdown.

What is it feel like to those having panic disorders? Many victims report that the panic attack states are the most terrifying and dreadful experiences of their lives, and that they feel fear, a sense of dying and fainting, feel as though they are going through nervous breakdown and going psycho or experiencing heart attack, have flashing vision, and have the feeling of losing controls of themselves. When these feelings occur during the attack, the victims feel trapped, and their only choice of response is to fight rather than flight.

Why panic attacks occur and what are their symptoms? Panic attacks are the response of the sympathetic nervous system also known as SNS. SNS is a subdivision of the autonomic nervous system, and is always active at a basal level and it increases the activity during the times of depression or stress. Once SNS becomes more active, fight or flight response is also triggered. The most common symptoms of panic attacks include:

• Trembling
• Heart Palpitations
• Chest pain
• Dyspnea
• Hot or cold flashes
• Burning sensations
• Nausea
• Extreme sweating
• Hyperventilation
• Parasthesias
• Choking/Smothering sensations
• Feeling that everything in the surroundings is not real

All the above symptoms can result in increased anxiety, which leads to positive panic attack, and due to the panic attacks, these symptoms occur; it is like a loop between the two.

How panic attacks are different from other forms of anxiety? Panic attacks are more intense and have cyclic or episodic natures. They are most of the times in concurrence with anxiety disorders and other psychological conditions. The victims of panic attacks can’t be categorized as having a mental disorder, however there is a possibility.

Symptoms of Panic Attacks can be found here

By: Kaung | ChitChat247.com | KMKBlog.com

How can mood disorders be treated? A combination of medication and psychotherapy is the most effective treatment for all types of mood disorders. There are four classes of drugs used in treatments; Heterocyclic antidepressants (HCAs), Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI inhibitors), Monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOI inhibitors), Mood stabilizers (Dinsmoor, R.S., 2006). Psychotherapy approaches can also be used to treat mood disorders. Interpersonal psychotherapy can be used to help the patient interact between his/her mood disorder and interpersonal relationships.

A number of psychotherapy approaches are useful as well. Interpersonal psychotherapy helps the patient recognize the interaction between the mood disorder and interpersonal relationships. Cognitive therapy is useful to help patients change their perceptions, attitudes, patterns of thinking, and the views on the surrounding; from negative to positive views. When depression can’t be treated and the patients start to show suicidal behaviors, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) can be used. ECT is the treatment in which electrical current is passed through the brain to create a brief convulsion. Neurologist can also help in some cases where cures by monitoring neurotransmitters are necessary along with serotonin regulation for mood disorders.

It is advisable for an individual to consult with an expert if the “bad mood” becomes persistent and frequent to a point where it starts to interfere with the daily patterns such as the sleep cycle, socializing, thoughts and decision making because if untreated beforehand, it can lead to depression, server mood disorders or even suicide.

First Part I of this article can be found here

By: Kaung | ChitChat247.com | KMKBlog.com

What can cause the mood disorders? Biological, psychological, and sociocultural factors can trigger the mood disorders.

Biological factors get involved from four perspectives; heredity, neurobiological abnormalities, neurotransmitter deregulation, and hormones. Mood disorders tend to run in families, and the greatest risk of inheriting and developing the disorder is having a biological parent who is suffering from the mood disorders. Bipolar disorder is more common to develop than the depressive disorder in families. Neurobiological abnormalities can also lead to mood disorders, and they are due to altered brain wave activity during sleep. Individuals with such altered wave activity experience less slow wave sleep, which is crucial to feel rested and refreshed, and thus they feel fatigue all the time and have sleeping problems. Depression is caused by the change in brain activity due to amygdala; amygdala helps as storage for the emotionally charged memories. Prefrontal cortex of the brain should signal amygdala to slow down in recalling those memories, but during depression, it failed to send clear signal to amygdala leading to continuous recalling of emotionally charged memories. According to Manji and Drevets, 2001, neuron deaths and disability can also trigger neurobiological abnormalities leading to mood disorders. Neurotransmitter deregulation can also cause mood disorder because imbalance in monoamine such as norephinephrine, serotonin, and dopamine can lead to both depression and mania depending on imbalance direction; too low or too much respectively. Lastly, hormones are also responsible; depressed individuals have persistent hyperactivity in endocrine system, which is impossible to return to normal functioning. Since endocrine system function does not return to normal, excess hormones produced by neuroendocrine glands in turn lead to neurotransmitter deregulation.

Psychological factors also get involved from three perspectives; psychodynamic explanation, behavioral explanations, and cognitive explanations. From psychodynamic view point, childhood experiences cause mood disorders. An individual may have childhood experiences preventing him/her from developing independence and positive sense of self, and grows up depending on others’ views; if the environment brings negative views on that individual, mood disorder is triggered. Additionally, depression can also be viewed as turning inward of aggressive instincts (Freud, 1917) because if an individual is suppressed from expressing feelings out loud in earlier ages, those feelings will get built up inside exploding internally. From behavioral view point, stresses experienced in life can reduce the positive reinforcers, leading to depression. To avoid stress, individuals may withdraw themselves from the stressful events, which further lead to more withdrawal and increase in reduction of positive reinforcers. When they are exposed to prolonged stress due to withdrawals, they face the state of apathy and unresponsiveness and feel hopeless and helpless (Seligman, 1975). From cognitive view point mood disorder evolved in an individual because the person keeps having negative views and rarely think positive, which leads to interpretation of own life as a horrible with negative expectations. Also as from behavioral view point, accumulation of negative views and stress can make a person become hopeless and helpless further causing higher level of depressions or mania or mood disorders.

Lastly, sociocultural factors get involved from four perspectives as well; interpersonal relationships, socioeconomic and ethic factors, cultural variations, and gender. Interpersonal relationships such as loss of a loved one, troublesome relationships with parents or friends while growing up, insecurities, lack of affection and love can give rise to negative thoughts to an individual triggering mood disorder. Socioeconomic and ethnic factors also play an important role, especially to immigrants and foreigners from developing countries dwelling in modernized countries; struggling to get out of poverty and having low socioeconomic status, lead to hopelessness, and alcoholism, causing mood disorders. In contrast to socioeconomic factors, depressive disorders are low in less industrialized countries and more in modernized countries. I know that also form my experience because in less industrialized countries, there are more family times because the standard of living is not that hard to reach, however in modernized countries, for some families it is hard to keep up to earn enough just to have food on table due to socioeconomic and ethnical factors. All of these can cause disorders in a long run.

What treatment can be used for the mood disorders? – Part III can be found here

By: Kaung | ChitChat247.com | KMKBlog.com

According to a medical dictionary, mood is the persistent feeling and internal emotional state of an individual, which can noticeably affect all aspects of the individual’s behaviors or opinions when impaired. In contrast to emotions, moods are less specific, sometimes less intense and there are no specific stimulus or event triggering it, but they can last longer; emotions such as shocks and admiration last only for a short period of time. Moods can be categorized as positive or negative, and the negative side of them can cause disorders.

A mood disorder, in general, is a psychological disorder characterized by the disturbance of mood (Santrock, 2005) and a condition whereby the existing emotional mood is distorted to the circumstances. The mood disturbance can lead to cognitive, behavioral, physical symptoms, and interpersonal difficulties (Coyne, 2000).

There are two major types of mood disorders and a resulting action due to severity of the disorder; depressive disorder (unipolar depression), bipolar disorder and the suicidal behavior resulting from the severe disorders.

Among the depressive disorder where the individual suffers depression without experiencing mania, there are two subdivided disorders; major depressive disorder (MDD) and dysthymic disorder. MDD is a psychological disorder, characterized by a persistent negative mood, loss of interest in the usual ongoing activities, hopelessness and the inability to experience pleasure. There are nine symptoms conveying the MDD; being depressed most of the day, loss of interest and pleasure in usual activities, noticeable weight and appetite changes, experiencing sleeping disorders, feeling hopeless and tired most of the time, experiencing difficulties in reasoning, and repeating suicidal thoughts. Dysthymic disorder is more chronic and has fewer symptoms than MDD; for a person to be classified as a victim of Dysthymic disorder, the person must have persistent depression and the normal mood lasting for few months should not reoccur. There are six symptoms conveying Dysthymic disorder; change in eating pattern, sleep problems, low energy, low self esteem, poor judgment and concentrations, and feelings of hopelessness. Although the term “depression” is widely used to describe a short-term depressed mood when one feels “blue”, depression, resulting from the mood disorder, is a serious and crucial condition that can significantly affect a person’s life from multiple perspectives. Since depression can be a once in a lifetime or a recurring one, appearing either gradually or suddenly, lasting for a short-term or a life-long, it is a major risk factor for suicide if the disorder become severe.

Bipolar disorder is not a single disorder, but a category of mood disorders characterized by the presence of extreme mood swings and one or more episodes of unusually elevated mood, referred to as mania. Individuals with bipolar disorder feel the opposite of the ones with depression; they feel euphoric and on top of the world (Santrock, 2005) and instead of feeling fatigue, they are full of energies and sleep less. Individuals who experience manic episodes also frequently face depressive episodes or symptoms, or mixed episodes where both mania and depression are present. These episodes are usually separated by periods of normal mood, but some patients undergo and experience rapid cycling; the stage and period during which depression and mania rapidly switch (Mackin, P & Young, AH, 2004). Bipolar disorder can often lead to psychotic symptoms such as delusions and hallucinations. Depending on the type and severity of mood episodes experienced, bipolar disorder like with depressive disorder can be divided into subgroups; bipolar I, bipolar II, Bipolar NOS, and cyclothymia (Nowakowska et al, 2005).

All of the above mood disorders can lead to suicidal behaviors and action if the disorders get worst. Even though it is an abnormal behavior, it is common to those with severe depression to find “easy way outs”.

What can cause the mood disorders? – Part II can be found here

By: Kaung | ChitChat247.com | KMKBlog.com