Women Personality and Mental Health

In 1997, 22 year old Heidi Gunther died of a heart attack during a vacation trip with her family. She was at the time a ballet dancer for the Boston Ballet. Heidi suffered from an eating disorder called Anorexia Nervosa.

Anorexia is a life threatening psychological condition where a person believes he or she is too obese, never thin enough, resulting in self starvation and excessive exercising to the point of malnutrition. This condition seems to be more prevalent among teenage girls and young women but not exclusively. Cases have also been found among men, young children, and even some women as old as sixty. It is characterized by extremely low body weight, and a distorted sense of self perception.
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The most common eating disorders are Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia. Eating Disorders are not solely disorders of eating. They are often described as an outwared expression of internal emotional pain and confusion, which is disruptive to your physical and emotional well-being. Although eating disorders are on the increase, we still know very little about their causes.

Individuals with eating disorders are obsessed with food, body image and weight loss. Eating disorders are more prominent in women, but male eating disorders are more common than many think. It may be harder for men and people of color to acknowledge or get help, because eating disorders are often seen as a “white woman’s” issue. Eating disorders are much easier to prevent than cure, and parents are in the best position to do that work. Read more!

Autism, or Autistic Spectrum Disorder, is a developmental disorder that affects the way a person communicates with and relates to the people around them. It is usually first noticed when a child reaches the age of about three and is basically identified by considering the ‘triad of impairments’. These are three areas of difficulty for the autistic person and are social relationships, communication, and imagination and planning.

The autistic person may appear aloof and indifferent to those around them. They may be sociable with one person, but unable to function in a group. Communication difficulties include no understanding or use of verbal or non-verbal communication. A common characteristic is an unwillingness to look people in the eye. Impairment of imagination may lead to limited, repetitive play, copying others or problems discerning between fact and fantasy. Read more!

Recognizing Emerging Borderline Personality Disorder.

By definition, a person suffering from borderline personality disorder, fears being abandoned and will do just about anything to prevent this. For example, self-manipulation, by slashing arms or legs, repeated overdosing, delinquency, sexual promiscuity, addictions and other self-destructive acts.
They will experience feelings known as “splitting”. They will see a person as being only “good” one day and only “bad” the next, as they are unable to distinguish that there is both bad and good in everyone. Read more!

What is it good for? Stress-related conditions and pain relief, especially during labour and dental work. Also for overcoming addictions, phobias, irritable bowel syndrome, anxiety, eating disorders and sexual confidence problems.

What happens when I go? The therapist will create a relaxing atmosphere. You then go into a trance, your heartbeat and breathing slow down, and you feel very relaxed. The therapist then makes statements to address your problem.

How does it work? The conscious, rational part of the brain is bypassed, making the subconscious part receptive to suggestions.
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Worrying about your job, family, money, and relationship can cause any women to lose sleep. It’s even worse for cancer patients who are often in pain or must wake up in the middle of the nigh to take medications. Yoga may help you sleep.

Researchers from the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center found that cancer patients who practiced Tibetan yoga were able to sleep better at nigh. The technique involves controlled breathing, slow movements and holding postures, meditation, and visualization. Read more!

A phobia is irrational fear in which the person begins to either avoid that circumstance or approach it with intense anxiety. It’s an anxiety disorder type that can begin at any age but it’s the most common psychiatric illness among women of all ages and the second-most common illness in men above the age of 25.

The onset of a phobia may be tied to a traumatic event, but often there is no such trigger, or the cause is subtle. Sometimes an event that triggers a phobia event doesn’t even need to be experienced directly to develop into a phobia. People can develop a fear of flying, (aviophobia), just from hearing about a scary and bumpy plane ride a friend experienced.
Most people with a phobia will always try to do what they can to avoid the situation they dread. It is when a fear has seriously disrupted one’s way of life that he or she seeks help. Read more!

There are many reasons for some people to become afraid of flying, such as strong turbulence during a flight, a panic attack on a plane, continuing media emphasis on “scary flying stories” leads you to become afraid, or maybe a traumatic event that unrelated to flying which shortly before a flight.

Basically there are two kinds of fears people experience about flying: fears of crashing and dying; and claustrophobic fears of being “trapped” in the airplane once the door is shut.
Fearful flyers thus try to feel better by trying to feel “in control” of various aspects of the flight experience. Since the flight is really not under their control, this striving for control makes them more afraid, not less. Read more!