Category: Depression

Support Subtypes

To support someone is to render assistance.  The person in need of assistance may be overwhelmed with physical tasks, cognitive demands or emotional reaction(s).  The act of supporting another person may be divided along these lines.  To assist others with physical labor speaks for itself.  It is the most observable of the support subtypes, and the outcome lends itself to measurement.  To offer cognitive/thinking assistance is typically less obvious than direct physical support.  It is still observable and the outcome is measurable.  The offer of emotional support is the least observable and its effect is typically difficult to measure.  This begs the question whether the subtype of emotional support is of less worth than physical and cognitive support.

The difficulty in observing and measuring emotional support may account for its discounted importance.  If you help a neighbor erect a barn, that barn will stand as a monument to your physical support for many years.  If you assist an aged relative with their finances, their continued independence is a monument to your provision of cognitive support.  If you spend hours wiping away the tears of a recently widowed neighbor, rendering them emotional support, how will you know if it was helpful?  Perhaps it did not help them work through the grieving process, whatsoever.  Perhaps the emotional support merely encouraged them to wallow in self-pity.

This is a similar issue as those who suffer with chronic pain.  Unless others are able to physically visualize the damaged body part, they will tend to progressively discount the suffering of the afflicted over time.  Even if someone spends a thousand percent more time lending emotional over physical support, most people will only be aware of and reward the results seen with their own eyes.  This is to be expected and has good face validity.  There is a greater level of confidence if something is seen rather than inferred or communicated symbolically.  It is as if the world states,”It’s nice you held their hand, but what did you really do for them?”

Perhaps it is less the global worth of each support subtype, than what type of support would be most helpful at a given moment in time.  After a bout of incontinence, it is better to clean the person’s undergarments than hold their hand.  It may be helpful to hold their hand after the garments are cleaned, but the primary need for physical support is quite clear.  On the other hand, if a relative is already placed in a nursing facility, the act of giving physical support may be discouraged by the facility.  The relative worth of a nursing center is realized in its ability to provide physical support.  Most nursing centers encourage significant others to provide cognitive and emotional support.  The provision of cognitive support is typically managed by a relative acting as a power of attorney.  This type of support is cannot be provided by an institution, since it would be a conflict of interest.  The role of social work is to offer both cognitive and emotional support, but all to often, nursing facilities lack a sufficient number of social workers to offer emotional support.  Their hands are full with admission and discharge paper work, which is of critical importance, but limits the time they may employ in what is regarded as support of a secondary nature.
Just ensure that the website is secure to sell wouroud.com cialis uk no prescription. Have a great time with your partner and can decrease your quality of life. cialis sale uk continue reading address generic viagra australia If they do not provide you with a means to unsubscribe, then the emails they are sending you are considered spam. Depending on what is causing your premature ejaculations, number of prescriptions can be given to you. viagra uk
Modern nursing facilities often look to activities therapy staff to provide emotional support, or at least distraction from emotional issues.  This is not the task most of these staff were trained to perform, and it may distract them from the primary mission of providing cognitive stimulation.  It is as if emotional support were a bastard child that is placed with increasingly distant relatives.  Because of these complications, the role of emotional support tends to fall squarely on the shoulders of friends and family.  The most common mistake of the family is to offer physical support in lieu of emotional.  Many family members are critical of the physical support received by their loved one, and often jump in to change or clean the resident of a nursing facility.  This is commonly the result of a guilty conscious.  The caretaker is unable to provide effective care for their loved one in their own home.  In this situation, the relation is providing physical support in an effort to achieve personal emotional support for their own guilt.  Offering physical support to an institutionalized person is rarely appreciated by the person, and is actively discouraged by the nursing center.  It is not the type of support needed from friends and family of an institutionalized person.

The act of providing emotional support is largely measured in the negative.  For example, the resident is not depressed or the resident is not acting-out aggressively.  If the resident is compliant and seemingly happy, it is presumed they are receiving adequate emotional support.  Conversely, if an institutionalized person is depressed or hostile, a lack of familial support is often assumed by the staff.  Emotional support is typically measured by the absence of emotional problems.  This is an inaccurate and sometimes dangerous inference.  All too often smiling friendly people fall to tears after a five minutes of unstructured conversation.  A person’s facial expression and behavior are important clues into their emotional life, but are not by any means a road map.

Unlike physical and cognitive support, do not expect others to acknowledge or appreciate the provision of emotional support.  It typically lacks the emergent and observable nature of physical and cognitive support.  The importance of emotional support assumes a back seat to physical and cognitive support when a person lives in the community.  It moves to the front seat when they reside in an institution.  The individual needs of a person will define the subtype and possible worth of a supportive intervention.   The nature and magnitude of their needs are highly dependent on the environment.  Regardless of the particular environment, though, it is rarely wrong to offer emotional support.  Managing the finances of a independent clear thinking person is usually wrong.  Changing your mother’s bandage in the hospital is always wrong, and may result in the prohibition of further visits.  Offering sympathy is rarely rewarded, and it may not be critically necessary, but it is almost always correct.  How can something be considered of little worth if it always has some value?

Got Gut?

This article will effect you at the gut level.  I have a gut feeling that you will learn something from this article.  Reading this article feels like a sock in the gut-and so on.  Popular expressions are replete with references to the gut.  Things felt at the “gut level” are believed to be especially true.  It is as if the gut contains a sort of ancient wisdom.  What the gut does contain is bacteria-lots of it.  Research increasingly suggests that the interaction between this bacteria and the brain plays a larger role in mood and behavior than previously imagined.

Dr. Siri Carpenter addressed current GI research in the September issue of the APA “Monitor.”  She wrote that about 100 million neurons are embedded in the lining of the gut.  Even if the neural connection between the brain and gut (vagus nerve) is severed, the gut will continue to function without regulation from the brain.  The gut produces neurochemicals that affect brain function in the absence of any direct neural connection.  It may be true that the gut influences the brain more than the brain influences the gut.

Most of the research cited by Dr. Carpenter is, as usual, confined to rodent populations.  Scientists have been able to make the same group of mice be calm, anxious, adventurous or timid by adjusting the bacteria in their gut.  They have even transplanted gut bacteria from one group of mice to another; in effect transplanting the behavioral features of each group as well.  The change in rodent group behavior does not necessarily require transplanting all the bacteria within the gut.  The addition or subtraction of only one bacterial strain may profoundly alter rodent behavior.
This herbal levitra without rx supplement is developed under the supervision of a doctor. Moreover, it increases the risk of sexually transmitted diseases like syphilis, gonorrhea have levitra 10 mg http://deeprootsmag.org/category/features/interviews/ connection with feculent sexual intercourse. Some actors are doing it correctly, like James get viagra cheap deeprootsmag.org Earl Jones, Kate Beckinsale, George Clooney, Ed Harris, Julia Ormond, and Kathleen Turner. It has very fewer side effects order generic cialis so it won’t hamper the new born or the pregnant lady.
The influence of the gut on the brain is only one side of the street.  Many studies with monkeys and humans have demonstrated that elevated stress may suppress beneficial bacteria in the gut.  Chronically stressed monkeys exhibit an overall decreased diversity of bacteria in their gut, which allows the harmful bacteria to flourish.  These stressed-out monkeys are more susceptible to infection and inflammation within their gut.  Once an infection has begun, the gut produces cytokines that promote inflammation.  These inflammatory chemicals disrupt brain biochemistry in a way that may increase vulnerability to anxiety and depression.  The “Monitor” article explained that more than half the people who suffer with GI disorders also suffer with clinically significant anxiety or depression.  Many clinicians believe the prevalence of depression or anxiety in GI disorders is closer to seventy five percent.

This research may have a profound effect on the way clinicians treat both chronic GI distress and psychiatric problems.  Psychology may become the treatment of choice for Irritable Bowel Syndrome.  Some forms of depression and anxiety may be treated with an infusion of probiotic bacteria.  While empirically validated treatments may be years away, it does present interesting options for the present.  Those who suffer with chronic GI distress should consider treatment of their depressive or anxiety disorder symptoms, since a change in brain chemistry may decrease their physical suffering.  Conversely, people who suffer with chronic anxiety and/or depression might consider a healthy change in their diet before making a trip to the shrink.  If the options seem confusing…just listen to your gut.