Life Style Assessment

The best way to validate the usefulness and reliability of lifestyle assessment is through personal experience as a subject of an assessment. You may become more aware of your own perceptions with the aid of a counselor. Even more revealing is to be confronted with a genuine incongruity in one’s experience or expectations, for example, with a coworker, significant other, or similar relationship. Properly done, lifestyle assessment will uncover the source of discomfort in the relationships that challenge a person. They are a part of one’s private convictions, values, and expectations.

Dr. Sunil Kumar                                           Dr. Jayasudha Kamaraj

Clinical Psychologist                                    Counseling Psychologist

Founder                                                         Co-founder

MIND ZONE

psychiatric hospital in chennai

Professional school counselors need not withdraw from helping students with addictions, but rather, school counselors need to be effectively equipped to help students with addictions by being familiar with the warning signs of addiction, being able to effectively screen students for addictions, and then competently refer students to professional therapists specializing in addictions. Mind Zone  contribute to the efficacy and ability of the professional school counselor to support, challenge, help, encourage, and advocate for students with addictive disorders. We help professional school counselors grasp the significance of the digital age students are living in, assess the positive and negative consequences of technology and the Internet, and understand the ever-increasing problem of Internet addiction and a few related addictions. Also, we offers insight into an Adlerian perspective on addiction, gives resourceful information on effective and research-based interventions to be used as models for the effectual treatment of students with addictions, provides screening questions and tools for counselors to used during assessment, and includes a list of warning signs of various addictions in students for school counselors to reference when a potential addiction is suspected.


Dr.Sunil Kumar                                      Dr. Jayasudha Kamaraj
Clinical Psychologist                              Counseling Psychologist
Founder                                                   Co-founder 
MIND ZONE

our sign board in Pudhucherry

Psychiatric hospital in Chennai

CBT FOR ALCOHOLISM

The special strengths that cognitive therapy emphasis on

(1) the identification and modification of beliefs that exacerbate cravings,

(2) the amelioration of negative affective states (e.g., anger, anxiety, and hopelessness) that often trigger drug use,

(3) teaching patients to apply a battery of cognitive and behavioral skills and techniques, and not just willpower, to become and remain drug-free, and

(4) helping patients to go beyond abstinence to make fundamental positive changes in the ways they view themselves, their life, and their future, thus leading to new lifestyles.

Sunil Kumar                                                   Jayasudha Kamaraj
Clinical Psychologist                                      Counseling Psychologist
Founder - Mind Zone                                      Co-founder, Mind Zone
+91 9444 297058                                            +91 91760 55660

factors influencing suicide.....

                         Factors that may increase a person’s risk for suicide include:

•           Current ideation, intent, plan, access to means

•           Previous suicide attempt or attempts

•           Alcohol /Substance abuse

•           Current or previous history of psychiatric diagnosis

•           Impulsivity and poor self control

•           Hopelessness – presence, duration, severity

•           Recent losses – physical, financial, personal

•           Recent discharge from an inpatient psychiatric unit

•           Family history of suicide

•           History of abuse (physical, sexual or emotional)

•           Co-morbid health problems, especially a newly diagnosed problem or worsening symptoms

•           Age, gender, race (elderly or young adult, unmarried, white, male, living alone)

•           Same- sex sexual orientation

Factors that may decrease the risk for suicide are also called protective factors.  These include:

•           Positive social support

•           Spirituality

•           Sense of responsibility to family

•           Children in the home, pregnancy

•           Life satisfaction

•           Reality testing ability

•           Positive coping skills

•           Positive problem-solving skills

•           Positive therapeutic relationship

Sunil Kumar                                                 Jayasudha Kamaraj

Clinical Psychologist                                   Counseling Psychologist

Founder - Mind Zone                                   Co-founder - Mind Zone

+91 9444 297058                                         +91 91760 55660

Myths and Facts of Suicide........

                                             MYTHS ABOUT SUICIDE

There are many myths about suicide and suicidal behavior that have been passed down through generations of healthcare providers that some providers still believe today and may have actually been taught.  Examples of these myths are:

•           Myth: Asking about suicide would plant the idea in my patient's head.

•           Reality: Asking how your patient feels doesn’t create suicidal thoughts any more     than asking how your patient’s chest feels would cause angina.

•           Myth: There are talkers and there are doers.

•           Reality:  Most people who die by suicide have communicated some intent.  Someone who talks about suicide gives the physician an opportunity to intervene before suicidal behaviors occur.

•           Myth: If somebody really wants to die by suicide, there is nothing you can do about it.

•           Reality: Most suicidal ideas are associated with the presence of underlying treatable disorders. Providing a safe environment for treatment of the underlying cause can save lives.  The acute risk for suicide is often time-limited.  If you can help the person survive the immediate crisis and the strong intent to die by suicide, then you will have gone a long way towards promoting a positive outcome.

•           Myth: He/she really wouldn't kill themselves since ______.

•           he just made plans for a vacation

•           she has young children at home

•           he signed a No Harm Contract

•           he knows how dearly his family loves him

•           Reality: The intent to die can override any rational thinking.  In the presence of suicidal ideation or intent, the physician should not be dissuaded from thinking that the patient is capable of acting on these thoughts and feelings.  No Harm or No Suicide contracts have been shown to be essentially worthless from a clinical and management perspective. The anecdotal reports of their usefulness can all be explained by the strength of the alliance with the care provider that results from such a collaborative exchange, not from the specifics of the contract itself.

•           Myth:  Multiple and apparently manipulative self-injurious behaviors mean that the patient is just trying to get attention and are not really suicidal.

•           Reality: Suicide “gestures” require thoughtful assessment and treatment.  Multiple prior suicide attempts increase the likelihood of eventually dying by suicide.   The task is to empathically and non-judgmentally engage the patient in understanding the behavior and finding safer and healthier ways of asking for help.

Sunil Kumar                                                  Jayasudha Kamaraj

Clinical Psychologist                                     Counseling Psychologist

Founder - Mind Zone                                     Co-founder - Mind Zone

+91 9444 297058                                           +91 9176055 660

Warning Signs of Suicide.....

THE FIRST THREE WARNING SIGNS OF SUICIDE ARE:

•           Threatening to hurt or kill self

•           Looking for ways to kill self; seeking access to pills, weapons or other means

•           Talking or writing about death, dying or suicide

 The remaining list of warning signs should alert the clinician that a mental health evaluation needs to be conducted in the VERY near future and that precautions need to be put into place IMMEDIATELY to ensure the safety, stability and security of the individual.

•           Hopelessness

•           Rage, anger, seeking revenge

•           Acting reckless or engaging in risky activities, seemingly without thinking

•           Feeling trapped – like there’s no way out

•           Increasing alcohol or drug abuse

•           Withdrawing from friends, family or society

•           Anxiety, agitation, unable to sleep or sleeping all the time

•           Dramatic changes in mood

•           No reasonfor living, no sense of purpose in life

Other behaviors that may be associated with increased short-term risk for suicide are when the patient makes arrangements to divest responsibility for dependent others (children, pets, elders), or making other preparations such as updating wills, making  financial arrangements for paying bills, saying goodbye to loved ones, etc.

Contact: Mind Zone if you come across any person who are at risk for Suicide...

Sunil Kumar                                        Jayasudha Kamaraj

Clinical Psychologist                          Counseling Psychologist

Founder- Mind Zone                           Co-founder -  Mind Zone

+91 9444 297058                                +91 91760 55660

Anxiety

The prototype of anxiety is the fearof separation from loved ones, initially from the mother, especially in infancy, the period of absolute helplessness. In the Freudian view, anxiety emerges in aloneness and darkness, only because these two situations mean separation, and if it persists throughout life, it becomes neurotic.

 Regardless of the model of anxiety he adopts (i.e., anxiety as a transformation of undischarged libido or anxiety as a signal of a danger), Freud always associated anxiety with traumatic object loss. He wrote (Freud, 1905/1953) that “anxiety in children is originally nothing other than an expression of the fact that they are feeling the loss of the person they love”, and in a later essay (Freud, 1926/1959a), “anxiety appears as the reaction to the felt loss of the object”.  In the course of development, anxiety is determined also by the threat of losing the love of the object. Freud (1926/1959a) distinguished between anxiety as a reaction to the danger of loss and the pain of mourning which is the reaction to the actual loss of the object. Thus, loneliness may be regarded as the painful longing for the lost object or for the loss of the love of the object.

Sunil kumar                                                      Jayasudha Kamaraj

Clinical Psychologist                                        Counseling Psychologist

Founder - Mind Zone                                        Co-founder -  Mind Zone

+91 9444 297058                                              +91 91760 55660

Win Over Your loneliness @ www.mindzone.in

The interpersonal problems and low-quality, unstable relationships of insecurely attached people can easily result in subjective feelings of loneliness. The term loneliness refers to a negative psychological experience that emanates from actual or perceived deficiencies in a person’s relationships and from feelings of deprivation in relation to others.

Loneliness as a “subjective distressing and unpleasant state in which individuals perceive deficiencies in their social world” . These deficiencies are not only quantitative, such as few friends or infrequent social activities, but are also indicative of poor-quality relationships in which people feel a lack of intimacy and emotional closeness as well as feel unloved, unaccepted, not sufficiently cared for, misunderstood, or unvalidated by a relationship partner. In fact, a person can feel lonely while being in a close relationship with a cool, rejecting, inconsistent, or unavailable partner.

Sunil Kumar                                                    Jayasudha Kamaraj
Clinical Psychologist                                       Counseling Psychologist
Founder - Mind Zone                                      Co-Founder - mind zone
+91 9444 297058                                            +91 91760 55660

Assertiveness Training @ Mind Zone

Wanting to be responsibly and effectively assertive is perhaps one of the most universally recognized and desired needs that people have. In one respect our culture requires us to constantly give feedback, receive feedback, and initiate interaction with others. In short, this demands the ability to be appropriately assertive. However, in another respect our cultural patterns prescribe certain behaviors or ways of relating to others, which seem to conflict with the development of assertive skills. Since the need for a person to be able to be assertive is high and the chances for complete acquisition of the skill are rather low, it is not surprising that there has been overwhelming consumer response to participation in assertion training programs.

Goals

This assertiveness workshop is designed to:

1. Help participants acquire the skills basic to effective and responsible assertion.

2. Provide a positive group atmosphere in which participants will feel relatively comfortable in trying out new behavior.

3. Aid participants in developing some understanding of the internal value conflicts they experience when being assertive.

Contact: Mind Zone for Registration  -

Sunil Kumar                                           Jayasudha Kamaraj

Clinical psychologist                             Counseling Psychologist

Founder - Mind Zone                             Co-founder - Mind Zone

+91 9444 297058                                   +91 9176055660

To Quit Smoking ???????? Contact: http://mindzone.in/addiction/

MIND ZONE

http://mindzone.in/addiction/

for information, guidance, advice and practical help for mental health @ www.mindzone.in

In psychiatric and psychological practice, it is often assumed that when people present for an assessment the mere act of attendance suggests that the person has decided that he or she wants ‘something’, either a diagnosis or treatment. This also implies that the patient recognizes that something is wrong, that something distresses them and that they want to change or overcome their ‘problem’. A further assumption is that it is the job of the health care practitioner to give information,

advice or practical help, so as to induce positive change, improvement in health and reduce distress in their patient.

cognitive problem solving strateiges @ Mind Zone..... www.mindzone.in

Cognitive problem-solving strategies are not transmitted magically from parents to children, but they are acquired through experience, observation, and interaction with others. For our purposes, the use of cognitive strategies can be maximized through intentional and planned intervention. Varying styles of information processing have profound effects on how one makes sense of the world and one’s experiences in it, and dysfunctional information processing requires attention and modification. 

Correcting faulty information processing (i.e., changing distorted thinking) and/or teaching strategies to overcome a deficiency in information processing (i.e., overcoming deficiencies in thinking) are both valuable steps in the treatment of psychological disorders of youth.

http://mindzone.in/child-and-adolescence/

our self..... primary self and disowned self

How do you know who your primary and disowned selves are? The qualities that you admire excessively or overvalue in others, and those qualities that you really judge in others, give you a good indication of who your disowned selves are. So if you really admire someone who is an artist and you think that they are better than you because of their artistic ability, then you have probably disowned your own artistic self and you might have as a primary self a very logical, practical self. And if you really can't stand someone who is blatantly selfish and you judge them for being selfish, then you have probably disowned your selfishness and have as a primary self a giving self.

What you have disowned and what is primary in you, also gives you a good indication of what kinds of people you will be attracted to and enter into relationship with.

The two main scenarios are:

1. You will like people who have similar primary selves to you, and you will dislike people who’s primary selves are your disowned selves. You will usually choose as friends those people who's primary selves you like.

2. But you will be attracted to (and at other times repelled by) people who carry your disowned selves, either the positive ones or negative ones. Usually we will enter into quite intense relationships with people who carry our disowned selves.

relationship counselling @ Mind Zone...................

6

The Problem:

W: Do you love me? (accusing tone)

H: Of course I do. How many times have I told you?

W: Well it doesn’t feel like it (tears, looks down, turns away)

H: (Sighs-exasperated) Well, maybe you have a problem then. I can’t help it if

you don’t feel loved. (Set mouth, lecturing tone.)

W: Right. So it’s my problem is it? Nothing to do with you, right? Nothing to do

with your ten feet thick walls. You’re an emotional cripple. You’ve never

felt a real emotion in your life.

H: I refuse to talk to you when you get like this. So irrational. There is no

point.

W: Right. This is what always happens. You put up your wall. You go icy. Till I

get tired and give up. Then, after a while, when you want sex you

decide that I am not quite so bad after all.

H: There is no point in talking to you. This is a shooting gallery. You’re so

aggressive.

Rigid pattern- blame/withdraw and absorbing states of negative emotion form

feedback loop. No safe emotional connection-escalating danger and isolation.

for counseling to enhance your relationship with your partner......
Mind Zone......
Dr. Sunil      +91 9444 297058
Dr. Jayasudha +91 9176055660
www.mindzone.in

Myths about anger

Myths About Anger

Myth #1: Anger Is Inherited.

One misconception or myth about anger is that the way we express anger is inherited and cannot

be changed. Sometimes, we may hear someone say, “I inherited my anger from my father; that’s

just the way I am.” This statement implies that the expression of anger is a fixed and unalterable

set of behaviors. Evidence from research studies, however, indicates that people are not born

with set, specific ways of expressing anger. These studies show, rather, that because the

expression of anger is learned behavior, more appropriate ways of expressing anger also can be

learned.

It is well established that much of people’s behavior is learned by observing others, particularly

influential people. These people include parents, family members, and friends. If children

observe parents expressing anger through aggressive acts, such as verbal abuse and violence,

it is very likely that they will learn to express anger in similar ways. Fortunately, this behavior

can be changed by learning new and appropriate ways of anger expression. It is not necessary

to continue to express anger by aggressive and violent means.


Sunil Kumar                              Jayasudha Kamaraj
Clinical Psychologist                 Counseling Psychologist
http://mindzone.in/

when does anger become a problem?

When Does Anger Become a Problem?

Anger becomes a problem when it is felt too intensely, is felt too frequently, or is expressed

inappropriately. Feeling anger too intensely or frequently places extreme physical strain on the

body. During prolonged and frequent episodes of anger, certain divisions of the nervous system

become highly activated. Consequently, blood pressure and heart rate increase and stay

elevated for long periods. This stress on the body may produce many different health problems,

such as hypertension, heart disease, and diminished immune system efficiency. Thus, from a

health standpoint, avoiding physical illness is a motivation for controlling anger.

Another compelling reason to control anger concerns the negative consequences that result

from expressing anger inappropriately. In the extreme, anger may lead to violence or physical

aggression, which can result in numerous negative consequences, such as being arrested or

jailed, being physically injured, being retaliated against, losing loved ones, being terminated

from a substance abuse treatment or social service program, or feeling guilt, shame, or regret.

Even when anger does not lead to violence, the inappropriate expression of anger, such as

verbal abuse or intimidating or threatening behavior, often results in negative consequences. For

example, it is likely that others will develop fear, resentment, and lack of trust toward those

who subject them to angry outbursts, which may cause alienation from individuals, such as

family members, friends, and coworkers.

Sunil Kumar                                            Jayasudha Kamaraj
Clinical Psychologist                               Counseling Psychologist
Founder                                                    co-founder
http://mindzone.in/

Betrayal

Ten ways to overcome betrayal and ten ways to make it worse

1. Preparation. if you noticed warning signs and are ready to deal with the betrayal when it happens, you have a definite advantage.  Denial is deadly.

2. Inspiration.  If you are inspired and feel powerful, you will act powerfully and decisively.  Powerlessness is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

3. Communication with the betrayer.  If you can talk to him, you have a definite advantage.  If the betrayal takes a while to resolve itself, that also helps.  A sudden break is much more difficult to deal with.

4. Explanation. When you know why the betrayal happened, you feel more in control. You can sort out your responsibility, your partner's responsibility, and the events that neither of you can control.  If you never know why it happened, you stay in a place of confusion.

5. Reparations.  If your partner is able to apologize and to make it up to you in some way, you'll feel much better.  If either or both of you are continually rageful, you'll never get this comfort.

6. Strong situation.  If you have lots of resources - good health, money, personal power, and spirituality - chances are you'll handle the betrayal well.  If you don't have resources, you will find it much more difficult to rebound.

7.Support foundation. A network of family, friends, and sympathetic colleagues is essential.  Children can also be superb supporters. Having a pet can help a lot.  Being isolated keeps you from recovering.

8.Emotional connection. You need to be deeply connected to a few special people with whom you can share your feelings and experiences - even the ones you're most embarrassed about.  Loneliness is bad enough when you're not being betrayed; it's terrible when you are.

9. Sexual sophistication. Knowing the joys and dangers of sex is a vital part of recovering from betrayal.  You need to know how to protect your body from disease if you have been sexually betrayed. you also need to know how to resume your sex life after you heal. Sexual ignorance can be painful - and possibly even fatal.

10. Spiritual orientation.  If you have faith in god, a higher power, or a supreme being, it will see you through.  I'm not saying you can't be an atheist or an agnostic, but lack of faith can defeat you.

Sunil Kumar                                    Jayasudha Kamaraj
Clinical Psychologist                       Counseling Psychologist
www.mindzone.in

MIND ZONE

SEX COUNSELING.....?......................http://mindzone.in/general/

Sexuality as well as expression of that sexuality is an important part of all of our lives. Sexual expression enriches our relationships, and provides a meaningful physical way to express care

for those we love in the special connection we share with our partners. However, as in all interpersonal or physical aspects of our lives, there can be problems in sex, and sexual behavior.

Perhaps no part of medical care is dominated by as much stigma as sexuality, and perhaps no

other area carries as much misunderstanding as sexuality and sexual disorders.

We feel uncomfortable talking about sex with others, and as mental health practitioners this discomfort does not stop at the consultation door.

Sunil Kumar                                        Jayasudha Kamaraj

Clinical Psychologist                           Counseling Psychologist

Founder                                                co-founder

http://mindzone.in/general/

MIND ZONE

women and mental health.........http://mindzone.in/general/

The particular mental health experiences of women have received great attention in recent years. This reflects growing concern about the burden of mental health problems on the lives of women and their families. The most common mental health disorders are anxiety and depression, and women are particularly prone to such disorders.Depressive and anxiety disorders pose a major public health problem with substantial economic and social burden.

women have an almost 2-fold risk of these disorders compared to men, a difference that starts in

childhood or early adolescence and persists into adulthood. Further, depressive and anxiety disorders have been associated with the development and progression of various forms of physical disease, suggesting the associations of these psychiatric disorders with physical health in general.

Sunil Kumar                                     jayasudha kamaraj
Clinical psychologist                        counseling psychologist
http://mindzone.in/general/
MIND ZONE