Anorexia Nervosa & Anorexia

Anorexia is a general loss of appetite, or a loss of interest in food. Anorexia may be a symptom of other diseases such as cancer.

Anorexia Nervosa is a life threatening eating disorder that is characterized by an obsession with losing weight. People who suffer from this disorder fear weight gain of any amount. They will go to extremes toprevent gainingeven a single ounce by doing things such as starving themselves, excessive exercise, and forcing themselves to vomit if they think they ate too much. These people may be severely thin or underweight  and will still completely believe they are “Fat”. No matter how many positive comments an anorexic may get about being thin, or how someone wishes to be as thin as them, it does not affect the way they think about themselves. Both men and women suffer from anorexia nervosa, but it is most commonly found in women, especially teenage girls.

 

The man in the picture above was a male model who passed away due to Anorexia Nervosa.

This disorder is uncontrollable and it takes over the lives of people if they don’t get professional help early enough. People can not live a normal life while living with this illness. Anorexics will spend hours each and every day staring at themselves in the mirror, picking out every Flaw they can find. Their mind is flooded 24/7 with thoughts of food, their weight, and their body image. They have an extreme fear of eating, even the items that are the safest against gaining weight like water, fruits, and vegetables.

People with anorexia nervosa do eat, but they eat very little amounts, and they usually don’t like eating in front of other people. An example of something one might eat for lunch would be a cup of lettuce and a few slices of cucumbers. They would have very small portions like this for breakfast and dinner as well. An anorexic eats just enough or less than is needed to survive, this is why so many die from this disorder.

This is a very hard disorder to try and overcome alone. Since your entire body is nutrient deficient including your brain. You can’t think properly, your ability to think of a solution or even to fully understand advice given to you will just be ignored and wiped away by thoughts of food. Imagine being hungry and your stomach is growling, the only thing you can think of is food and how bad you want some. Lucky for most people we only get this feeling maybe a couple times a day. Now imagine having this illness, you feel like you’re starving and those thoughts of hunger are constantly on your mind every second of every day. Your brain and entire body are craving food all day long. Even though their fridge and cupboards may be completely full of delicious food and snacks, they restrict themselves to maintain or reach the weight they want to be.

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People may ask “Why can’t you just eat more?”

Living with this illness is not a choice,  putting a plate of food in front of an anorexic and telling them to eat it is like putting a plate of rat poison in front of a normal person and telling them to eat it. No one will eat the poison because they know it is harmful to their body, anorexics have the same mindset but of regular food, they believe it is harmful to their body in terms of gaining weight. They mentally can not get themselves to physically eat.

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Risk Factors that May Cause Anorexia?

• Dieting
• Puberty
• Weight Gain
• Having Depression
• Being a perfectionist
• Family history of Anorexia
• Being in a sport that requires a fit body
• Having Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
• Media and cultures that put a high value on thin bodies
• A traumatic event (ex. death of a loved one/ sexual abuse)
• Age and Gender (Most common in teen and young adult women)

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 Things that may help someone with Anorexia Nervosa

• Get Professional Help
• Realize and admit to yourself that you are not okay
• Don’t keep it in, talk to your family and friends
• Look for success stories of people on youtube and take their advice
• Challenge your beliefs about food and eating
• Try to find away to change your mindset
• Don’t be in denial about getting treatment
• You have to want to recover to be able to recover and get better

 Sean. 

 

 

Ecstasy / Molly / MDMA

Names for Ecstasy : MDMA, Molly, ADAM, M, X, E, Scooby Snacks, Hug Drug, Love Drug, Skittles, Vitamin E.

Ecstasy vs. Molly vs. MDMA

These are all the exact same drug, they are just prepared in different ways.

Ecstasy – Is a pill that is pressed into different shapes, with different logos on them to represent a specific drug dealer or just for the look. These pills contain very little MDMA (the actual drug), and are mostly made up of different additives such as caffeine, aspirin or other over the counter medications.

Molly – This is the purest form of MDMA. It is sold in its pure crystal form in capsules or  rocks depending on how much you buy. there is usually zero additives since it would be very hard to hide them while selling crystals.

MDMA – This is the pure crystal form crushed into a powder and cut (mixed) with other drugs or additives such as caffeine, bath salts, DXM, Ephedrine and many many more substances that are detrimental to your health.

What is Ecstasy? 

Ecstasy is a designer drug that was originally created by Merck pharmaceutical company in 1912 as MDMA (Methylene-Dioxy-Meth-Amphetamine). It’s a designer drug because it was created for the purpose to make you feel “High”. In the 1970’s it began being used as a party drug, sold illegally under the table with the brand name of Ecstasy.

Ecstasy is a chemical substance that combines both a Stimulant and Hallucinogen. Users experience intensified feelings whether they’re good or bad. A typically good experience while being high on Ecstasy would be, the user feels very positive, energetic, intense feelings of love and empathy for everyone they’re around. Users feel as if they’re in a dreamy mind state, music sounds like the most amazing thing on the planet, and overall it seems like a harmless drug that does wonders to your happiness. This drug is Extremely addictive, in many cases during the after effects of being high, users experience crippling depression leading them to want to get high again and again to avoid the after effects.

The majority of the people who take drugs like Ecstasy are led to believe it’s safe because of what their peers tell them, or from doing a quick internet search and find out it’s safe based on peoples experiences on some forum.

This drug is a chemical that was made by humans in a laboratory, it can cause neurotoxicity ( When your brain is exposed to natural or artificial toxic substances that alter the activity of your brain in such a way that causes damage).

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How Ecstasy Works

Ecstasy works by increasing the activity of a few neurotransmitters (the chemical messengers of brain cells) such as, Serotonin, Dopamine, and Norepinephrine, Serotonin is mostly affected. Serotonin plays an important role in our brain, it regulates our mood, sleep, pain, appetite, and our behaviours. When Ecstasy enters the body, it forces the brain to release excess Serotonin which causes mood elevating effects.

Effects on The Brain

After being high on Ecstasy, your brain will be depleted of its serotonin levels which will leave you feeling down and depressed over the next few days after being high, until your brain regenerates more Serotonin.

Because of the significantly increased activity of these neurotransmitters that would not normally happen without a substance, serotonins regenerative abilities are damaged. Long-term and heavy usage of this drug can severely damage the regenerative abilities of your neurotransmitters (Brain Damage). You might not feel stupid or like you’ve been dumbed down after taking this drug, this is because it doesn’t effect the memory parts of your brain. But if you do experience changes in your mood like depression, anxiety, or aggression, or if you have new sleeping disturbances you haven’t had before, these are all signs of damage to your brain.

Medical Uses of Ecstasy

In the 1960’s, Ecstasy was being used as a psychotherapy medication to lower inhibitions (a feeling that makes one self-conscious and unable to act in a relaxed and natural way.)

It no longer is used for medicinal purposes due to its negative effects on the brain.

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Side effects of Ecstasy

• Sweating
• Dry Mouth
• Grinding of teeth
• Clenching of Jaw
• Dehydration
• Increased Heart Rate
• Blurred vision
• Increased Body Temperature
• High blood pressure
• Thirst

Withdrawal Symptoms

• Depression
• Anxiety
• Panic Attacks
• Reductions in Mental Abilities
• Lack of Appetite
• Sleep Problems
• Agression

Sean.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Every once in a while people feel anxious/ nervous, wether it’s because of a social event, a fight they’ve had with someone, a break up, a presentation or whatever it may be.

Anxiety is an uncomfortable feeling of worry, uneasiness, and feeling that something bad is going to happen. It becomes a problem when it happens almost every day and becomes excessive and uncontrollable. Anxiety causes a whole range of symptoms including:

• Sweating
• Heart Palpitations (Faster heart beat)
• Dizziness
• Nausea (Feeling of sickness or inclination to vomit)
• Inability to be calm
• Diarrhea
• Frequent Urination
• Dry Mouth
• Trembling
• Shortness of breath
• Feeling of Panic, Fear, and uneasiness

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Generalized Anxiety Disorder is diagnosed to people who experience anxiety on a daily basis, who worry excessively and uncontrollably about daily life. For an adult, they may worry about things such as finances, health of themselves and their family, work performance, the economy, and much more. Teens and adolescents may worry about things such as the amount of friends they have, followers on social media, dating, if they’re going to get invited to the next party,  grades, presentations, going to school, their future, etc. Excessive anxiety causes a great deal of distress and causes people to feel  tense, on edge, tired, irritable, focus and concentration problems, and difficulty sleeping. Anxiety makes even the smallest aspects of your day worrisome and uncomfortable.

This disorder is considered to greatly reduce the quality of life for the people who suffer from it, but it is less severe than Panic Disorder

Things to Reduce Anxiety

• Do NOT drink ANY diet drinks. Diet drinks contain Aspartame, this is a substance that completely screws up your brain and the way it works. To get over anxiety, you have to be in control of your mind and when you put harmful substances in your body, these substances change the way your brain works and you are no longer in total control.
• Do Not chew any sugar-free gum as they all contain Aspartame as well.
• Do NOT consume anything with Caffeine, this drug will give you heart palpitations which can cause anxiety.
• Reduce your Sugar intake.
• Try breathing exorcises
• Eat properly
• Listen to good music that boosts your mood
• Scream at the top of your lungs (it works)
• Find something that relaxes you (reading, gaming, puzzles, exercise, etc)

 Sean. 

 

 

Anxiety Vs Nervousness

Anxiety is a recurring feeling that can cause physical pain and panic attacks. It is often caused by triggering events or mentions of events. Anxiety is often always there, on a daily experience.

Nervousness may occur when going to meet new people, or before a test, but the feeling will pass and the person will feel better.

Major Depressive Disorder

 

Also Known As: Clinical Depression, Major Depression, Unipolar Depression.

In life we all feel down, upset, and even depressed about issues that make sense to be depressed about. Things like a death, a breakup, losing your job, failing an exam, these are all normal reasons to feel depressed for a little while. But after a few days, weeks, or months you should be feeling your normal self again.

Major Depressive Disorder is an illness that causes an extreme feeling of deep sadness, hopelessness, and emptiness for a time usually lasting 2 years or longer. This is something that affects people feel every day of their lives. It feels like there is no point to getting out of bed in the morning because of the way you see yourself when you’re depressed.

You feel worthless, like no one will ever want to date you, be friends with you, or hire you for any career.You feel hopeless, like nothing will ever change and that every day of the rest of your life will be the same as a day when you’re depressed. You feel empty, there are hardly any emotions other than sadness that are left inside you.

Depression is a disease, an illness, it is not something someone can just snap out of at any given time. Everyone tends to become very irritating whether it’s your parents, siblings, or best of friends. You always want to be alone but you are saddened at the fact that you feel lonely and like there is no one there for you. The biggest problem with depression is that people have trouble expressing themselves because of their lack of emotion. This causes the affected person to keep all thoughts and emotions to themselves keeping everything bottled up. When someone does not speak up how are they supposed to get help? They can’t! After a long time, suicidal thoughts begin to flood your mind and it becomes clear to you that suicide is the only answer because you are so hopeless of the future and of your depression ever going away.

Now most people who are depressed do get suicidal thoughts, but never actually attempt suicide. That is why it is so important to not take any kind of depressant drugs while depressed. Alcohol greatly exaggerates your emotions and actions while intoxicated.

Many teens and adolescents that are Depressed are also usually shy. This makes it very hard for these people to get help because they can’t speak up for themselves. So they end up suffering much longer than should be. To overcome shyness and to possibly help yourself become a stronger and happier version of yourself i’ve listed below tips and techniques you can use to achieve your goals.

Causes of Major Depressive Disorder

Depression does not have a single cause. It arises in each person differently. A person’s life experience, genetic inheritance, age, sex, brain chemistry imbalance, hormone changes, substance abuse and other illnesses all play a role in the development of a depression.

Symptoms of Major Depressive Disorder:

• Pessimism (The bad things in life outweigh the good things)
• Hypersensitivity to Rejection
• Shyness
• Suicidal Thoughts / Behaviour
• Feeling Hopeless
• Social Withdrawal
• Feeling as if you’re moving/ thinking in slow motion
• Low Self Confidence
• Impaired Judgement
• Extremely Low Energy
• Agoraphobia (Fear of leaving your home)
• Personal Neglect
• Loneliness
• Lack of Emotional Expression
• Irritated by Friends and Family
• Victimized Feeling
• Feeling Worthless
• Impaired Concentration
• Excessive Sleeping

Techniques you can try to feel happier 🙂

• Start a youtube channel, get your thoughts out
• Join an online community and talk to others
• Learn to say NO (being shy you may be someone who wants to please everyone else, learn to say no to people and please yourself)
• Make a Free Blog and Vent Your Feelings and Thoughts
• Exercise
• Eat Healthy
• Get Enough Sleep
• Try Something New
• Set Goals
• Do something that makes you happy each day

A Mindset to Put Into Action (Don’t Let Your Emotions Control Your Actions, Let Your Actions Control Your Emotions)

You can let your emotions such as being sad, empty, hopeless… control the way you act (laying in bed all day, staying home instead of going out with friends, not exercising, and eating unhealthy)

Or you can let your actions such as working out, going out with friends, eating healthy.. control the way you feel (Happier, proud of yourself, stronger, and like you’re taking control of your life).

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Drugs

Many drugs can cause a person who is already depressed to become severely depressed.

The drugs to watch out for that can cause you to feel even worse are the following:

Alcohol –  Drinking Alcohol while depressed can extremely exaggerate depression and suicidal thoughts. Alcohol and Depression are not a good combination at all.

Ecstasy/ Molly/ MDMA – Taking this drug will make you feel extremely happy, energetic, and loving for a few hours. In our brains we all have storage reserves for chemicals such as Serotonin and Dopamine . These chemicals are responsible for making us FEEL happiness, excitement and pleasure. When we get happy or excited, our brain releases small amounts of these chemicals from the reserves to the rest of our brain, keeping the reserves still filled with chemicals to feel happiness throughout the day.  Ecstasy works by releasing the majority of these chemicals over the course of a few hours. After being high from ecstasy and your reserves are close to empty there is no doubt you will not be feeling as happy or normal as you usually do before you ingested this drug. Your brain will then take a few days to fully restore these chemical reserves. Ecstasy can damage the process in which serotonin and dopamine are created within your brain, which can leave you feeling depressed for a very long time.

People that are not depressed who take ecstasy will feel somewhat to completely depressed over the following days after being high. This drug is very easy to become dependent on because of the depression that follows after a high. People that have never been depressed before have experienced suicidal thoughts after being depressed from Molly for a few days.

This is seriously NOT a drug for anyone who is already depressed.

Be careful what you put into your body. 

Sean.

Panic Disorder

Before we get into Panic Disorder we must first learn about the Fight or Flight response our body has to danger. The FOF response is a survival mechanism our brain uses to prepare us for life or death situations. For Example:

You’re taking a walk in the woods alone just to explore nature and have some peace and tranquility. All of a sudden you hear sticks snap, and leaves crackle behind you. You turn around and see there’s a 700 pound grizzly bear staring at you ready to feast. He’s licking his snout and your body realizes it has just got into a life or death situation. The Fight or Flight Response kicks in, delivering adrenaline straight into your bloodstream giving you immediate physical enhancements to your muscles with strength and energy. Your heart starts to pound, breathing accelerates, eyes begin to dilate, blood vessels start to constrict. These symptoms are all forced upon you to give you a chance to survive the encounter.

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Panic Disorder is an overwhelming fear, terror, or anxiety that something Bad is about to happen. These feelings force your mind to believe that you’re about to go into a life or death situation and thus begins the fight or flight defense mechanism. You experience all of the symptoms as you would if you were about to fight for your life, except there is no real danger and you are just left with the symptoms. In a life or death situation you would be focusing on how to survive and putting your mind and energy towards reaching survival, doing whatever you have to do to succeed. During a panic attack, when there is no real danger to focus on, all you can think about is your racing heart, heavy breathing, and the rest of the symptoms that come with FOF response.

During a panic attack the victim can experience light heart palpitations and heavier breathing, to a full blown debilitating attack that can leave the victim unable to speak, see, hear, think, or use any of their motor skills. The feeling of having an extreme panic attack is absolutely horrifying, it literally feels like you’re dying and you are just suffering until your last breath, but after a couple minutes or hours the attack starts to fade away and reality slowly comes back to you.

Panic attacks can happen anywhere and for any reason. If you get reminded of a panic attack you had in the past, just thinking about it can cause an attack. Certain situations, people, places, thoughts, the sound of your own heart beating, these are all reasons an attack can come into play.

Symptoms of Normal Panic Attacks:

• Shortness of Breath (Hyperventilation)
• Heart Palpitations (Pounding / Racing Heart)
• Chest Pains / Pressure
• Choking Feeling
• Feeling unreal or detached from your surroundings
• Sweating
• Trembling or shaking
• Dizziness, light-headed, fainting
• Fear of going crazy (falling out of reality)
• Fear/ feeling that you’re dying

Extreme Cases of Panic Attacks Also Include :

• Loss of vision
• Loss of Hearing
• Unable to speak coherently
• Unable to think properly
• Loss of motor Skills (Unable to move your body as you desire)

Techniques you can try to calm the attack:

• Deeply inhale, 5 seconds – Hold it, 3 seconds – Release slowly – Repeat
• Try your hardest to really believe their is no danger
• Distract yourself, play a game, have a conversation, go for a walk, etc.
• Let the attack happen and take over you without trying to fight it
• Try to let your mind go blank if you are laying in a bed, close your eyes

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Drugs

Many drugs can cause a person who has had zero panic attacks in their lifetime to having them multiple times a day.

The drugs to watch out for that can cause and have caused Panic Disorder on people are the following:

Caffeine – For most of the world coffee and tea are great morning drinks that prepare you for your day. Pops, energy drinks, and chocolate are all fast burning sources of energy. For others, these treats and beverages could be the source of their anxiety. The feeling of your heart beating a bit faster than normal, not due to any physical activity or exertion can be the cause of an attack.

Marijuana – Known to cause anxiety and paranoia in some people who try this drug. If you’re an MJ smoker there is no doubt you know at least one person who has tried this drug and has never touched it again due to some kind of paranoia or panic attack. For some this drug has led them into going to therapy sessions and taking prescription pills to stop their attacks.

LSD/ ACID – A bad trip can lead you into having a severe panic attack for hours.

Ecstasy/ Molly/ MDMA – Again, a bad trip can turn your fun night into a horrifying attack.

Magic Mushrooms/ Shrooms – A trip can last for hours and if you dont have the right mindset going into the trip it’s not going to be a fun time.

Cocaine – Your heart races, for some just the fact that their heart is racing can be enough.

Any Drug that alters your mind, or stimulates your nervous system and gets your heart pumping faster than normal can cause weeks to even years of severe panic attacks.

Be careful what you put into your body. 

Sean.