Love Who You Are: How to Prevent Eating Disorders

Published on: 05 March 2019 Last Updated on: 16 November 2019

Sixty-two minutes – that’s how often a person dies from an eating disorder. That’s almost one person per hour.

There are many resources discussing how to treat these conditions, but discussing how to prevent eating disorders is just as important. Not only to prevent them from occurring the first time but to prevent relapse.

Around the world, millions of people suffer from some type of eating disorder. Although the numbers are alarming, it also means they don’t have to suffer alone.

If you’re seeking help for yourself of a loved one, read more about how to prevent eating disorders below.

What Is an Eating Disorder:

Before you can recognize the signs of an eating disorder, or eating disorder relapse, it’s necessary to understand the disease.

This condition is a mental disorder that affects eating habits, but it can take a variety of methods. The well-known ones include binge eating disorder, anorexia nervosa, and bulimia nervosa. However, there is also pica, rumination disorder, avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder, and other specific conditions.

It can be difficult talking to parents about eating disorders, or anyone in your support group because the disease is so complex.

How to Prevent Eating Disorders:

As a mental disorder, it takes a large amount of mental power to recognize the signs of an eating disorder. Maintaining awareness of your mental health is crucial to the task.

Social Media Control:

Bringing people together is one of the benefits of social media. However, persuasive language and depictions of what is beautiful can harm our mental health.

One way to prevent eating disorders is to control your social media consumption. Weed through your social media accounts and eliminate anything that triggers eating disorder symptoms. You can replace these negative influences with positive ones like cute and funny animal accounts or inspirational content.

Recognizing Size Discrimination:

Unfortunately, size discrimination exists and is a huge part of the prevalence of eating disorders. To take control of your condition, learn to recognize this harmful influence and work to fight it.

It can feel empowering to fight against weight-based jokes, be inclusive of all sizes in your environment, and disconnect the association between weight and wellness.

Practicing Body Positivity:

Cultivating body positivity is a lifelong practice for many people – even those without eating disorders. It often involves controlling your negative thoughts about yourself and replacing them with healthy mantras.

Make a list of your best attributes and post them where you can see it regularly. Instead of focusing on how your body looks, focus on what it can do. Your body is an amazing work of science and evolution that deserves respect.

Health Advice and More:

Recognizing the problem is the hardest step to healing. The next step, reaching out for help, can feel just as hard.

Making it to this article means that you’re halfway there. Don’t forget to take it easy on yourself and celebrate your accomplishments along your journey learning how to prevent eating disorders. There is no achievement too small to praise.

For more health and lifestyle advice, make sure to stop by our page.

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Exploring Mental Health Counseling: Issues Addressed

Mental health care has become an important aspect of healthcare today. There are several ways now that existing mental health issues can be minimized or eliminated, as the case may be. Every day, government officials, healthcare providers, private organizations, and individuals are taking up new responsibilities to promote mental health care. At the core of it is mental health counseling, which goes a long way in providing professional services to patients with mental issues affecting their lives. If you’re wondering what mental health counseling entails and the category of issues it can address, here’s what you need to know. What Is Mental Health Counseling? Mental health counseling comprises the services that trained professionals provide for clients who require help dealing with various issues affecting their lives. Professionals ranging from licensed counselors, psychologists, and nurses to social workers within the government, social services, or private spaces can provide these counseling services. The American Psychological Association provides that these issues can include personal challenges that cut through the behavioral, emotional, vocational, marital, educational, or rehabilitative spheres. When it comes to mental health counseling, there are various techniques available to provide these essential services. Among them, psychotherapy stands out as a major approach, concentrating on the diagnosis and treatment of mental health concerns through thorough research, assessment, and clinical intervention. Once a clinical diagnosis is established, the necessity for treatment becomes apparent. A mental health counselor is different from other categories of counselors. These counselors seek ways of providing holistic solutions that tackle the different challenges to mental health and work with a wide range of patients from day to day. Counselor Vs. Therapist It’s important to differentiate between these two terms, as they typically mean the same thing. The major difference between the two is the training, licensing, and treatment methods that they undergo. These elements will influence the type of experience the professionals have and the types of results they see. They are also similar in a number of ways, as they both use talk therapy when handling patient issues. However, talk therapy for therapists is more regulated than that for counselors. Although a master’s degree is not compulsory for mental health counselors, most employers tend to focus on candidates with graduate degrees and adequate experience. A mental health counseling online degree from American International College can equip you with the appropriate skills and guidance needed to navigate the sensitive situations in a mental health counseling role. Both categories are also required to be licensed to be able to practice. The Scope Of Practice Of Mental Health Counseling If you are considering a career in mental health counseling, you may also want to know its scope of practice. Mental health counselors typically work with clients to manage issues such as stress, anxiety, and depression. This type of counselor also focuses on general therapy, ensuring that their patients can navigate a wide range of emotional and psychological issues. As a mental health counselor, you will assist individuals in dealing with their everyday challenges, such as handling stressful situations, communicating better, and improving their relationships. Mental health counselors use talk therapy as a major tool for handling situations. Talk therapy involves open and compassionate conversations that help clients better understand their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. All of these end goals are simply to promote personal growth and well-being. In addition to the requisite education and training, several jurisdictions require mental health counselors to pursue additional training to understand the administration of psychometric assessments and tests during practice. One important thing to note about mental health counselors is that they are usually ruled out of performing cognitive testing and can only perform specific assessments under strict conditions, such as under the supervision of a licensed clinical psychologist. Mental health is an essential aspect of our lives, and adequate attention should always be paid to it. For this reason, mental health counselors are important because they can help to bring relief when it becomes difficult to maintain our mental health on our own. Mental health counselors not only help people when they are experiencing general mental health issues, such as depression, eating disorders, anxiety, ADHD, OCD, bipolar disorder, dementia, and personality disorders, but they can also help a range of patients deal with several other conditions. Addiction And Substance Abuse Drinking too much alcohol, using illicit drugs, overusing prescribed medications, gambling addiction, and sex addiction are some of the major abuse and addiction problems that counselors can help individuals to manage. Adjusting To Major Life Changes Mental health counselors can also help patients navigate life changes such as a loss, a move, divorce, or recovery from a major illness. Dealing with these issues may take a toll on the mental health of those involved and without tell-tale signs sometimes. Stress And Trauma Counseling can help individuals who are experiencing stress related to work, relationships, or other life events. They can also help those who have experienced a traumatic event, such as physical or sexual assault, domestic violence, or natural disasters. Conclusion Mental health counseling can be a highly rewarding profession for anyone to pursue. Today, the need for clinical mental health counselors has risen drastically. If you are thinking of pursuing a career in this field, why not look into enrolling in a course such as a mental health counseling degree? Read Also: 10 healthy Habits to improve your health How To Take Care Of Your Mental Health Living Healthily | Six Crucial Lifestyle Tips for College Freshmen

Treatments and home remedies to tackle tinnitus

What is tinnitus? The tinnitus is based on perceiving a sound that does not exist in the environment; it is often described as 'a buzzing, a beep, a noise' ... etc. It can be perceived in one ear, both ears and inside your head. The perception of tinnitus is more intense and constant in the silence of the night, in the absence of activities and other sounds or environmental noises that can mask it. The majority of tinnitus conditions are subjective and they are perceived exclusively by the patient, although around 5-10% are objective tones generated by parts of the body that can also be perceived by other people, especially by the specialist when exploring the patient (example: murmurs, pulse, etc., generated by the cardio-circulatory system). This is a common problem in the general population. It is estimated that around 30% of the adult population has perceived tinnitus at some point in their lives, and between 10-15% approximately experience them continuously. In general, the presence of tinnitus increases with age; it is more common in people over 40. This may continue in the future if the harmful effects of exposure to loud sounds and noises in young people are not controlled. How is it diagnosed? Although the diagnostic protocol may vary, it includes the following test: a specific clinical history of patients with tinnitus, questionnaires of subjective self-assessment, clinical examination, audiological tests, imaging studies and complementary tests depending on each case. The first step of the diagnostic protocol is to obtain information about the characteristics of tinnitus, its possible causes (for example: acoustic trauma, ototoxic, otitis, family history, hearing loss, vertigo, Meniêre's syndrome), its emotional consequences, (that is to say, emotional tension, anxiety, etc.), through a systematized clinical history. For patients to whom tinnitus affects them severely, the most commonly used treatments are: Home tinnitus remedies Pharmacological treatment Tinnitus Retraining Therapy (TRT) Hearing aids Noise generators Mixed hearing aids Psychological and/or psychiatric help Home tinnitus remedies Use warm towels This is a very old trick for those who are used to having all kinds of ringing in their ears. In addition to this, it is an effective formula that helps alleviate all tension, and it is very cheap to set a pot of water to boil or use the water from your own heater in the bathtub. Zinc Zinc or Iron are an important supplement in your diet; they help tinnitus disappear. Fresh pineapple Those who love home remedies will be pleased with the benefits of fresh pineapple because it is very efficient to help you solve any problems with ringing in the ears. It seems to be related to reducing the inflammatory processes in general. Pharmacological treatment There are numerous drugs used in the treatment of tinnitus: vasodilators, anxiolytics, antidepressants, corticosteroids, antiepileptic, diuretics, etc. Sometimes tinnitus is associated with other symptoms and alterations that can be treated pharmacologically. This is the case, for example, of patients with blood flow deficit affecting the inner ear, anxious-depressive problems, Menière's disease, autoimmune inner ear disease, acoustic trauma, sudden deafness, migraine, brain problems, etc. Retraining therapy (TRT) Tinnitus retraining therapy (TRT) is one of the most widely used treatments today and aims to reduce your sound perception and its consequences, including the reactions of emotional tension, anguish, fear, etc., thus favoring the patient's habituation to it. Headphones When tinnitus is associated with a hearing loss, the use of properly adapted hearing aids can be the most appropriate treatment. Hearing aids, in addition to correcting hearing loss, increase the perception of environmentally sound, avoiding strong silence. Noise generators One of the options to treat tinnitus is the use of sounds, which can be: environmental or natural sounds amplified by headphones and also sounds produced by white noise generators. White noise generators have the same shape as hearing aids and produce a broadband noise that is easy to get used to. Psychological treatment Some patients present psychological and emotional consequences that may be related to the onset and development of tinnitus and/or interfere with the habituation to it (e.g., stress, anxiety, depression, etc.) and their treatment is essential to reduce or minimize the perception of tinnitus. Read More: Smooth Discharge Before Period How To Remove Acne Scars Naturally How To Pick The Right Hair Brush For Different Hair Types Are Oncology Clinical Studies Facing Challenges?

Addiction Treatment: 11 Tips to Find the Best Rehabilitation Center

When you're in the depths of an addiction or someone you love is, you don't know where to turn. It's a scary, confusing, dark, and overwhelming time for everyone involved. How do you get help? Where do you get help? Can you afford it? Those are all valid questions. Especially if you don't know if you can convince your loved one to go to rehab! All those factors can lead you down a road of what ifs, but there's only one what if that matters. What if you find the best rehabilitation center? Then things will start looking up. Get our guide on where to start and what questions to ask here. What Makes the Best Rehabilitation Center The Best? We can't give you one answer, or one center, that's definitively best. That's because the right rehabilitation center for your loved one isn't the same as the right one for someone else. Some people need a single-gender environment, some need more of a detox, and others need a holistic offering. We'll get more into what all that means and how to tell what they need below. Before we analyze them and their needs, don't take their opinion completely out of the picture. They may be on drugs, but they should get a say in their treatment (except, you know, the sobriety part). 1. Ask A Professional: If you think your loved one needs treatment for addiction, try to get them to a doctor or a professional. There the doctor can diagnose the specifics of the addiction. Maybe they'll run some vitals and decide that your loved one needs a more medically-oriented care setting. Or they can see patterns in their addiction, that the untrained eye can't. You can ask your doctor or professional for a recommendation of the best treatment center. If they don't know any specifics, ask them some of the following questions. 2. How Long of Treatment Do They Need? In theory, the only person who decides how long treatment takes is the addict. The classic programs last ninety days, which gives people time to reform their body, mind, and attitude. But some people can't afford a whole ninety-day stay or maybe their addiction isn't that developed. A thirty-day stay may be more appropriate for a budding addict. Ask your doctor their opinion on length, so you know what programs to look for. If you can't get the addict to a doctor and you've known them a while, think about how they learn and function. Has your addict done well in highly-structured environments? Or do they do better working at their own pace? Think back to school days and the challenges they had in that setting. This can tell you how long and arduous of a program they need. 3. What's The Treatment Approach? On that last note, there are as many types of treatment approaches as there are to teaching or parenting. That's to say, each person believes in a slightly different version than someone else. If you're the addict's mother or family member, this gives you good insight on the type of treatment approach they'll thrive under. Someone who's sensitive and needs coddling won't do well in an orders-barked center. However, someone who went to military school or likes the idea of having structure may like the rules-are-law approach. 4. Counseling Services: What kind of counseling services does the rehabilitation center offer? This, again, is all about the right fit for the addict in your life. In general, there are two types of behavioral therapy: cognitive (ct) and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). Cognitive only therapy (CT) is a theory from the 1960's that looks at how the patient interprets the situation. It's the more classic, lay on the couch and talk about what's bothering your type of therapy. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is different, but only slightly. CBT therapists look at how behaviors and perceptions work together to create interpretations. CBT usually uses more hands-on approaches, if the situation calls for it, like the empty chair technique. They may not get into the specifics of this on their website, so if you care, call and ask. Most therapists use a mix of both theories, while others use different ones altogether. An up and coming method is called kinetic therapy, where the professional urges the client to connect feelings in their mind to parts of their body. If the addict has had luck with therapy before, even if it's not addiction related, this can help you choose the path that's right for them. 5. Medical Comforts: We all know that apart from the emotional turmoil of addiction, the hardest part is the detox. Detoxification symptoms differ by substance. For opioids and painkillers, the addict can feel like they have the flu for five to seven days, fevers and all. For Benzodiazepines such as Xanax, seizures and an increase in anxiety attacks are common. Cocaine withdrawal looks like depression and restlessness, while alcohol withdrawal symptoms include seizures or tremors. The effects of benzos and alcohol can last for weeks, if not months. That said, you may want to choose a rehabilitation center that offers symptom relief. Having a doctor on-site to prescribe non-psychoactive drugs can help ease the detox process. You need to ask this before-hand. Some centers believe in a completely drug-free approach. 6. Residential or Outpatient care: Whether or not your addict needs to be on site all the time is up to them you and your budget. Residential programs are the most expensive since they have to provide things like meals and housing. However, they're also the most full-service and some think the best for advanced addicts. Other things to take into consideration about residential care is the types of patients. Do they only take opioid patients or do they mix people with different addictions? This is another personal preference area. Some people believe that the similarity of the experience leads to a better rehab, while others believe that addicts of the same kind egg each other on. There's no right or wrong answer. 7. Budget: A lot of the time, when you see rehabilitation centers advertised, they say things like "luxury" and "all inclusive". These are centers that charge an arm and a leg - that have money left over for marketing. Their calls of luxury don't mean their the best. They could be, but they could also spend all their money on the amenities and not pay or pick high-quality staff. You want to find rehab centers that have a balance of both. Obviously, you don't want your addict in a falling-apart facility, but is a waterfall in their room really going to aid recovery? Don't over-spend or over-shoot your budget because one looks fancier than the other. A grand pool or beautiful location won't heal your loved one any quicker. 8. Co-Occurring Disorders: The statistics and correlation between people with addiction issues and people with mental illness are staggering. Approx 7.9 million adults in the united states suffer from substance abuse with a co-occurring illness. We call this a "co-occurring" disorder and most drug treatments won't work unless you also treat the other issue. Someone may do a lot of cocaine because they're depressed and cocaine gives them energy. If you take the cocaine away from them, but they don't address the depression, they're going to turn back to cocaine for energy. Find a center that treats co-occurring disorders along with addictions. This combination gives your loved one a better shot at lasting recovery. 9. Visitation Policies: When you pick a center for your loved one, will they allow you to visit them? Some centers believe in isolation from outside sources. Others don't. Figure out which situation will be best for your addict - and your own sanity as someone as that loves them. 10. Financing Options: Does your rehabilitation center offer a payment plan? Most do these days, but some will ask for half or a deposit up front. You know your finances and there's only so much you can do. Most insurance carriers don't cover rehab, but it's worth a call to see if they'll cover a percentage. 11. Ask the Addict: If you've gotten the addict to agree to rehab, good for you and for them! The biggest success factor in rehab situations is whether or not the addict wants to recover. Ask them what kind of treatment center they see themselves in. It'll give you an idea of what to look for. Rehab Centers: Finding The Right One: Did you know that you can tour some rehabilitation centers before you commit to one? The tours may be short or only show you a bit of the facility to protect patient privacy. At the very least, the best rehabilitation centers should offer a consultation with a therapist or an intake specialist. There you can ask them the questions we talked about in this list and any others burning on your mind. We hope you've gotten some good information out of this eleven part guide and that you'll trust us for more advice in the future. Read Also: 5 Reasons Why It’s Not Too Late To Get Help Is A Loved One Addicted To Opiates? Here Are Common Signs Of Opiate Use

Love Who You Are: How to Prevent Eating Disorders

What Is an Eating Disorder: