“Are Autism and Mental Health 2 sides of the same coin?”

Is Autism hard to understand that people can’t even distinguish it from Mental Health?

What is Autism?

Neurodivergence; is an umbrella term that covers Autism; a persistent throughout-life neurological disorder that shows its sign in the early years of a child. As most conceptualize, Autism is not a mental health issue but a developmental brain disorder with a spectrum resembling the glorious fleeting rainbow.

Just like computer coding, autism brain understands a different set of coding to do life. An autistic person’s behavior, learning, and interaction differ from neurotypicals.

Fun fact:

Every 1 in 100 is said to be present somewhere on the spectrum, and an even more remarkable thing is the range of their symptoms as no 2 Autistic people show the same traits!

As Dr. Stephen Shore said:

“If you’ve met one person with autism, you’ve met one person with autism.”

Patterns to Lookout:

The common patterns found in every autistic person are their body language while communicating as they have stilted speech and avoid eye contact. A pattern of repetitive behavior and confined interests can make the diagnosis easy. Their non-proficiency with verbal cues often makes them sidelined by Neurotypical “They are in a world of their own.” People need to understand autistic peoples’ hardships to maintain cordial relationships.

 Diagnosis and Treatment:

It is usually diagnosed in childhood when the child starts showing pro-autistic signs. A complete check with evaluation tests by the doctor can help in diagnosis and early treatment to maximize the functionality in this no neurodivergent world. This disorder has no cure as no medicine can decode an autistic brain to a neurotypical/normal brain. The treatment and medicines are all according to the specific person and not a one-size-fits-all. They only help in reducing the ASD symptoms and easy development and learning.

Autism is not categorized under Mental health.

Mental disorders affect the way a person thinks, behave and feel like the term itself refers to the well-being of cognitive, psychological, and emotional aspect. It is essential to cater to mental health at every phase of life to prevent its hindrance on ones thinking, behavior and mood. The handling of stress and decision-making can all impact mental health. Lasting contributions range from biological factors and life experiences (trauma or abuse) to family history. To prevent its effect on daily living, relationships, and physical health, recovery is crucial. Help and treatment through therapy, medication, and counseling are available. Stress, depression, and anxiety disrupt day-to-day life. With proper medical intervention and therapy, these conditions can be cured, and one can live life to its fullest.

Autistic people dealing with Mental health:

Autism is NOT a mental health issue; hence autistic people can have a toll on their mental health. With fewer resources and anchors to help develop coping skills, it is more likely for an autistic person to face mental health problems. Due to exposure to more negative life events as they have trouble fitting in the societal “norms,” discriminatory societal behavior, stigma, and incompetence of therapists to adopt the approach of dealing with an autistic person, they have a fair share of disorders like depression, OCD and anxiety. Mental disorders play the role of secondary conditions in widening the autism spectrum even further.

Challenges faced by Autistic people during diagnosis of Mental health disorders:

It is hard to assess mental health with Autism. One reason can be the similarity between autistic traits of trauma presentation and mental health conditions. One such example can be repetitive, as replaying the details on a loop is also symptomatic of anxiety. Amongst the pool of problems they face, the substantial regarding diagnosis faced are;

·       They are not understood or taken seriously by medical professionals.

·       Professionals lack adequate knowledge related to Autism.

·       Are denied mental health services as a direct result of having Autism.

 Loneliness and social isolation contribute significantly to mental and physical illness, leading to suicidal risk. Neurobiology is one factor but the part played by the social environment is huge as well.

The stigma surrounding Autism and Mental Health:  

The amount of stigma attached to Autism in this day and age of awareness is astonishing. People on the autism spectrum still feel like hiding their true inner selves. Mental health has 3 tiers of stigma:

1. Individual 
2. Society
3. Health systems 

Individual stigma includes negative self-doubt based on stereotype acceptance and a sense of disempowerment. Its roots in the lack of knowledge and research on treatments and symptoms at the social and health systems level. Furthermore, the attitude and behavior of healthcare professionals trigger self-stigma. This stigma association causes a delay in coming out and reaching for treatment and access to health services.

How to extend your hand of support to people with Autism?

The best kind of support autistic people can connect with the autistic community. Learning about Autism can help people understand and make interaction easy with autistic people. Always consider the behavior of the person with Autism even when it’s hard, and ask them what help/support they need.

5 ways to help people with troubling mental health

 

How can we help people with troubling mental health?

It might not be easy for someone with severe mental problems, but it is possible to sort things out for someone going through some severe depression and anxiety.

1. Ask them out

You know someone has poor mental health; ask them out. Ask them what’s disturbing them while maintaining their comfort zone as much as possible. However, explaining your mental state is not that easy to talk out. 

    2. Share a relatable story to console them

         Go for a little practical approach and comfort them while relating any well-known personality’s mental health journey, if you know. Tell them how they overcame it and defeated it with their self-power.

    3. Enlighten them with some easy to do things

      Moreover, enlighten them with some easy-to-do things and indulge them in activities that can have their attention diverted for as long as possible. Make them realize how normal life is by talking about random everyday stuff.

     4. Listen to Them 

      One of the most crucial points is to listen. Listen to them regardless of how much they have to say or how illogical talk it may get. Just give them an ear for as long as they need. Let them burst out stuff so they might feel light.

     5. Expert Advice

     Lastly, if it is not as effective as you thought it would be, make them realize most casually that they need some expert’s advice and refer them to some well-known psychiatrist or any mental health foundation.

Relationships and mental health

A common misconception is when people only relate mental health with mental illness, whereas mental health is much more than depression, anxiety, and mental sickness. Mental health is very closely associated with relationships. Mental health also revolves around the well-being and positive state of mind of a human being, which is achieved through healthy relationships.

In support of the given statement, a widespread misinterpretation of the term ‘relationships’ is when relationships only refer to two individuals sharing bonds of love and intimate relation. However, relationships are much more than just this. Relationships like two friends, mother-daughter relations, colleagues sharing the bond of empathy, roommates are all a few examples of such bonds that we may develop and are so close to our heart that when it begins to fall apart, our mental health begins to deteriorate.

Can relations affect mental health?

Ups and downs can be observed in almost every relations. Any relation that a human associate closely with the heart ultimately hurts them when any challenging circumstances are made. The person begins to overthink, their appetite is affected, their sleeping routine gets upset, temporarily aggression can be built within a person, or the person is expected to react furiously to any stimuli.

How can healthy relationships improve mental health?

Research suggests that healthy, supportive, and long-lasting relations cause a person to live longer, healthier and happier. It has been observed that people with healthy relations have lower blood pressure, feel less anxious, are less vulnerable to complexes, and heal quicker than those with troubled relations.  

Engaging with people who listen to your talk with interest causes the person the release stress and helps them to process their emotional state. Similarly, having healthy and productive conversations with others lets the person live a meaningful life. Such positive relations are often why people get motivated to lead a well-balanced life.

Social relationships lead to mental illness

Social relations seem to connect with a person’s well-being closely. Having poor relations solely based on the social platform has long been a critical trigger for affecting mental health in the worst case possible. People tend to rely on connections they make through any social platform. When, due to some reason, they are to face social isolation, their mental health deteriorates to the extent that they no longer can survive without having to pay a visit to a psychologist every week or so. 

How to pursue and foster healthy relations?

Unhealthy relations can quickly trigger mental imbalance, which needs to be settled to live a relaxed, stress-free life. Therefore, it is essential to pursue relationships with food to the soul. To serve the purpose, it is essential to check on the loved ones to be aware of their well-being, make regular plans with family, go out with friends, and have enough time to spend with someone with whom you can speak your heart out.

Mental health has become a renowned treatable disease that needs to be catered to as soon as possible. The more it’s lingered on, the more severe it is expected to get. Work on maintaining healthy relations and connections with your loved ones and with people you encounter daily, be it your colleagues, classmates, boss, or friends.  

"Reading"-It's impact on our mental health!!

 Reading and its effect on mental health

Reading in my opinion is the most mysterious activity I’ve ever encountered.  While reading a thriller book we find ourselves imaging the whole scenes and also when reading fantasy novels, we can imagine things that don’t make any sense practically than how does our brain imagines those scenarios? How do we can see things in our mind that are not seen before? How can we humans imagine differently while reading the same book? The book can be a fantasy, love story, action story or even alien story we’ll still be able to imagine the scenes, characters and the voices too.

When I read books, I can hear the characters talking while reading their dialogues and even if I’m reading a life lesson book, I can still hear their voices. I imagine the characters, voices and the surroundings too. Once I was reading a book where the characters were visiting Turkey, and I who never went out of the city where I was born, can literally visualize Turkey, sitting in my sofa, eating snacks and having a warm cup of coffee. If the character is enjoying a view, a song or anything I enjoy with them too. Just like how we sometimes connect the vibes of a song and create the whole ambiance from it. This depends on how a writer executes their art too but have you ever thought of how despite being so normal we can visualize such extra ordinary things.

Reading is just an art which takes a visit of our brain and makes every part of our brain active. When we read something, our brain is fully active and focuses on the smallest details of the content we read. Our brain is active and focused during reading that it improves our brain power. Just like how after exercising our body becomes stronger, reading makes our brain stronger.

Reading takes you to another world

When we are reading our mind can only think of what we are reading. It takes all the focus from everything and diverts into reading. When I feel stressful or upset, I tend to read some good book that I’ve read 100 times before but I’ll still read again and my stress, mood swings and sadness just disappears and I find myself focused into that book or story. I find myself imagining the characters and even different imaginary worlds. That’s how impactful reading is. It takes to a whole new world tour by just sitting in your room.

Reading acts as therapeutic

Reading is an art that also is therapeutic for us. Having to focus on small details of writing is very healthy for our brain. We can emotionally feel what a book character says or feels. It also stimulates our emotions and we feel emotionally attached to the characters or books. Reading is a great catharsis for our emotions. For example, while reading Harry Potter, I was sobbing on the death of Professor Dumbledore it was the greatest shock for me and so upsetting that I was reading the scene at 3 am and I had to hide myself in my pillows so that my family can’t hear me crying just for a book character. For them it was just a character but for me he was PROFESOR DUMBLEDORE!!! How can I not cry for him who was with me for 6 books but now my favorite character was betrayed by his own ally (Well that’s how it seemed at that time).

Reading cures disorders too!!

It has been proved through scientific researches that reading proves beneficial for mental health issues and it improved people's mental health.  Active brain can avoid many diseases and specially at old age. An inactivity in brain increases the chances of people getting affected by diseases such as Alzheimer’s or Dementia, so reading helps in keeping your mind active. In this era, where mental health issues are rising rapidly and we can’t even find the time to go for therapy, such simple activity of reading can help you a great deal. So get out of that procrastination mode and jump to good book your friend has been telling you to read since forever and its never too late to adopt a healthy hobby. Have good read!!

Screen usage-How it effects the mental health..!!!!!

 

Does the usage of screen really effect the mental health? How does screen usage really affect the mental health?

Everything have good or bad impact on us it’s depend on us how we utilize those thing take example of usage of the screen if we use it properly it will beneficial for us if we use in not productive way we will damage our self.

In the last two decades we have seen the digital technology bloom well that is also why we spend our most of time on the screen. Many studies shows that the more usage of the screen can cause the depression and mental health issues.

Usually kids and the adults now a days spend most of their time on the screen so that they are not able to do the physical activities and also they are not able to interact with their friends and the family face-to-face that thing lead to the reduction in the mental growth and increase the risk of depression.

Those who spend more than six hours on the screen and don’t do the physical activities they were distracted, less emotionally stable and also find difficulty to finish the task it also cause the obesity and different other types of the diseases in the children and the adults who spend more time on the screen.

Covid-19(Lock down) and screen usage

During the period of the lockdown the usage of the screen rapidly because everyone is at home and do their work from the home through different app and there is also many business which raise in the lockdown but again these are the online business which increase the screen time and the universities student take online classes and do their assignment on the laptop which increase the agitation level in the students and also that decrease the creativity level.

Many studies shows that in the lock down people are unable to interact with each other and they spend more time on screen that cause tension in the person and they are unable to focus on the work from home and their studies which leads to decrease in the quality result.

Does usage of screen low the self-esteem and increase the depression in the person?

The constant increase in the time on the screen develop the depression in the human being they spend more time on the social media in our opinion that we are connected with our family and friend but we are not connected we just replacing our real time relation with the screen. The use of mobile, tabs and the laptop is the sedentary time which leads to the depression in the person. This thing also effect the personal life because we are not able to give our time to our family.

We spent our more than half time on the social media while the screen usage on which we see many influencer and the celebrity which have the strong impact on us and we tart compare ourselves with them and try to copy them which leads to the low self-esteem you will feel discourage about that thing and the negative talk on the social media will also affect your mental health you may think poorly about yourself.

Effect on sleep

The usage of the screen have an impact on

 our sleep we watch our favorite shows

,drama and play games  before going to the

sleep that effect our quality of sleep and the duration

of the sleep which leads to the worsen the mental health condition that include the depression and anxiety etc. We can observe these things in the kids and in the teenager. We should not use the mobile at least 30 min before going to the bed in order to have a quality sleep.

Support your mental health rather than harm it by using the screen we should use it in mindful. Parents should limit the usage of the mobiles, tabs etc. They should engage their children in physical activities.

 Traffic and It's Impact on Mental Health

Road traffic has always been a distraught start of the day for everyone. Although traffic has always been an unpleasant interaction on road since the invention of roads and cars but due to increasing population and use of vehicles has made traffic much more stressful. Production and consumption of vehicles worldwide has gone to approximately 92 million per year. Although infrastructure, road size, traffic rules and regulations have been improved according to the increased used of automobiles but still everyone face traffic issue.
Have you ever thought that how a traffic on road can effect your mental health immensely?
It is a human psyche that he can't wait for too long and when someone has to reach somewhere on time, road traffic becomes even more irritating.

But waiting in a long cue is not the only part of traffic but the pressure and stress of reaching on time, the horns around you creating noise pollution, the stress of getting out of that mess, the stress that someone behind you is waiting for you to get aside, and when the weather is not pleasant for you it also becomes a stress. And when you start your day with such kind of stress your day as a whole becomes a stress. Naturally you become irritated to everything around you, your mind be still in that traffic and getting confused, you can't work properly and there's no productivity left in your day.

Traumas on accidents leading to stress
A recent research mentioned in "International Journal on Environmental Research and Public Health" stated that road traffic indicates around 2 - 3% increase in depression risk.
Traffic noise and stress results in different behaviors and reactions of individual from different sources of traffic noise. Research has found that different kind of source of traffic noise has different effects on individual's mind for example some horns are more irritating than others causing more abrupt reactions of individuals. These reactions may lead to more stressful environment and becomes a reason for depression and anxiety and even road accidents are caused by such kind of chaos made in road traffic. Approximately 1.3 million people are met with accidents in road traffic.

Accidents due to road traffic is another issue to discuss but the after affects due to road accidents are severe as it usually gives a lifetime trauma or depression to survivor or usually to the family of that individual. Also the road traffic accidents around 3 percent of GDP is lost due to Deaths and injuries. Nonfatal Road traffic accidents have different outcomes i.e., psychological suffering, Cognitive dysfunction, adjustment disorder, functional impairment, loss of quality of life. Most common disorders of accident survivors are Acute Stress Disorder (ASD), Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), anxiety, depression, etc. These factors are usually ignored while taking care of physical injuries but they have to be looked upon as they can disrupt an individual's whole life quality.
These above are all the consequences of traffic and the chaos made due to traffic which can be minimized in various ways.

Government and traffic Rules, policies, projects on development (like providing quality and safe road infrastructure, strict punishments on violations on rules, training traffic police more, spreading awareness, using advance systems to over look and regulate traffic, providing quick services on any emergency on road causing traffic to reduce it) play an important role in controlling not only the irregularity in roads but might also help in controlling the consequences of this traffic in shape of depression and anxiety.
Besides the traffic police and government it is our duty as a good citizen to take care of the policies, behave patiently and spread awareness to others to follow the rules to reduce the factors creating traffic like over speeding, distracted driving etc.
Another initiative we can take is that we should minimize the access use of automobiles on road. If it is not necessary don't use a four seater car for one person you can use a public transport or can ask for friends to give you a ride if they are going the same place.
Also as a student or worker when you have a day to day routine of going somewhere instead of going alone per vehicle you should avail for a company, University or School bus to reduce traffic or at least you should be getting out of your home at least 20 to 30 minutes prior to your required time as it will reduce the stress of being late.
We should spread awareness on this and motivate others to do the same. It will reduce the traffic on the road, lesser will be the chaos and noise pollution and lesser will be the risk of depression.

ADHD-What is ADHD? Is it an excuse? How is it misunderstood?

 What is ADHD?

Have you ever come across a person who is immensely intelligent but looks so lazy, Someone who has so much potential to do something but they can't focus and they are lazy? Majority of parents and guardians just scold the children who can't sit still, can't focus, fidgets a lot or forget lots of things, but they don't have the proper knowledge that these are basically the symptoms of ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder).

 

Mostly people think that if their child/kid is being lazy and not good at focusing or is not being able to sit for a while they leave it to them considering it there playfulness, laziness or just being irresponsible. They will leave them be and think that they will be fine when they grow up. This is a huge misconception that people with ADHD will be fine when they will grow up. But in fact, those children with ADHD will grow up with it, the symptoms, the disorder won't disappear in future but will be more tough to treat.

 

If anyone, a child or an adult, shows such symptoms they should immediately be treated medically. Imagine a person suffering from this disorder is only being criticized or blamed for there behavior when they didn't even do anything and they don't even know what to do with it? How to live with it? Their mental health is shattered in struggle to cover up and live with it. Having same IQ and intelligence of your fellows but not being able to perform to their full potential, how would they have felt?

 

Many adults with ADHD are unaware that they have it, they only know that they struggle with normal activities which their fellows can do easily. Adults with ADHD may struggle to focus and setting priorities, resulting in missed due dates and missed meetings or social commitments. The failure to control the situation can be very annoying such as while waiting in line or driving in traffic, mood swings and temper tantrums. They just can’t do simple activities with ease, because they feel angry or irritated with them. We have often seen children or teens throwing tantrums on simple things because they can’t help it so they feel angry. People with ADHD are impulsive, they don’t have self-control so they do many things on impulses.  

When ADHD is diagnosed it is treated by two methods. First, they treat it with medications. Second, they collect information from the patient’s parents or guardians and start behavioral therapy. Behavioral therapy helps in reducing the medication and is very much effective in treatment. Mostly the symptoms start at childhood but if not treated they continue even in adults. Mostly adults with ADHD have one other mental health issue. Such are the effects of it are on one’s life. Many adults face trouble in building relationship because of ADHD. Their mood swings, frustrations and impulsiveness can cause a lot of harm for everyone they are related with, even their social circles get affected by it. 

It is a fact ADHD makes it difficult for a person to maintain his/her focus, but when it comes to mobile phones, video games, and televisions, however, the constant change of image, graphics, and games can captivate their attention. Their brain starts wanting the reward it receives when they're looking at a screen, making it difficult to pull themself away from it. It is also affecting their life as it makes them seem like someone who just don’t want to focus on their studies or work, when it is just an effect of ADHD.

ADHD can cause anxiety, sleep problems, panic attacks, impulsive buying, screen addiction, bad eating habits and chronic stress. When you have the disorder, your stress level is likely to be higher most of time. These problems can cause many troubles and create hindrances in one’s life. It may not have that much affect in their childhood but when they grow up with this problem it can affect not only their day-to-day activities but also professionally, they won’t be able to keep up the good work with these mood swings and frustrations. Also, impulsive buying can lead to a very bad financial condition and compulsive eating can harm their stomach and cause digestion problem.

There are many natural ways of treating ADHD too. For example, exercising, planning your sleep schedule and planning your meals, creating a routine, make goals for yourself, starve your distractions, having goals set for your life etc. While these are some natural remedies to treat ADHD but seeking medical help is necessary to treat it.