What is the difference between schizophrenia and multiple personality disorder?

What is Multiple Personality Disorder

One of the biggest confusions people have is - 'what is multiple personality disorder, and how is it different from schizophrenia'. In reality, these two mental illnesses are quite different. While schizophrenia impairs the ability of an individual to think and function properly, multiple personality disorder (MPD) leads to several split personalities. In schizophrenia, a person may have hallucinations and delusions; however, in MPD, the person is completely lost and detached from emotions and feelings. 

Definition

Now known as dissociative personality disorder (DID), multiple personality disorder is a medical condition that affects an individual to such an extent that his lifestyle is spent in daydreaming, and he or she is completely lost in the moment. We all often experience mild dissociation from our thoughts and surroundings. There are moments when we're completely lost in our thoughts. Still, in multiple personality disorder cases, there is a complete alienation of the person's thoughts, feelings, memories, actions, and sense of identity, and he/she cannot make any possible connections with any of his thoughts and feelings in the real world. Some of the most prominent symptoms of split personality are disassociating himself from any emotions, violent trauma or painful experience from himself and remaining aloof from any feelings. 

Causes

Multiple personality disorder is believed to stem from severe mental trauma during childhood, especially repetitive forms of physical and sexual abuse. In fact, theoretically, this disorder is linked to the interaction of some overwhelming stress due to any form of abuse in childhood or poor upbringing (parental neglect, poor child care) of the child in formative years. Statistics state that most patients suffering from dissociative personality disorder have gone through some form of child abuse during their formative years. 

The theory that is related to the causes of multiple personality disorder is known as developmental theory. According to this theory, split personality symptoms begin to appear during adulthood or teenage; the person consciously tries to avoid relating to or thinking of any feelings of sexual abuse and torture during his childhood. This avoidance creates deep dissociation of the person from the surroundings and from any emotions. The development theory also states that the memories and feelings of any traumatic experience may go into the subconscious mind and resurface in the later years of life. Besides these, the development theory also signifies that the alienation from past occurs many times in the child's growing phase, leading to the development of split personalities during adulthood.

Treatments Multiple personality disorder treatment is complicated owing to the difficulties in diagnosing this disorder, which is done with the help of a multiple personality disorder test. Psychotherapy is the primary tool for the treatment of MPD. While dealing with MPD or DID, therapists and psychologists help patients get comfortable with people related to them. They first try to open the person emotionally so that they can express themselves without any fear of the past. This is very important because the person can become very pessimistic and suffer severe attacks of past trauma and may go more into depression and anxiety.

Many therapists work together to help the person co-exist in many personalities which is a very difficult task. Developing techniques that help to heal patients from memory lapses, forms the most essential part of a medical treatment. Medications are other options for the treatment of MPDs. However, they've to be carefully monitored. In recent years, self-help groups for MPDs are coming openly on online communities to help each other with these disorders.

Understanding multiple personality disorders is very difficult, and cases of MPD must be referred to experts who have treated people with such disorders. Only experts have the ability and understanding of various symptoms and solutions of this disorder. So expert consultation is a must.

By Kundan Pandey

"What will I have for dinner?"

"Is it going to rain later?"

"I wonder what she meant by that."

Questions or comments silently passing through our minds reflect how most of us think; they’re normal. When the comments heard internally are the voices of other people, however, then psychiatrists suspect schizophrenia.

Among the myths surrounding schizophrenia, one of the most persistent is that it involves a "split personality," two separate and conflicting identities sharing one brain. A National Alliance on Mental Illness survey found that 64 per cent of the public shares this misconception.

"It’s a widespread misunderstanding," says Randon Welton, assistant professor of psychiatry at Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. "It’s based on the name. If you go to the Greek roots of the word—schizein, meaning splitting and phren, meaning mind—you have "split brain" or "split mind." However, the intended reference is to a split between rationality and emotions, not a split within a personality, explains Welton.

More appropriately, Split personality is an old name for multiple personality disorder, which is an outdated name for dissociative identity disorder (DID), an officially recognized but still controversial diagnosis. Welton notes that DID came to the public’s attention following the release of books and films such as The Three Faces of Eve and Sybil, accounts of women who developed multiple, distinct personalities following severe abuse as children.

"I would describe DID as a trauma-based illness," Welton says. Those affected by it have "at least two and often more distinct identity states which each have fairly consistent patterns of relating to the environment." The American Psychiatric Association definition specifies that "at least two of these identities or personality states recurrently take control of the person's behaviour."

By contrast, Welton describes schizophrenia as "a largely genetic illness that seems to be clustered within families. It seems to be more neurodevelopmental, influenced by how the brain develops. It usually presents in late teens to young adulthood and is more common than DID, with 2.2 million Americans living with the disease. Explains Welton, "You see a gradual, overall decrease in functioning with acute exacerbation, lasting weeks or months, of overtly psychotic symptoms--unless they are caught and treated."

While trauma is associated with both disorders, Welton explains that "the traditional difference is that with schizophrenia, the trauma tends to follow the disease. It is a consequence of the illness; it is not causative. Trauma doesn’t make someone have schizophrenia, whereas it is a reaction to the trauma for almost everyone with DID I’ve ever heard about." Schizophrenia is classified as a psychotic disorder and managed primarily through drugs, whereas DID is considered a developmental disorder more responsive to psychotherapy and behavioural modifications.

On the surface, the difference between the two disorders seems clear-cut. But some psychiatrists, such as Brad Foote of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, warn their peers that it may be possible to confuse the two conditions early in treatment. This may happen if voices of alternate personalities in a case of DID "leak through" and comment on events or talk directly to the core, central personality without completely taking it over.

"Traditionally, any time a patient reports hearing voices like this, it was a strong indication of schizophrenia," Welton says. "Psychosis is not a diagnostic key for DID, but it is a common finding in that they will hear one personality talking to another or a personality commenting on them."

If these observations are accurate, Welton says "it would be very easy to put that person into a psychotic disorder category because you did not ask the right questions or you didn’t ask in the right way."

Hearing voices may be more complicated than doctors or patients knew.

—Dean A. Haycock

Schizophrenia is NOT Multiple Personality Disorder

“Acting is not that far from mental disease: An actor works on splitting his character into others. It is like a kind of schizophrenia.” -Vittorio Gassman

Most people erroneously believe schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by alter egos or multiple personalities. This is probably because of simple linguistic confusion and the recurring mistakes in popular culture and online. I just want to set the record straight because it’s important not to perpetuate misinformation.

“Schizophrenia beats dining alone.” -Oscar Levant

Schizophrenia is characterized by emotional numbness, auditory hallucinations, paranoid or grandiose delusions, and disorganized thoughts and speech. People with schizophrenia have a diminished sense of reality – a completely different experience than multiple personalities.

“Never get into an argument with a schizophrenic person and say, ‘Who do you think you are?’” -Ray Combs

In fact, the terms multiple personalities, split personalities, or alter egos are all outdated. Dissociative Identity Disorder is the current name for this disorder.

“Roses are red, violets are blue, I’m schizophrenic, and so am I.” -Oscar Levant

So where did the confusion come from? It may have been from the translation of the Greek words “skhizein” and “phren,” from which “schizophrenia” is derived. The former means “split,” and the latter means “mind,” but the word was intended to mean that the functions of the mind were split.

“The idea of stardom was difficult to grasp. It was like being schizophrenic; there was her, the woman on television, and the real me.” -Jessica Savitch

And nowadays, people use the word “schizophrenic” colloquially, which makes even less sense. For example:

“I’m really schizophrenic about that, because on the one hand I would say, yes there is, there’s something inherently, even violent about it, it’s wild and raw and all this.” -Lester Bangs

“I feel a little schizophrenic because my life is so totally different from here, obviously. And the French values are so different from American values.” -Adrian Lyne

“In Poland, my audience is all women between 18 and 30. At U.S. conventions, you have the fantasy and science fiction crowd. At Harvard you have an entirely different audience. It’s so schizophrenic.” -Jonathan Carroll

As Ann Kring – a clinical psychology professor at the University of California at Berkeley – says, it’s a little bit like saying “Oh, quit being so diabetic about it.” It makes no sense. Furthermore, Kring says we should not label people as schizophrenics but “people with schizophrenia.” Dehumanizing someone with a stigmatic label should obviously be avoided, just as misusing schizophrenia should. As HealthyPlace aptly puts it, Dissociative Identity Disorder and schizophrenia “are not even remotely the same. Continuing to treat them as such perpetuates gross misunderstandings that isolate people with both of these disorders.”

“There’s a fine line between the Method actor and the schizophrenic.” -Nicolas Cage

Maa Paapalu Song - Sri Shiridi Saibaba Mahatyam

Sagar lake

Located just behind the City Palace, Sagar lake was constructed in 1815 AD. Formerly used as a holy bathing ghat, Sagar lake has been able to withstand the beatings of time. Over centuries, people has been following the sacred tradition of feeding the pigeons. It is this lovely pond that separates the City Palace from the surrounding pebbly hills. The local belief is that water in the pond is bestowed with some therapeutic tendencies !! Pic Posted by Varun Gupta In Message Box !!

 

The Scent of a Cat Woman

Is the secret to Chanel No. 5’s success a parasite?

By Patrick House|

While creating Chanel No. 5, Coco resorted to an old perfumer’s trick: scrapings of sexual pheromones from the perianal gland of the Abyssinian civet cat

Photograph by Thinkstock.

On the fifth day of the fifth month of 1921, Coco Chanel changed the scent of the world. She released Chanel No. 5 as her final vaudeville act—her only child. The perfume would grow to be “le monstre" of the perfume industry, a $300-per-ounce, elegant mist still anchoring the multibillion-dollar Chanel empire. It succeeded where others had never tried by combining the cheap, musky scent of the courtesan demi-mondaines—the “women of the half-world,” as Coco herself was—with the light, single florals reserved for the upper class of Parisian women. Needing a musky base note, Coco resorted to an old perfumer’s trick: scrapings of sexual pheromones from the perianal gland of the Abyssinian civet cat.

Fast-forward to 1998. French chemists discovered something unexpected in a 1995 sauvignon blanc from Bordeaux: 3-mercapto-3-methylbutan-1-ol, a grape breakdown product that doubles as a fragrant pheromone in cat pee. We now know this is common to sauvignon blanc, and not always unwelcome among wine critics: “Compare [cat pee] to an off-note that adds complexity to a piece of music.” One New Zealand winery even named a bottle after the scent—“Cat’s Pee on a Gooseberry Bush.”

Why is it that the elite French perfumers (known as “noses”) and sommeliers (“upturned noses”) of the world spend so much of their time inhaling cat effluvia from expensive glass bottles? A guess: It may have to do with a mind-control parasite called Toxoplasma gondii. The tiny protozoan may be getting into our brains and tricking us into liking cats—not to mention certain perfumes and wines.

In a recent study, Czech scientists gave men and women towels scented with the urine of various animals—horses, lions, hyenas, cats, dogs—which they rated for “pleasantness.” Turns out, men who tested positive for Toxo found the smell of cat urine more pleasant than men without Toxo. For Toxo researchers like me, this was a shock but not entirely surprising. Why? Toxo does approximately the same thing to rats.

Toxo reproduces only in a cat’s stomach and needs an intermediate host to taxi from one cat to the next. Enter le rat. Toxo infects the rat brain and scrambles neurons to make the rat less afraid of cat urine. How? The neural circuitry for fear is right next to the neural circuitry for sexual attraction in male rats, and it seems Toxo can hijack the sexual attraction circuit to respond to cat urine. A less-afraid (and maybe even a little turned-on) rat is thus a likelier-to-be-eaten rat, allowing Toxo to settle in the new feline host and start the lifecycle anew.

Sometimes, though, Toxo ends up in a human’s brain (an evolutionary dead end for the parasite, unless you are Val Kilmer), courtesy of forgetting to wash one’s hands after cleaning cat litter—the parasite is in cat feces—or eating undercooked meat with Toxo in it—livestock often stomp around on beds of fertilizer made from, yes, cat feces. Worldwide, 1 billion to 2 billion people have the tiny Toxo parasite in their brains.

Once you play host to Toxo, you have it for life. But unlike most anything else that finds a way into your brain, it’s basically harmless as long as your immune system is working and you aren’t pregnant. It’s possible that Toxo is doing something to the host human brain—we just don’t yet know what.

Now, maybe the men with Toxo from the Czech study have pet cats at home (making them more likely to pick up Toxo) and the cat pee evokes Elysian fondness for their Fluffypuss. In this case, Toxo does absolutely nothing but is still correlated with preferring the smell of cat urine. Or maybe these men with Toxo romantically incline to cat-ladies—women with Toxo might be more promiscuous, after all.

Or maybe, like with the rats, Toxo is changing something about the way the brain processes cat smells, making the men with Toxo find it more pleasant. Could it be that Toxo is the perfumer par excellance, with privileged access to the very seat of smell itself? Is it a coincidence that “le monstre” of the perfume industry and the Bordeaux sauvignon blanc both come from France, a country with one of the highest rates of Toxo in the world?

Why would a perfumer spend her days perfecting aldehydes and tinctures to recreate the smell of water at midnight when she could—if unintentionally—exploit the fact that 45 percent of her French countrymen have parasites in their brains that may be skewing the inner, subjective world of smell?

Musk gives durability and stubbornness to otherwise ephemeral scents in perfumes and almost always comes from the dark nether regions of solitary animals, which is probably why even the New York Times’ perfume critic Chandler Burr balks at the open-air smells of Givaudan, one of the world’s great perfume schools. There are a few options for the perfumer: Musk proper comes from sexual pheromones of a musk deer, castoreum (a musk alternative) from urine-filled castor sacs of beavers, and civet from a sexual perianal gland the civet cat. (The African civet cat is not technically a cat, in the Feline sense, but a Feliformia, a broader class of “cat-like” carnivores that includes both cats and civet cats—though both prey on rats and mark their territory with sexual and urinary pheromones.)

The history of perfume is an intimate history of animal come-hithers. Despite rampant speculation the human pheromone, like dark matter, has yet to be discovered, let alone bottled (“pheromone parties” in Los Angeles and New York notwithstanding.) So instead we outsource production to animals. But why some over others? It may be a coincidence, but it is nevertheless worthy of note that in ancient Egypt, home of the world’s first perfumers, home of some of the earliest domesticated cats, where the penalty for killing cats was death, where it was a crime to not save a cat from a burning building, Bastet served as god of both perfume and cats.

Clearly most of these ideas are unprovable, a fancy feast of unfalsifiable theory—often both the most interesting and the most useless line of inquiry for the scientist. Do civets and domestic cats use similar pheromones? Unknown. Is Toxo really altering human response to cat odors, like in the rats? Unknown. Do people with Toxo prefer Chanel No. 5 over those without Toxo? We may never know. Chanel stopped using civet in 1998 in No. 5 for animal rights reasons, replacing it with a synthetic version (though you can still buy vintage). No word on if the new No. 5 is any less popular.

As a company, Chanel marks its territory like a cat does its palm fronds. Decades of spokesmodels from Keira Knightley to Audrey Tautou to Nicole Kidman all leave an elegant Chanel No. 5 sillage in their wake long after they leave both the room and their suitors behind. Marilyn Monroe, arch-queen of the human come-hither, claims she wore to bed nothing but “two drops of Chanel No. 5.” Perhaps instead we should think of her bedroom as not her own territory, nor DiMaggio’s, nor Arthur Miller’s, nor JFK’s—but, rather, the extended territory of a lonely civet cat.

Source: Slate
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2012/07/chanel_no_5_a_brain_parasite_may_be_the_secret_to_the_famous_perfume_.single.html

Comment:Never eat undercooked cat faeces...

Posted by
Robert Karl Stonjek

Beets and Cancer

shirdi sai baba (kannada song)

Understanding multiple personality disorder

The Ackworth School in England, United Kingdom kindly gave permission to use the artwork.

(Medical Xpress) -- New research from King’s College London’s Institute of Psychiatry brings us closer to understanding the mechanisms behind multiple personality disorders.  The study is the first of its kind and finds evidence suggesting that the condition is not linked to fantasy, strengthening the idea that it is related to trauma.

It is estimated that multiple personality disorder, more recently known as dissociative identity disorder (DID), may affect approximately one per cent of the general population, similar to levels reported for schizophrenia. People eventually diagnosed with DID often have several earlier misdiagnoses, including schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. DID is characterized by two or more distinct `identities' or `personality states' - each with their own perception of the environment and themselves. 

Despite being recognised in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV), controversy remains around the diagnosis. Some experts argue that DID is linked to trauma such as chronic emotional neglect and/or emotional, physical, or sexual abuse from early childhood. Others hold a non-trauma-related view of DID, whereby the condition is believed to be related to fantasy proneness, suggestibility, simulation or enactment. 

Dr. A.A.T. Simone Reinders from the Department of Psychosis Studies at the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s and lead author of the study published in PLoS ONE says: ‘Whether dissociative identity disorder is considered a genuine mental disorder is subject to passionate debate amongst scientists, clinicians and psychiatrists.'

‘We aimed to test the validity of the non-trauma related view. By comparing people with dissociative identity disorder to both high and low-fantasy-prone participants enacting the condition, we found stark differences in their psychological and biological responses to recalling trauma, suggesting that the condition is not related to enactment or fantasy. The study is an interesting and important step forward in the condition debate.’

The trauma-related view implies that DID is a coping strategy where different types of identities can develop. For example, neutral identity states (NIS), where DID patients concentrate on functioning in daily life and deactivate access to any traumatic memories, and trauma-related identity states (TIS), where DID patients have conscious access to the traumatic memories.

The researchers studied 29 people: 11 patients diagnosed with DID, 10 high fantasy prone and 8 low fantasy-prone healthy controls simulating DID. The level of fantasy proneness is an indication of how easily an individual can engage in fantasy, imagery and/or daydreaming.  The researchers measured participants' reactions, cardiovascular responses and brain activity with positron emission tomography (PET) scans when genuine and simulated NIS and TIS were exposed to autobiographical trauma-related or neutral information.

They found strong differences in regional cerebral blood flow and psychophysiological responses between the DID patients and both high and low-fantasy-prone controls, suggesting that the different identity states in DID were not convincingly enacted by DID-simulating controls. 

The study was supported by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research and in collaboration with the University Medical Centre Groningen at the University of Groningen in The Netherlands. 

More information: Reinders, A.A.T. S. et al. ‘Fact or factitious: a psychobiological study of authentic and simulated dissociative identity states’ PLoS ONE (29 June 2012) doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0039279

Provided by King's College London

"Understanding multiple personality disorder." July 2nd, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-multiple-personality-disorder.html

Comment:The Internet version is called 'Multiple font Disorder'.  Sufferers frequenctly change font and have no recollection of anything they wrote in the other font...

Robert

Nagarjuna shirdi sai baba New HD Song

Study shows loss of control leads to paranormal beliefs

(Medical Xpress) -- People who felt a lack of control in their lives were more likely to believe in the claimed “psychic abilities” of a famous octopus, a University of Queensland (UQ) study has found.

Paul the Octopus gained notoriety during the 2010 soccer World Cup for correctly “predicting" the winner of all games in the competition.

The eight-armed “psychic” was the subject of Dr Katharine Greenaway's experiment involving 40 participants.

Dr Greenaway said half of the participants were induced to feel a sense of high control and the other half to feel in low control.

“We did this by having half the people recall and write about an incident in their lives over which they had no control and having the other half recall and write about an incident over which they had control,” Dr Greenaway said.

Participants were then asked to indicate the extent to which they thought Paul would have made all those correct decisions based on chance alone.

She said 40 per cent of people in the low-control category believed the octopus had psychic abilities.

Only five per cent of people with a condition of high control were believers.

“The people with a low sense of control believed Paul must have precognitive ability – in other words, the ability to predict the future,” Dr Greenaway said.

“It seems that belief in precognition is one way that people can ‘trick' themselves to feeling in control in situations they have no control over.”

Dr Greenaway said it had been known for a long time that control was important to people, but her research provided insights into the lengths people would go to maintain the feeling of control in their lives.

“The bottom line is that people don't like feeling out of control, so they go through a series of psychological ‘gymnastics' to help maintain the perception that they are in control of their lives - and it seems to work,” she said.

Dr Greenaway also looked at how "in control" people felt when in a threatening situation – such as being exposed to terrorism or the global financial crisis.

She found that when people felt low in control in these threatening contexts they were more likely to become hostile and prejudiced towards other people — particularly foreigners.

“This research highlights how when people feel threatened and out of control they take it out on others in an effort to make themselves feel better,” she said.

The findings showed that loss of control had a profound psychological impact that caused people to change their individual beliefs and orientations towards others.

Provided by University of Queensland

"Study shows loss of control leads to paranormal beliefs." July 2nd, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-loss-paranormal-beliefs.html

Posted by
Robert Karl Stonjek

Ashadhi Ekadashi

Shayani Ekadashi (lit. "sleeping eleventh") or Maha-ekadashi (lit. "The great eleventh") or Prathama-ekadashi (lit. "The first eleventh") or Padma Ekadashi is the eleventh lunar day (Ekadashi) of the bright fortnight (Shukla paksha) of the Hindu month of Ashadha (June - July). Thus it is also known as Ashadhi Ekadashi or Ashadhi.

 

This day, a huge yatra or religious procession of pilgrims known as Pandharpur Ashadi Ekadasi Waari Yatra [4]culminates at Pandharpur, in Solapur district in south Maharashtra, situated on the banks of the Bhima River. Pandharpur is main center of worship of the deityVithoba, a local form of Vishnu. Thousands of pilgrims come to Pandharpur on this day from different parts of Maharashtra. Some of them carry Palkhis (palanquins) with the images of the saints of Maharashtra. Dnyaneshwar's image is carried from Alandi, Tukaram's fromDehu, Eknath's from Paithan, Nivruttinath's from Trimbakeshwar, Muktabai's from Muktainagar, Sopan's from Sasvad and Saint Gajanan Maharaj from Shegaon. These pilgrims are referred to as Warkaris. They sing Abhangas (chanting hymns) of Saint Tukaram and Saint Dnyaneshwar, dedicated to Vithoba.

 

As per the legend,Pundalik,was the devoted son of Janudev and Satyavati.After his marriage he ill treated them.Annoyed with his behaviour,the parents left for the pilgrimage to Kashi ,Varanasi etc.

 

Pundalik and his wife also joined them and continued with their harassment to them.Pundalik made his old parents walk while he and his young wife rode on a horse.On the way, they reached the hermitage of the sage, Kukkutswami. 
All of them being tired of journey,decided to rest for some days there itself.The next morning,just before the dawn,Pundalik saw a group of beautiful, young women dressed in dirty clothes who entered the hermitage.They cleaned the floor,washed the Sage’s clothes and did other such jobs.On finishing their jobs, they went to the prayer room and came out with spotlessly clean clothes and they disappeared.

 

Pundalik was very happy to see all this but thought he was dreaming.The next day when the incident was repeated,he talked to the women and asked curiously,'Who are you ?'They replied,'We are Ganga, Yamuna and all the holy rivers of India.People wipe away their sins by taking a bath in us.But you are a biggest sinner,because of the way you treat your parents.'

Pundalik was shaken with their statement.He realized his mistake and wanted to improve his ways.He soon started serving his parents well and looked after all their needs and comforts.

 

Lord Vishnu was extremely pleased by seeing Pundalik’s sincere devotion towards his parents.He left his abode,Vaikauntha-Lok, to bless Pundalik.Lord Vishnu came to Pundalik’s house and knocked his door.Pundalik was engrossed serving his parents and his devotion to his parents was so sincere that he wanted to finish his duties first and then attend to whoever was at the door.
 

Pundalik flung a brick(Vit) towards the door to offer a platform for the guest,to wait at the door.The Lord Vishnu was very much pleased with Pundalik's devotion to his parents and he waited for him on the brick.When came to know the fact,Pundalik apologised Lord Vishnu,for keeping him waiting,but the Lord instead offered him to get a boon to be fulfilled.

Pundalik soon requested him to remain on earth and bless all his devotees.His wish was granted and the Lord remained behind and is known as Vithoba(Lord who stands on a brick).This form of the Lord Vishnu is Swayambhu(came into existence on its own).He is always seen accompanied by his consort Rakhumai or Rukmini.

 

*In the scripture Bhavishyottara Purana,God narrated significance of Shayani Ekadashi to king Yudhisthira, as the creator-god Brahma did it to his son Narada.The story of king Mandata has reference to this.The country of king Mandata was struck by drought for three years,but the king could not to find a solution to come out of it and to please the rain god.

 

Later on,the sage Angiras advised the king Mandata to observe the 'Vrat' of Dev-shayani ekadashi.King Mandata followed his advise and on doing so Lord Vishnu was pleased and blessed king Mandata and there was rain in the kingdom and all were happy.

பெண்கள் வாழ தகுதியான நாடு - கனடா நம்பர் 1, இந்தியாவுக்கு கடைசி இடம்

பெண்கள் வாழ தகுதியான நாடுகளின் பட்டியலில் கனடா முதலிடத்தை பிடித்துள்ளது. இந்தியாவில் பெண்களுக்கு எதிரான வன்முறைகள் அதிகம் உள்ளதால் நம்நாடு கடைசி இடத்தில் உள்ளது.   உடல் ரீதியாகவும், தொழில்ரீதியாகவும், அரசியல் ரீதியாகவும் பெண்களுக்கு தேவையான அடிப்படை உரிமைகளை நிறைவேற்றுதல், வன்கொடுமைகளை தடுத்தல் போன்றவைகளை கனடா நாட்டு அரசாங்கம் சிறப்பாக நிறைவேற்றி வருகிறது. இதனால்தான் ஜி 20 நாடுகளிலேயே பெண்கள் வாழ தகுதியான நாடுகளின் பட்டியலில் கனடா முதலிடத்தை பிடித்துள்ளது. மேலும் பெண்களின் வன்முறைக்கு எதிரான நடவடிக்கைகள், பெண்களின் சுகாதாரத்தைப் பேணும் திட்டங்கள் சிறப்பாக இருப்பதும் முக்கிய காரணம் ஆகும்.   கனடாவைத் தொடர்ந்து ஜெர்மனி, பிரிட்டன், ஆஸ்திரேலியா, பிரான்ஸ் ஆகிய நாடுகள் முதல் 5 இடங்களைப் பிடித்துள்ளன.   பெண்கள் மற்றும் குழந்தைகளை பாலியல் தொழிலுக்காக விற்றல்,குழந்தை திருமணம், வரதட்சணை கொடுமை, வீட்டுப் பணிப்பெண்கள் பாலியல் கொடுமைக்கு உள்ளாவது போன்ற காரணங்களால் பெண்கள் வாழ தகுதியான நாடுகளின் பட்டியலில் இந்தியாவுக்கு கடைசி இடம் கிடைத்துள்ளது என்பதுதான் வேதனையான தகவல்.   இந்தியாவிற்கு முன்னதாக உள்ள இடங்களில் சவுதி அரேபியா, இந்தோனேசியா, தென்னாப்ரிக்கா, மெக்சிகோ ஆகிய நாடுகள் இடம்பெற்றுள்ளன என்பது குறிப்பிடத்தக்கது.   இணையத்திலிருந்து நீலாம்பரி

'Self-distancing' can help people calm aggressive reactions, study finds

A new study reveals a simple strategy that people can use to minimize how angry and aggressive they get when they are provoked by others.

When someone makes you angry, try to pretend you're viewing the scene at a distance - in other words, you are an observer rather than a participant in this stressful situation. Then, from that distanced perspective, try to understand your feelings.

Researchers call this strategy "self-distancing."

In one study, college students who believed a lab partner was berating them for not following directions responded less aggressively and showed less anger when they were told to take analyze their feelings from a self-distanced perspective.

"The secret is to not get immersed in your own anger and, instead, have a more detached view," said Dominik Mischkowski, lead author of the research and a graduate student in psychology at Ohio State University.

"You have to see yourself in this stressful situation as a fly on the wall would see it."

While other studies have examined the value of self-distancing for calming angry feelings, this is the first to show that it can work in the heat of the moment, when people are most likely to act aggressively, Mischkowski said.

The worst thing to do in an anger-inducing situation is what people normally do: try to focus on their hurt and angry feelings to understand them, said Brad Bushman, a co-author of the study and professor of communication and psychology at Ohio State.

"If you focus too much on how you're feeling, it usually backfires," Bushman said.

"It keeps the aggressive thoughts and feelings active in your mind, which makes it more likely that you'll act aggressively."

Mischkowski and Bushman conducted the study with Ethan Kross of the University of Michigan. Their findings appear online in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology and will be published in a future print edition.

There were two related studies. The first involved 94 college students who were told they were participating in a study about the effects of music on problem solving, creativity and emotions.

The students listened to an intense piece of classical music while attempting to solve 14 difficult anagrams (rearranging a group of letters to form a word such as "pandemonium"). They had only seven seconds to solve each anagram, record their answer and communicate it to the experimenter over an intercom.

But the plan of the study was to provoke the students into anger, which the experimenters did using a technique which has been used many times in similar studies.

The experimenter interrupted the study participants several times to ask them to speak louder into the intercom, finally saying "Look, this is the third time I have to say this! Can't you follow directions? Speak louder!"

After this part of the experiment, the participants were told they would be participating in a task examining the effects of music on creativity and feelings.

The students were told to go back to the anagram task and "see the scene in your mind's eye." They were put into three groups, each of which were asked to view the scene in different ways.

Some students were told to adopt a self-immersed perspective ("see the situation unfold through your eyes as if it were happening to you all over again") and then analyze their feelings surrounding the event. Others were told to use the self-distancing perspective ("move away from the situation to a point where you can now watch the event unfold from a distance…watch the situation unfold as if it were happening to the distant you all over again") and then analyze their feelings. The third control group was not told how to view the scene or analyze their feelings.

Each group was told the replay the scene in their minds for 45 seconds.

The researchers then tested the participants for aggressive thoughts and angry feelings.

Results showed that students who used the self-distancing perspective had fewer aggressive thoughts and felt less angry than both those who used the self-immersed approach and those in the control group.

"The self-distancing approach helped people regulate their angry feelings and also reduced their aggressive thoughts," Mischkowski said.

In a second study, the researchers went further and showed that self-distancing can actually make people less aggressive when they've been provoked.

In this study, 95 college students were told they were going to do an anagram task, similar to the one in the previous experiment. But in this case, they were told they were going to be working with an unseen student partner, rather than one of researchers (in reality, it actually was one of the researchers). In this case, the supposed partner was the one who delivered the scathing comments about following directions.

As in the first study, the participants were then randomly assigned to analyze their feelings surrounding the task from a self-immersed or a self-distanced perspective. Participants assigned to a third control group did not receive any instructions regarding how to view the scene or focus on their feelings.

Next, the participants were told they would be competing against the same partner who had provoked them earlier in a reaction-time task. The winner of the task would get the opportunity to blast the loser with noise through headphones - and the winner chose the intensity and length of the noise blast.

The findings showed that participants who used the self-distancing perspective to think about their partners' provocations showed lower levels of aggression than those in the other two groups. In other words, their noise blasts against their partner tended to be shorter and less intense.

"These participants were tested very shortly after they had been provoked by their partner," Mischkowski said.

"The fact that those who used self-distancing showed lower levels of aggression shows that this technique can work in the heat of the moment, when the anger is still fresh."

Mischkowski said it is also significant that those who used the self-distancing approach showed less aggression than those in the control group, who were not told how to view the anger-inducing incident with their partner.

This suggests people may naturally use a self-immersing perspective when confronted with a provocation - a perspective that is not likely to reduce anger.

"Many people seem to believe that immersing themselves in their anger has a cathartic effect, but it doesn't. It backfires and makes people more aggressive," Bushman said.

Another technique people are sometimes told to use when angered is to distract themselves - think of something calming to take their mind off their anger.

Mischkowski said this may be effective in the short-term, but the anger will return when the distraction is not there.

"But self-distancing really works, even right after a provocation - it is a powerful intervention tool that anyone can use when they're angry."

Provided by Ohio State University

"'Self-distancing' can help people calm aggressive reactions, study finds." July 2nd, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-self-distancing-people-calm-aggressive-reactions.html

Posted by
Robert Karl Stonjek

Online depression fix has big impact

People who used the online depression programs had a marked increase in their quality of life. Credit: Jerry Bunkers on Flickr

(Medical Xpress) -- Online depression therapy programs can have a positive impact on more than just depressive symptoms, a new study from The Australian National University reveals.

Dr. Lou Farrer, from the ANU Centre for Mental Health Research, part of the ANU College of Medicine, Biology and Environment, trialled the effectiveness of online programs MoodGYM and BluePages with users of Lifeline’s telephone crisis line. She found that the online programs had a positive influence across a range of problems – not just depression.

“In addition to reducing depression symptoms, we found that the online programs were effective in reducing hazardous alcohol use in Lifeline callers. There was a significant drop in alcohol use among those who used MoodGYM and BluePages,” she said.

“The results also showed that people who used the online programs had a marked increase in their quality of life, as measured by a scale that assessed satisfaction with different areas of daily living.

“We also found that after treatment, people’s knowledge of depression increased. This is essential to enable people to be able to better understand and recognize the signs and symptoms of future depressive episodes.”

Dr. Farrer said that these results follow on from her original study published in 2011, which showed that the use of online programs for Lifeline callers was effective in reducing symptoms of depression.

“We worked with Lifeline centres in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast. Lifeline telephone crisis supporters identified callers who seemed to be experiencing symptoms of depression or anxiety. These people were then split into different groups who were asked to complete different programs using the online intervention tools MoodGYM and Blue Pages.”

Dr. Farrer said that these results showed that depression treatments can have important flow on effects.

“We didn’t expect these results, as the programs are designed specifically to treat depression.  It’s exciting to see that by alleviating depression, these programs may also be helpful in improving how people function in their day-to-day lives,” she said.

“What we need now is funding to roll these programs out into Lifeline on a more permanent basis so that callers can benefit.”

More information: http://www.jmir.or … /2012/3/e68/

Provided by Australian National University

"Online depression fix has big impact." July 2nd, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-online-depression-big-impact.html

Posted by
Robert Karl Stonjek