People with OCD tend to be stiff and formal in demeanor, precise and orderly about tasks, and overly concerned about conforming to social norms. They also tend to be intellectual rather than emotional in expression and are notably deferential to others. When they speak, they often qualify potentially assertive statements so as to make them less offensive. At the same time, people with OCD may be prone to lengthy monologues about subjects of interest, and they will continue to discourse even if the listener tries to interrupt or change the subject.

OCD seems to worsen during pregnancy in some women. In others, pregnancy triggers symptoms of OCD that never before existed. After delivery some women seem to develop OCD as a form of postpartum psychiatric disorder. These women often have unwanted and intrusive thoughts of harming their baby. Perhaps as a result of these impulses, women with OCD tend to have trouble bonding with their infants and try to avoid situations, such as bathing the infant, in which they might try to enact their fantasies. Sometimes obsessive-compulsive symptoms accompany other psychiatric changes such as depression which may appear in the weeks or months after the birth of a baby.

Treatment of OCD
Many people with OCD respond well to antidepressants or other drug therapy, often in combination with cognitive or other forms of behavioural psychotherapy. In women with postpartum OCD or OCD that has been exacerbated by pregnancy, the antidepressants Prozac(fluoxetine), Zoloft(sertraline), or Paxil(paroxetine) seem to be particularly effective, especially if combined with psychotherapy. in women who also have symptoms of depression, tricyclic antidepressants, such as amitriptyline(Elavil) or desipramine(Norpramin) may also help. Since very little is understood about OCD in these women, however, the final word about effective treatment must await results of the various studies.

Other links
Obssessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
Facts about OCD

Causes
What causes OCD remains largely a mystery. Some psychiatrists attribute the disorder to early childhood experiences related to issues of control and authority. Others hypothesize that people with OCD may have some genetic predisposition that makes them oversensitive to change.

Who is likely to develop OCD?
Obsessive-compulsive disorder rarely starts in people younger than their late teens or early 20s. It is not uncommon for people with depression or anxiety to have symptoms of OCD as well.

How is OCD evaluated?
Clinicians experienced in diagnosing and treating mental disorders can usually identify OCD in a woman showing signs of obsessions and compulsion. Certain obsessions, however, are difficult to distinguish from phobias(irrational fears), and in fact there may be a gray area between these two categories of mental illness. In addition, some people with OCD or obsessional characteristics also have other mental or emotional disorders, including depression, or rarely, an early stage of schizophrenia.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder(OCD)is a chronic or long-term illness. Although unrecognized by most people, OCD affects many people. Because the symptoms are so severe, OCD can be devastating. Anxiety is the most prominent symptom of OCD. Patients often cannot maintain emotional and social relations, have difficulty coping with daily life events, and have problems studying or working. Consequently, they face emotional and economic losses.

Symptoms of OCD vary with each person and include the following:

Obsessive thoughts

• Fear of dirt or germs or overconcern about body smells/secretions or the proper functioning of the body

• Overconcern with order, neatness, and exactness

• Fear of thinking bad thoughts or doing something embarrassing

• Constantly thinking of certain sounds, words, or numbers or a preoccupation with counting or checking

• Constant need for approval or the need to apologize

• Fear that something terrible will happen or fear of harming yourself or someone else
• Disturbing thoughts of violence. Sometimes the sufferer’s violent thoughts will be directed toward themselves or loved ones.

Compulsive behaviors

• Constant hand washing due to an extreme fear of contamination, showering, or brushing teeth or the overuse of items to hide body smells

• Constantly cleaning, straightening, and ordering certain objects

• Excessive repetition of a procedure or ritual — Repeatedly checking zippers and buttons on clothing; Checking lights, appliances, or doors again and again to be sure they are turned off or closed; Repeating certain physical activities, such as sitting down and getting up from a chair; Religious rituals, such as constant silent praying

• Hoarding, which is the constant saving of useless items. The homes of OCD sufferers who hoard maybe become piled with garbage, because some people cannot even stand to throw away empty boxes and containers.

• Asking the same question or saying the same thing over and over — A word or phrase, repeated mentally. This also applies to music. A sufferer may have a song repeated in their head for days or weeks.

• Avoiding public places or taking extreme measures to prevent harm to yourself or others

• Constant need for symmetry of objects.

Sometimes the disorder progresses because it is not diagnosed and therefore not treated. Sometimes the patient believes it will spontaneously go away, but it rarely does. Sometimes the patient, family, and friends deal with the symptoms in a way that is not helpful and in fact very often destructive. With proper treatment, however, the chances of recovery are good. Treatments found to be successful include behavioural and cognitive therapy and drug therapy. Following treatment, patients can function once again. They can recover their losses and join the mainstream. Those with OCD should never give up.

Treatments for Mental Disorders
1. Somatic Therapy
Somatic Therapy usually involves the use of medications. One commonly used group of medications are neuroleptic drugs, sometimes called antipsychotics. These drugs are used mainly to treat psychosis. Antidepressants are a group of drugs used to control abnormalities of mood. Anxiolytics reduce anxiety and are used chiefly to treat conditions characterized by excessive anxiety, including phobias and panic disorder. Lithium carbonate is a drug used to treat bipolar disorder, also called mani-depressive disorder. A person with this disorder experiences alternating periods of sadness and joy.

A type of somatic therapy called electroconvulsive therapy is sometimes used to treat severe depression. In this type of therapy, a mild electric current is passed through the patient’s brain after the patient has been given a drug that causes sleep.

2. Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy is any form of treatment by psychological means. There are many types of psychotherapy. Most psychotherapy is based on discussions between the patient and the psychiatrist. The doctor works to build the patient’s confidence and to help the patient develop a more contented outlook toward life. Commonly, the patient and doctor meet for a psychotherapy session once or twice a week for several months. But sessions may occur more frequently or less frequently.

Sometimes groups of three or more patients participate in group therapy. By meeting as a group with the psychiatrist, the patients help each other understand themselves.

When working with a child, the psychiatrist may use play therapy. The child, instead of talking about his or her problems, acts them out with toys and games.

Two widely used forms of psychotherapy are psychoanalysis and behaviour therapy. Psychoanalysis, which may last for a number of years, focuses on unconscious thoughts and feelings. According to psychoanalytic theory, the causes of many mental illnesses lie buried in the unconscious. The patient meets with the psychiatrist and talks about whatever comes to mind. The physician helps the patient understand his or her problems by uncovering the causes.

Behaviour Therapy aims to help patients change their behaviour rather than help them understand why they act the way they do. Psychiatrists use positive and negative reinforcement to encourage patients to act in a healthier way. Using positive reinforcement, the psychiatrist praises or rewards the patient for “Good” behaviour. This technique is considered more effective than negative reinforcement, which includes scolding the patient for “bad” behaviour.

Mental disorders are characterized by a variety of symptoms, such as abnormal moods or behaviour, excessive anxiety, and hallucinations. These symptoms often upset the person who experiences them and may interfere with the person’s ability to lead a normal life. The causes of most mental disorders are unknown. Some may arise from emotional conflicts or psychological stress. Others may result from learned behaviour patterns or are caused by biological defects in the brain. Many mental disorders are believed to result from a combination of emotional, social and biological factors.

Ways of defining and classifying mental disorders have changed over time. Older classification systems made a distinction between psychoses and neuroses. Psychoses are severe mental disorders in which a person loses touch with reality and experiences such symptoms as delusions and hallucinations. Neuroses are milder disorders marked by excessive anxiety. Other kinds of mental disorders include dementias and personality disorders. Dementias are abnormalities in thinking or behaviour caused by brain injury or brain deterioration. Personality disorders involve a tendency to act in socially unacceptable or self-defeating ways.

Many techniques are used in treating mentally ill patients. A psychiatrist might discuss problems with one patient, prescribe drugs for another, and combine discussions, drugs and other therapy for a third.

Some psychiatric therapy takes place in a psychiatrist’s office or in a clinic. But severe cases require hospital care. Many hospitals and clinics employ psychiatric nurses, psychiatric social workers, and clinical psychologists. These specialists have had special training to help patients solve their problems.

Mental health is how we think, feel and act as we cope with life. It also helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others and make choices. Like physical health, mental health is important at every stage of life, from childhood and adolescence through adulthood.

Everyone feels worried, anxious, sad or stressed sometimes. But with a mental illness, these feelings do not go away and are severe enough to interfere with your daily life. It can make it hard to meet and keep friends, hold a job or enjoy your life.

Mental illnesses are common – they affect about one in five families in the U.S. It is not your fault if you have one. These disorders – depression, phobias, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and many others – are real diseases that you cannot will or wish away. Fortunately, they are often treatable. Medicines and therapy can improve the life of most people with mental illnesses.

There are many reasons for a temporary disturbance to mental health. Some are are well documented — dereavement, divorce or moving house, while others may be less obvious.

1. A reaction to immediate life events
The death of a loved one, the birth of a baby, the loss of a job, a serious accident or illness will throw most people, at least temporarily, off course.

2. Stress
Overwork, interrupted sleep, isolation, racism, sexual harassment, difficult, demanding or violent relationships all cause stress. Some stress is useful, but if we have too much to cope with, we may ‘breakdown’ under the strain.

3. A reaction to past life events
Children tend to submerge or suppress memories of particularly traumatic events, or simply create a new explanation for the event, that makes the pain explicable. Buried pain may come back to haunt us in ways we find hard to recognize, affecting the way we feel and behave and making us more vulnerable to stressful life events.

Mental illnesses affect and are affected by chronic conditions such as cancer, heart and cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and HIV/AIDS. Untreated, they bring about unhealthy behaviour, non-compliance with prescribed medical regimens, diminished immune functioning, and poor prognosis.

Most of the people take our mental health for granted.  We get on with our lives, eat and sleep, laugh and cry, work, talk to our friends, travel, shop and cook.  But there may come a time, perhaps very briefly, when the ordinary patterns of living become oddly distorted.  Perhaps we cannot sleep or we feel anxious, we may be afraid to go out, lose all feeling of hope and optimism or swing wildly from peaks of furious activity to periods of deep gloom.

It is very common for mental health to be disturbed now and again.  Most people have experienced an occasional attack of the ‘blues’.  It is part of being human.  Sometimes these attacks come in cycles, affected by menstruation, or by the seasons.  You feel low for a while and then bounce back up again.  If you learn to recognize the reason for gloom, you can usually learn to wait it out, then circumstances change and life seems to get better again.

Occasionally people get submerged, stuck inside misery.  You need to ask for help to find a way out and back into the light again, but you may feel too low to make the first move, and sink into a cycle of feeling sad and uncared for.  There may also be the fear of being considered weak, or perhaps of being labeled “mad”.  You may hope that by ignoring your pain it will magically go away by itself.  Maybe it will, but you will almost always feel better for a little support.  You may believe that you can pull yourself together, but the more you force the lid on your feelings, the more difficult it will become to deal with them and learn, first to accept them, and then to move on. 

For some people the distortion of everyday reality becomes frightening — either to them or to the people they are with.  They may see or hear things that others are not aware of; behave in ways that friends find disturbing; threaten, or actually attempt suicide. 

When reality has slipped too far away, others may need to intervene and help you find a route back, or a way of living that decreases the stress and pain.  It is not uncommon to have a breakdown, but nor is it uncommon to recover completely.  The sooner you find help, the faster the process of recovery will be, and you can learn to find ways of keeping yourself out of the abyss in the future.

Abnormality is a derivative concept, since it depends on an understanding of normality. Moreover, normality describes norms of behaviour but does not prescribe what is necessarily healthy or adaptive. Models of abnormality have changed over time, from ascribing spiritual causes to disorders, to viewing abnormality as erroneous behaviour, to finally understanding abnormality as involving disorders. Abnormality can be defined and understood in statistical, cultural, and psychological terms.

Today several models are used to explain and treat abnormal functioning. At one end of the spectrum is the biological model, which sees physical processes as the key to human behavior. At the other end is the sociocultural model, which examines the effects of society and culture on individual behavior. In between are four models that focus on more psychological and personal aspects of human functioning: the psychodynamic model looks at people’s unconscious internal events and conflicts; the behavioral model emphasizes behavior and the ways in which it is learned; the cognitive model concentrates on the thinking that underlies behavior; and the humanistic-existential model stresses the role of values and choices in human functioning.

Given their different assumptions and concepts, the models are sometimes in conflict. Those who follow one perspective often scoff at the “naive” interpretations, investigations, and treatment efforts of the others. Yet none of the models is complete in itself. Each focuses mainly on one aspect of human functioning, and none can explain all aspects of abnormality.

• A neurotic is somebody who has a problem that they are aware of: “I am depressed”, “I’m having strange thoughts”, “I have a phobia” etc.

• A psychotic is not aware of their abnormality or illness. It may take over and the sufferer becomes detached from the world around them, as in Schizophrenia. There are two types of psychosis, Organic and Functional

- Organic psychosis is where something is wrong with the brain – either caused by a hit on the head, tumour or infection etc.
- Functional psychosis is where there appears to be no physical reason, but the person is functioning in a different way, loses contact with the world.

• A mentally retarded person has “the mind of the young”, and this may be caused by anything: accident, illness, etc.

6. Psychodynamic Model
The psychodynamic model is the oldest and most famous of the modern psychological models. This approach believes that something happened in the past that the person is unable to deal with, and this causes the problems in the present. The memory is buried, or repressed, and has gone into the unconscious mind.

• Ego Defence Mechanisms: The Ego puts either the desires or rules into unconsciousness to make its job easier as it cannot satisfy both. Denial and Repression are examples of Ego Defence Mechanisms.

• Slips of the tongue – Freudian slips: Truth sneaks out when least expected – it has not passed through sensors / filters: come straight from the unconscious.

• Free Association: Flowing conversation – let it go wherever it goes. The idea is that the patient may make statements they did not intend to and the therapist picks these out of the conversation for analysis.

• Word Association: A list of unconnected words is read and the patient says the first word that comes into their mind. E.g. “milk” might illicit the response “drink”. Here the therapist is looking for “odd” associations, e.g. “father” might illicit the response “punishment”.

• Dream Analysis: Patients keep a diary, and the therapist looks for hidden meanings or things that might be symbolic of what is happening in the unconsciousness. The diary is interpreted in the light of what is known of the patient by the therapist.

All these approaches are effective, but only to a very small degree.

• Projective Testing: The theory is that we project our own inner feelings onto other people and things. A good example is the famous inkblot tests. These contain no picture or hidden meaning, but Freud thought people would project their own feelings, and looked for a developing pattern when a patient was shown many of these drawings.

Another example of projective testing is the TAT test, which was not developed by Freud himself, but by followers of the Psychodynamic approach. An ambiguous photograph is shown to the patient, and they are then asked to “tell the story”. E.g. a photograph of an old man and a young girl on a park bench: Grandfather’s day out or potential dirty old man? Again, many pictures are shown and the therapist looks for a theme.

• Regression: This is where the patient is asked to re-live parts of their life and examine them in detail, including their thoughts and feelings both at the time, and now.

7. Behavioral Model
The behavioral model concentrates on behaviors, the responses an organism makes to its environment, which can be either internal or external. In the behavioral view, people are the sum of their learned behaviors. Therefore, behavior theorists base their explanations and treatments on principles of learning, the processes by which these behaviors change in response to the environment. The behavioral model began in laboratories where psychologists were running experiments on conditioning, simple forms of learning.

10. Cognitive Model
In the early 1960s, Albert Ellis and Aaron Beck proposed that cognitive processes are at the center of behavior, thought, and emotions and that we can best understand abnormal functioning by looking to cognition. How do cognitive theories explain abnormal functioning? Some people may make assumptions and adopt attitudes that are disturbing and inaccurate. Illogical thinking processes are another source of abnormal functioning, according to cognitive theorists. Beck has found that some people consistently think in illogical ways and keep arriving at self-defeating conclusions. He has also identified a number of illogical thought processes regularly found in depression, such as overgeneralization.

Abnormality is a subjectively defined characteristic, assigned to those with rare or dysfunctional conditions. Defining who is normal or abnormal is a contentious issue in abnormal psychology.

Many layperson’s first associations with psychology are ideas about abnormal behaviour and its treatment. Ideas of abnormality have varied over time and have affected attitudes toward disordered behaviour and its treatment.

Abnormal behavior is influence by biological factors (brain processes), psychological factors (emotional turmoil), and by social factors (inadequate relationships)

Woman are diagnosed more then males because

1. Woman more likely to behave in ways that others label as mental disorders.
2. Woman are taught to express their emotions, while men are trained to control them.
3. Woman have unequal social positions and greater discrimination, more likely to experience trauma-inducing circumstances
4. Woman often placed in “double-blind” situations in society… Woman labeled as mentally disordered for either over conforming or under conforming to feminine gender role stereotypes.

Definining Abnormality
Many definitions exist but none are entirely satisfactory. “Abnormal” literally means “away from the norm”. The norm is the average or typical behaviour or characteristic of the population. Thus norms are different for different populations and can change with time and conditions.

Abnormal behaviour has been defined four different ways by psychologists and social scientists: statistically, culturally, in terms of psychological adequacy, and in terms of categories of symptoms.

1. Statistical Abnormality
In terms of statistics, abnormal behaviour includes any behaviour that is significantly different from the norm. In a normal distribution of characteristics or qualities, both very high scores and very low scores are considered statistically abnormal. For example, in terms of intelligence only “average” intelligence is considered statistically normal. Significantly below-average intelligence is considered abnormal, but so is significantly above-average intelligence. Thus in the statistical sense, unusually well-adjusted behaviour might be considered abnormal, just as disordered behaviour would be.

2. Cultural Abnormality
In cultural terms, it is normal to abide by cultural norms. Cultures have norms for every social behaviour, from personal practices in sexual behaviour and child-rearing, to public actions like driving a car or choosing what to wear. The cultural definition of abnormality includes any behaviour that deviates from cultural norms. If an individual does not know how to dress in public, he or she will be considered abnormal. If an individual deliberately chooses to be a nonconformist in some way, he or she will be considered abnormal.

A problem with the cultural definition is its arbitrariness across time and cultures.l It was normal in the 18th century for American men to wear wigs and pigtails, but not so in the mid-20th century. Judging nonconformists to be abnormal because they do not abide by a dress code will lead to erroneous identifications of abnormality.

3. Psychological Inadequacy
Closer to the “true” understanding of abnormal behaviour is a definition in terms of psychological adequacy. This has taken two forms, a value-based interpretation and a practical interpretation.

Adequacy as a Value: In one sense, an individual is abnormal if his or her behaviour is not healthy. This view assumes common understanding about what “healthy” behaviour is. Insofar as these values might vary across individuals, even across professionals, this view of abnormality has the same liabilities as the cultural definition. Most people will not achieve “ideal” mental health but will still functional adequately and should not be considered abnormal.

Practical Adequacy: One’s behaviour is “psychologically adequate” if he or she sets and achieves goals, is capable of independent living, and can form and sustain close relationships with others. In this view, abnormal behaviour is that which is self-defeating, out of touch with reality, socially unskilled, and personally distressed. This approach to abnormality is more practical and “common-sensical” than the foregoing.


Several conventional criteria
1. One simple thing is statistical infrequency. This has an obvious flaw — the extremely intelligent, honest, or happy are just as abnormal as their opposites. Therefore, abnormal behaviour is considered to be statistically rare as well as undesirable.

Dr Chinemezu of Aba Nigeria on (Abnormalty) The word abnormalty is The state or quality of being abnormal; variation; irregularity – Darwin Something abnormal

2. A more discerning criterion is distress. A person who is displaying a great deal of depression, anxiety, unhappiness, etc. is defined to be abnormal. Unfortunately, many people are not aware of their own mental state, and while they may benefit from help, they feel no compulsion to receive it.
3. Another criterion is morality. This presents many difficulties, because it would be impossible to agree on a single set of morals for the purposes of diagnosis.
4. One criterion commonly referenced is maladaptivity. If a person is behaving in ways counterproductive to their own well-being, it is considered maladaptive. While tighter than the above criteria, it does have some shortcomings. For example, moral behavior including dissent and abstinence may be considered maladaptive to some.
5. Abnormal behaviour violates the standards of society. When people do not follow the conventional social and moral rules of their society, the behaviour is considered abnormal. However, the magnitude of the violation and how commonly it is violated by others must be taken into consideration.
6. Another element of abnormality is that abnormal behaviour will cause social discomfort to those who witness such behaviour.
7. The standard criteria in psychology and psychiatry is that of mental illness. Determination of abnormality is based upon medical diagnosis. This is often criticized for removing control from the ‘patient’, and being easily manipulated by political or social goals.

A mneumonic commonly used as a reference to define abnormality SID’s eFFing DIM:

• SI: Statistical Infrequency simply defines whether a behaviour is abnormal if it doesn’t happen very often. There are no negative or positive overtones when using this definition of abnormality, as it covers behaviours which others don’t deem ‘abnormal’ i.e. stamp-collectors, racing drivers.

• D’s: Deviation from Social Norms defines whether a behaviour is abnormal if it is a behaviour ‘outside’ of society’s ‘circle’ of what is acceptable. The main problem with this definition of abnormality is that not all behaviours that break social norms are ‘wrong’, and that even some social norms need to be broken i.e. women wearing traditionally men’s clothes. Another problem is that there are some behaviours that individuals may do, but don’t openly admit it i.e. picking their noses is a crude example that not many people would admit to.

• FF: The Failure to Function Adequately definition of abnormality defines whether or not a behaviour is abnormal if it is counterproductive to the individual. The main problem with this definition however is that psychologists cannot agree on the boundaries that define what is ‘functioning’ and what is ‘adequately’, as some behaviours that can cause ‘failure to function’ are not seen as bad i.e. firemen risking their lives to save people in a blazing fire.

• DIM: Deviation from Ideal Mental health defines abnormality by determining if the behaviour the individual is portraying is affecting their mental well-being. As with the Failure to Function definition, the boundaries that stipulate what ‘ideal mental health’ is are not properly defined, and the bigger problem with the definition is that all individuals will at some point in their life deviate from ideal mental health, but it does not mean they are abnormal i.e. someone who has lost a relative will be distressed, but would not be defined as abnormal for showing that particular behaviour.

A common approach to defining abnormality is a Multi-Criteria approach, where all definitions of abnormality are used to determine whether an individuals behaviour is abnormal i.e. if an individual is exercising a particular behaviour that is preventing them from ‘functioning’, breaks a social norm and is statistically infrequent then Psychologists would be prepared to define this individual as abnormal. A good example of an abnormal behaviour assessed by a multi-criteria approach is depression: it is commonly seen as a deviation from ideal mental stability, it often stops the individual from ‘functioning’ a normal life and some could say it is statistically infrequent.

Food comes in many forms, but it all has the same basic chemical functions — to supply body cells with a source of energy, and also to act as the raw material for growth, repair, and maintenance of vital organs and tissues. The substances in food that fulfill these functions are called nutrients.

As carbohydrates and fats are the main sources of energy in the diet, the value of any particular type of food for energy and growth depends mainly on its content of these two nutrients.

The sensations of hunger and of having overeaten are designed to ensure that you take in the correct amount of food to fulfill your own particular energy requirements.

Additional energy also comes from the body’s stores of glycogen(starch) and fat. Glycogen is made from the glucose molecules that were absorbed from carbohydrates and were not required for the immediate production of energy. Any surplus that cannot be stored as glycogen is stored as body fat.

Did You Know

• Energy activity requires energy. Your body needs to be able to convert your food into stores of energy that will be available at all times. This complex chain of events begins when your food is broken down by digestive processes in your stomach and intestines to release nutrients, such as glucose, fatty acids, and amino acids.

• Energy requirements depend partly on the physical activity you undertake, but the average person in a sedentary job burns up 70% of his or her daily energy expenditure just keeping the heart and other organs working and maintaining body temperature.

• Food energy is traditionally measured in calories, where one calorie is the amount of energy needed to raise the temperature of one gram of water by one degree Centigrade. As the calorie is an extremely small unit, when referring to measurements of the energy value of food, the kilocalorie — equivalent to 1000 calories — is often used instead. Kilocalories are sometimes called Calories, with a capital C. The number of calories needed each day depends on your level of activity and your basal energy expenditure. The resting energy required by an adult woman averages about 1300 Calories and for a man about 1600. All exercise needs extra energy and therefore increases your total calorie requirements.

• Growth is a continuous process in your body tissues, throughout your life. Cells are continually replaced as part of a routine maintenance programme in most tissues and organs. Tissue damage also increases this regeneration.

Holistic health is a term used by alternative medicine advocates to describe medical care that views physical, mental, and spiritual aspects of life as closely interconnected and balanced. Holistic health care attends to the entire person, including the mind and body, as a whole, not as parts or segments. It attempts to maximize the body’s own natural healing resources to combat and prevent disease.

Holistic medicine is the art and science of healing that addresses the whole person – body, mind, and spirit. Holistic medicine emphasizes the need to look at the whole person, including analysis of physical, nutritional, environmental, emotional, social, spiritual and lifestyle values. Holistic medicine encompasses all stated modalities of diagnosis and treatment including drugs and surgery if no safe alternative exists.

The practice of holistic medicine integrates conventional and alternative therapies to prevent and treat disease, and most importantly, to promote optimal health. Holistic medicine focuses on patient education and responsibility for personal efforts to achieve balance and well being, that is participation in the healing process. This condition of holistic health is defined as the unlimited and unimpeded free flow of life force energy through body, mind, and spirit. Advocates of the holistic health philosophy typically seek or use a wide variety of alternative practices, the most common of which include acupuncture, ayurveda, Siddha, chiropractic, naturopathy, yoga, aromatherapy, homeopathy, massage, Tai Chi, Chinese herbology, Medical cannabis, medicinal herbs, and Prolotherapy.

Holistic Medicine has been used by millions of people around the world to:

• Heal chronic diseases (including serious chronic illnesses)

• Treat psychological disorders

• Successfully treat childhood illnesses

• Treat acute illnesses

• Normalize weight

• Prevent disease

• Improve overall health and increase energy level

• Transform one’s outlook upon life

Applying the term holistic to concepts of health and fitness means that achieving and maintaining good health involves much more than just taking care of all the various components that make up the physical body. In Holistic Health, people are motivated by how good it feels to have lots of energy and enthusiasm for life, knowing that what they are doing that day will allow them to continue to feel this great for years to come.

When disease and chronic conditions do occur, the Holistic Health principles can also be applied. The term is usually changed to holistic medicine, and additional factors are added. The healthcare professionals using the holistic approach work in partnership with their patients. They recommend treatments that support the body’s natural healing system and consider the whole person and the whole situation.

A holistic approach to healing goes beyond just eliminating symptoms. For example, taking an aspirin for a headache would be like disconnecting the oil light on the dash of a car when it flashes. The irritation is eliminated, but the real problem still exists. In holistic medicine, a symptom is considered a message that something needs attention. So, the symptom is used as a guide to look below the surface for the root cause. Then what really needs attention can be addressed.