Talent Mash

Art therapy is a clinical mental/emotional health expressive therapy. It is a highly evocative method of communicating feelings, thoughts, and needs. Because our primary communications (kinesthetic, aural and visual) occur or a preverbal level, expressive therapies can be more powerful than verbal therapy alone. This is especially true concerning feelings that render an individual more vulnerable. Therefore an art therapist must have a high degree of sensitivity and empathic ability.

Art therapy is NOT about being able to draw. It is about using art supplies to enhance verbal therapy. During an art therapy session individuals use a variety of art supplies (including collage, clay, mask making, sculpture) to illustrate their thoughts and feelings regarding an issue, as they talk about it.

Art therapy is NOT about the therapist reading or interpreting a person’s artwork. The person who created the artwork does any interpretation.

Art therapy helps individuals work through their experiences on many levels. Creating a piece of art about an experience requires people to think and feel, deeply, about the experience. As they do this they transform raw experience into symbolic forms.

Symbols help people define themselves. They belong to us only when we define them. It is vital that individuals have the freedom to define themselves by defining their own symbols and perception of reality. Self-definition is part of recovery from many problems.

By making a symbolic map of an event individuals recognize different aspects and perspectives of it. Symbolizing the event allows individuals to look at it from a distance, making it easier to gain a degree of resolution. The persons concerns are talked about, as they are present in the artwork, not the self, providing a safe distance for the individual. Thoughts and feelings about the event become more manageable. The making of art that deals with difficult life experiences gives people an opportunity to gain mastery over that experience.

Metaphors also increase self-definition. When individuals illustrate their, “Current Mood as a Landscape”, with guidance from the therapist, they create their own metaphor and increase self-awareness, which promotes healthy maturation.

As individuals illustrate an event or memory, they use imagination and the creative process to do so. While doing this people recognize the creative process they have as a strength. Using creative and imaginative powers in therapy helps people re-energize them and learn how to use them as coping skills. Being creative is closely aligned with good health.

The American Art Therapy Association (AATA) requires its art therapists to have a master’s degree from an approved university. During the clinical education students learn how to use a variety of different therapeutic (cognitive, behavioral, humanistic, etc.) approaches with art therapy.

“I am an artist at living, my life is my work of art” Suzuki

Epilepsy (seizure disorder, fits) is a neurological disorder characterized by recurrent instances of seizure or tremors. These are due to abnormal excitation from brain. Epilepsy treatment methods are aimed at controlling the disease. Most cases of juvenile epilepsy don’t pass over to adulthood.

Not all epilepsy cases are alike. Sometimes there can be apparent reasons like stress, brain injury, genetic conditions and parasitic infection of brain. It is also observed that instance of epilepsy can occur without any solid provable reason.

Epilepsy due to specific reasons like use of certain drugs, epilepsy as withdrawal symptom, seizure due to abnormal levels of sodium in blood are temporary cases and will be cured without any special treatments apart from the medicines and diet to return to normal health.

Epilepsy treatment in Ayurveda

Apasmara or apasmaram is the term used for epilepsy in Ayurveda. The reasons sited by Ayurveda scripts include stressful life, lazy life, poor diet and suppression of natural urges.

Each person is different and each case of epilepsy is also different. Thorough examination of the patient by an Ayurvedic physician is essential to identify the right treatment for a person.

Epilepsy in most cases is a vata disorder. However, it can also be caused by vitiation of pitta or kapha. Imbalances of all the three doshas are also not very rare.

Vata type seizure is mainly a mental problem. Stressful days, poor sleep and mental exertion are reasons. Digestive problems like gastritis, constipation etc. can also be reasons.

Rest, normalized diet and specific time to take food can help such persons control epilepsy. Abhayanga or Ayurvedic oil massage, shirodhara (pouring of medicated oil over head), thalam (retaining medicated oil on head) helps in pacifying mind. Nerve tonic herbs like Aswagandha (Withania somnifera), Brahmi (Bacopa monniera), Jatamamsi (Nardastachys jatamansi), Shanka pushpi (Evolvulus alsinoides) etc are used to pacify nervous system and to reduce instances of abnormal brain functioning.

Inflammations inside head due to diseases like Encephalitis cause pitta type seizures. Exposure to heat is a high risk factor in such cases of seizures. Kapha type epilepsy is due to blocks in central nervous system. A sedentary or highly secluded life can lead to this condition.

Kapha type epilepsy is also characterized by excess salivation. Tulsi (holy basil), Acorus calamus, etc are the type of herbs beneficial in kapha epilepsy.

Prevention of Epilepsy Ayurveda way

Regulate the lifestyle with Ayurvedic daily routine (dinacharya).

Stay as much positive about the day and life as possible. Don’t allow tensions to creep in to your mind. Don’t get excited at anything. Start practicing yoga meditation.

Keep your daily diet fully nutritive. Don’t eat late at night. If possible go for five or six small meals a day, instead of one or two big meals.

Massage your soles with coconut oil or sesame oil before going to bed. This give your head a cooling effect.

What could possibly be worse than struggling with a painful condition and feeling ashamed to discuss the problem because of its intimate nature? Such is the case for many suffering with pudendal neuralgia, a little known disease that affects one of the most sensitive areas of the body. This area is innervated by the pudendal nerve, named after the Latin word for shame. Due to the location of the discomfort combined with inadequate knowledge, some physicians make reference to the pain as psychological. But nothing could be further from the truth. Unfortunately, discussing the condition with gynecologists, urologists and neurologists often proves fruitless since most know nothing about the condition and therefore cannot diagnose it.

Pudendal neuralgia is a chronic and painful condition that occurs in both men and women, although studies reveal that about two-thirds of those with the disease are women. The primary symptom is pain in the genitals or the anal-rectal area and the immense discomfort is usually worse when sitting. The pain tends to move around in the pelvic area and can occur on one or both sides of the body. Sufferers describe the pain as burning, knife-like or aching, stabbing, pinching, twisting and even numbness. These symptoms are usually accompanied by urinary problems, bowel problems and sexual dysfunction. Because the pudendal nerve is responsible for sexual pleasure and is one of the primary nerves related to orgasm, sexual activity is extremely painful, if not impossible for many pudendalites. When this nerve becomes damaged, irritated, or entrapped, and pudendal neuralgia sets in, life loses most of its pleasure.

So, where exactly is the pudendal nerve? It lies deep in the pelvis and follows a path that comes from the sacral area and later separates into three branches, one going to the anal-rectal area, one to the perineum, and one to the penis or clitoris. Since there are slight anatomic variations with each person, a patient’s symptoms can depend on which of the branches are affected, although often all three branches are involved. The fact that the pudendal nerve carries sensory, motor, and autonomic signals adds to the variety of symptoms that can be exhibited.

Because pudendal neuralgia is uncommon and can be similar to other diseases, it is often misdiagnosed, leading some to have inappropriate and unnecessary surgery. Early in the diagnosis process, it is crucially important to undergo an MRI of the lumbar-sacral and pelvic regions to determine that no tumors or cysts are pressing on the nerve. In addition, the patient should be screened for possible infections or immune diseases, as well as having an evaluation by a pelvic floor physical therapist to determine the health of the pelvic floor muscles and to uncover whether skeletal alignment abnormalities exist. An accurate patient history is needed to assess whether there has been a trauma or an injury to the nerve from surgery, childbirth, or exercise. Tests that offer additional diagnostic clues include sensory testing, the pudendal nerve motor latency test, and electromyography. A nerve block that provides several hours of relief is another tool that helps to determine if the pudendal nerve is the source of pain.

One of the most common symptoms that accompanies pudendal neuralgia is severe depression. Some people with the disease have committed suicide due to the intractable pain. For that reason, it is important to consider antidepressants, as they can help lessen the hypersensitivity of the genital area in addition to relieving bladder problems. Certain anti-seizure drugs reportedly help to alleviate neuropathic pain while anti-anxiety drugs provide substantial relief of muscle spasms and assist with sleeping. Uninformed physicians are reluctant to prescribe opiates for an illness that shows no visible abnormality, yet the desperate nature of genital nerve pain requires that opiates be prescribed for these patients. While medications are not always satisfactory, they do help take the edge off of the pain for many people. Until the correct treatment is determined, it is imperative that patients with pudendal neuralgia receive adequate pain management since the pain associated with this illness can be intense.

Treatment depends on the cause of distress to the nerve. When the cause is not obvious patients are advised to try the least invasive and least risky therapies initially.

Physical therapy that includes myofascial release and trigger point therapy internally through the vagina or rectum assists with relaxing of the pelvic floor, especially if pelvic floor dysfunction is the cause of nerve irritation. If no improvement is found after six to twelve sessions, nerve damage or nerve entrapment might be considered.
Botox is now used in medical settings to relax muscles and shows promise when injected into pelvic floor muscles; though finding a physician adept at this treatment is difficult.
Pudendal nerve blocks using a long-acting analgesic and a steroid can reduce the nerve inflammation and are usually given in a series of three injections four to six weeks apart.
If physical therapy, Botox, and nerve injections fail to provide adequate relief, some patients opt for pudendal nerve decompression surgery. There are three published approaches to pudendal nerve decompression surgery but there is debate among members of the pudendal nerve entrapment community as to which approach is the best. Since there are advantages and disadvantages to each approach, patients face considerable confusion when deciding which type of surgery to choose. Because there are only a handful of surgeons in the world who perform these surgeries, most patients have to travel long distances for help. Moreover, the recovery period is often painful and takes anywhere from six months to several years since nerves heal very slowly. Unfortunately, early statistics indicate that only 60 to 80 percent of surgeries are successful in offering at least a 50 percent improvement. Patients whose surgeries are not successful or who do not wish to pursue surgery have the option of trying an intrathecal pain pump which delivers pain medication locally and helps to avoid some of the side effects of oral medications. Others pursue the option of a neurostimulator either to the sacral area or directly to the pudendal nerves. These are relatively new therapies for pudendal neuralgia so it is difficult to predict success rates. Some pudendalites have devised ingenious contraptions for pain relief ranging from u-shaped cushions cut from garden pads all the way to balloons filled with water, frozen, and inserted into the vagina. Most have a favorite cushion for sitting and many have special computer set-ups for home and office use in order to avoid sitting. Generally speaking, jeans are a no-no, so patients revise their wardrobes to include baggy pants and baggy underwear – if they are able to tolerate wearing underwear.

Clearly more research is required to find effective methods to better manage the pain and debilitation of pudendal neuralgia. But in the meantime, friends and family close to those who have this devastating illness play a huge role in helping patients cope, thereby maintaining the best quality of life possible. Support, love and understanding are of primary importance for those suffering with this affliction.

Prostate cancer is one of the most popular forms of cancer that men experience as they grow older. There has been some research conducted to suggest that the vast majority of men will experience prostate cancer at some point in their lives when they grow older. While there is no real known cause of prostate cancer, the one known fact is that if caught early on, it is highly treatable. However, statistics reveal that most adult men are reluctant to go to the doctor and/or do not take advantage of regularly scheduled trips to their dentist or physician. Perhaps, this is why insurance is usually lower for men than it is for women- because they never use it!

A few years ago, it was discovered that my grandfather on my mother’s side had prostate cancer. This was a man who never complained about anything and never went to the doctor for anything in his life. However, when he began to feel ill, at the urging of his wife, he made an appointment with the doctor. When the doctor revealed to him that he had prostate cancer, they immediately began treatment to combat it. At first, it seemed as if the doctors had caught the cancer early enough that my grandfather would fully recover. However, it was soon determined that the cancer had metastasized and become terminal. Not wanting any treatment for the cancer, my grandfather kept it a secret that the treatments had not worked. The family did not know that anything else was wrong until the week leading up to his death where he became so ill that he had to be hospitalized.

Schedule an appointment with your physician. Know what is going on with your body and take care of it. After all, you only have one body!

Does a migraine cure actually exist or are the experts right when they tell us there’s no definitive cure? Finding out the answer will require us to evaluate things in a rational and controlled fashion. Our first step will be to understand the terminology “migraine” and “cure.” As soon as we understand the medical definitions for these words we will be able to figure out whether or not a migraine treatment really exists that will enable you to cure the problem forever.

If we look in a dictionary, no matter whether it’s online or in printed form, medical or standard, the word “migraine” is typically defined as a disorder presenting periodic severe headache, usually one-sided, and frequently accompanied by nausea and vomiting. It is unknown what causes migraine, but enlargement of intracranial blood vessels typically occurs previous to the headache pain.

The next word we must define is “cure” and is a way of restoring health. To cure a condition is to restore somebody’s health or have healing take place by some kind of health treatment or other course of treatment. As well as restoring health, a cure is additionally attained when there is a remission of symptoms and signs of a disease, particularly if the symptoms of the disease do not appear for a prolonged interval of time.

Now that we’ve defined these two terms we can agree on what “migraine cure” truly means. If anyone is to achieve a migraine headache cure they must have headache pain that is recurring, moderate to severe in intensity, usually on one side of the head, and often including nausea and vomiting. Once it has been proven that the type of headaches are in actual fact migraines they need to be cured, or at a minimum have the symptoms of the illness go away for a lengthy period of time.

If someone’s health is the reason for migraine attacks, restoring their health to where they have complete migraine relief for a long duration of time by means of a migraine headache treatment means they were cured of the disorder. It shows us that the treatment for migraine will have produced the elimination of any symptoms of the disorder, or has provided full migraine headache relief, for a prolonged amount of time. If this transpires, a migraine cure was accomplished as per the definitions as mentioned previously. All migraine treatments or migraine remedies that cause an individual’s migraine pain to go into remission for a prolonged duration of time proves to us that migraine cures really exist.

Now that we grasp what a migraine cure involves, let’s examine a real life case in point to determine if a cure is actually possible. There are many factors that cause migraine attacks. Some normal triggers are alcohol, stress, bright lights, caffeine, and lots of others.

For this case in point let’s assume that somebody develops migraine pain every time they drink drinks with caffeine like coffee and high energy drinks. If caffeine is the cause of the migraine symptoms, then it makes sense that discontinuing the consumption of caffeine will eliminate the signs and symptoms. And in reality, this is precisely what happens whenever caffeine is the trigger.

If an individual develops a migraine each and every time they ingest caffeine, and then stop consuming caffeine, if their signs and symptoms go away for an extended period of time they’ve cured their migraine disorder as outlined by our standard medical definitions as noted above.

In our example caffeine was the reason for the symptoms or the condition, but in reality there can be a large number of causes. Nevertheless, no matter what causes a person to develop migraine symptoms, if they make use of some form of migraine treatment that brings about a remission of symptoms for an extended amount of time, they have actually cured their condition.

Since my breast cancer, I was obsessed to find the core of it. I started asking myself the following questions:

1. What causes BC?
2. What makes some people susceptible to BC, while it does not affect others?
3. Was my BC as results of taking hormone therapy?
4. Was my BC supposed to teach me something?

I was so ignorant about breast cancer that it gave me the opportunity to explore this issue. The more I learned about breast cancer, the more I realized that it was not what I knew or didn’t know that would prevent me from getting breast cancer. It was what I knew that just wasn’t so that was my greatest obstacle.

After all the research that made about BC I learned that hormone therapy that doctors put me on was one of the reasons. Most western medications have side effects. In my case the side effect was breast cancer and severe depression.

One of my favorite stories is a perfect example of how most people search for answers in life, but when the answers don’t fit with their old ways of thinking they simply ignore them and continue searching.

A man who is walking along a cliff suddenly loses his balance, slips and falls off. Luckily, he has the presence of mind to grab on to the ledge. He’s hanging there for dear life. He’s hanging and hanging and finally calls out: “Is there anybody up there that can help me”? There’s no answer.

He keeps calling and calling and finally this big bellowing voice calls back, “This is God. I can help you. Just let go and trust.”

The next thing you hear: “Is there anybody else up there that can help me”?

The moral of the story is that we have to trust God and accept whatever happen to us and be grateful for it, since it could be worse.

As Jim Rohn sad; “Unless you change how you are, you will always have what you’ve got”.