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December 25, 2014 admin

What’s in a date?

What's in a date?

Will you be a different person on 1st January 2015 from 31st December 2014? You are transforming every minute because you grow older every millisecond and your body’s cells are changing continuously. Nonetheless chances are most likely that you find yourself to be the ‘same person’: low on energy, asocial, tired, frustrated, depressed, lazy and procrastinating. The resolutions that you make may be unrealistic and amenable to failure; only to make you become even more of what you wanted to ‘not be’. By associating change with a specific date, we defeat the purpose of that change. One needn’t wait for January 1st to exercise; a resolution made on 30th December or 29th August would work as well too. Alternately some people resolve in September that they will make a new year resolve to exercise. That alleviates the need to exercise until the New Year has actually arrived. And we see people making the same resolutions every year, the cycle continues, new years come again and again and the person is just ‘older’ but pretty much the ‘same’.

Give birth to a new you

You don’t need a new year to feel new. And you needn’t demand rebirth to be reborn. Any day is good enough to become a new person, originate new tasks, offer new ideas and inculcate newer humanity in yourself. Be realistic in your expectations from yourself. As regards others, try not to expect anything at all. Strength lies in giving, not receiving. Give yourself that chance to change. If you decided to lose weight and couldn’t, it’s not the end of the world. What matters are the steps you take to reach that goal. Success is not guaranteed and failure is never final. They are both inevitable spokes in the wheel of life. By doing your best to achieve the best, not just for yourself but the world around you, you become the change that you want to see in the world.

Beware and be aware

31st of December will come every year, as the wheels of time never stop turning. However you need to make the most of not just that date but of every single day that presents you with new beginnings and fresh opportunities. If you are reading this in the middle of January 2015 or August too, don’t think that it’s too late. You don’t need another 31st December to make fruitful change to your life. You can still be the person you want to be irrespective of the date and time. Be a new you, today…

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Case Study: Schizophrenia
BackgroundAnupama (name changed for anonymity) 27 year old unmarried female, working as a helper in an office was brought to the clinic by her family members for evaluation of abnormal behavior that they had been noticing in her over the past few months.

Symptoms

Off late Anupama had stopped talking much to her family (parents and sister) and seemed to be lost in her own world. She stayed awake in the night because she believed the neighbors were plotting against her family and were keeping a watch on their moves so she stayed up at night in the fear that they’d break into the house. She kept windows locked and always suspected that she was being watched and reacted with tremendous fear and apprehension.

Loss of reality

Anupama could constantly hear the voices of neighbors as a running commentary 24 hours a day. (This was not real, the neighbors were not talking to her; it was imagined.) She also believed there were invisible video cameras installed in her house with which they kept constant vigilance over her family. At one instance she also tried to hammer the wall to break the imaginary camera that had been installed within it by the neighbors (so she suspected)

Effect on her life overall

She refused to eat food, as she believed these persecutors (neighbors) had poisoned it. She survived on biscuit and wafer packs which she would open by herself, to make sure that it was not tampered with, or poisoned by her perceived tormentors, of whom she was extremely fearful. Anupama received a memo from her workplace since she couldn’t take orders or instructions well. She was always sitting by herself and gesticulating as if she was talking continuously to some unknown invisible person around her. When questioned by someone, she would invariably look away and pretend as if nothing had happened.

Management

Anupama had frank delusions and hallucinations. Her suspiciousness was coloring her functioning and performance in all areas. She was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and started on medication. Cognitive techniques were used a while after some suspiciousness had gone down. This was targeted at breaking her false belief about the neighbors. The family and friends were getting very worked up, hence they were given psycho-education that this was not pretense or a supernatural force; it was a mental illness which could be treated.

Progress and recovery

Anupama took her medication regularly. She showed some improvement within a month’s time and the hallucinatory behavior stopped. She stopped suspecting the neighbors although the thought crossed her mind sometimes. She resumed work and is now on regular medication. She does get stressed at times but it is within her logical control and she is in touch with reality now.
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