August 23, 2008
From PCOSA Today, Summer 2008
Disheartened and depressed by considerable weight gain, a miscarriage, two ectopic pregnancies and a host of other PCOS symptoms, Canadian Michelle Lonschek admits that she was once consumed by self-pity. In spite of having a caring family and friends, she longed for a community of women who could relate “exactly to what I was experiencing.”
Driven by both unhappiness and curiosity, Michelle created a group on Facebook simply called Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome which can be accessed at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2377865557
“I was wondering just how many people out there have the same fears and frustrations about PCOS that I have,” explains Michelle, “and how big of an impact it can have on all aspects of your life especially when it starts to affect your fertility, which, in my case, happened before it had any major noticeable impact on the rest of my health.
“Is there anyone out there that knows why I feel the way I do, physically and emotionally?” she asked.
Yes. In one year, Michelle’s group has grown to include more than 1,500 members from as far away as Australia, who join in, talk about the stories, “meet” new people with similar problems, post websites and videos and support one another in their difficult journeys.
Starting the online PCOS group was “when I stopped feeling sorry for myself and decided I was going to try to help the ones who feel or felt like I did,” says Michelle. “Even if it’s only one girl out there who feels even a small bit of comfort from reading and talking with others in my group then I have done my job. Or that one woman who had no idea what was wrong with her and saw the symptoms on the front page through a friend who has joined and has been able to start treatment. I had no idea the sense of accomplishment such a small act could give a person.”
When she’s not online, Michelle works in Accounts at Ontario-based Goeman’s Appliances, considers volunteering with teenage girls to inform them about PCOS and is preparing to start the “fertility journey” all over again with her boyfriend “thankfully this time with a lot more knowledge and understanding,” she confirms optimistically.
But she’s committed to her online PCOS community. “Even though I don’t know these girls and will never have the pleasure of actually meeting them, I’ve been able to touch their lives. I’m so proud of them, and myself, for opening up and sharing everything, and encouraging others to do so, as hard and sometimes embarrassing as it may be.”
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August 6, 2008
By Månsson M, Holte J, Landin-Wilhelmsen K, Dahlgren E, Johansson A, Landén M
Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2008 Jul 29.
Suicide attempts were seven times more common in the PCOS group than in the controls.
OBJECTIVE: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a common hyperandrogenic endocrine disorder affecting women of fertile age. The aim of this study was to survey whether the rate of clinical psychiatric disorders in PCOS differs from the normal population.
METHOD: Women with PCOS (n=49) meeting the Rotterdam criteria for PCOS, and 49 age-matched controls identified from the population registry, were recruited. Trained clinicians used the MINI International Neuropsychiatric Interview to establish lifetime occurrence of Axis I DSM diagnoses. Serum-testosterone and sex hormone binding globulin were analyzed.
RESULTS: Women with PCOS had higher lifetime incidence of depressive episodes, social phobia, and eating disorders than controls. Suicide attempts were seven times more common in the PCOS group than in the controls. Current as well as lifetime use of antidepressants and anxiolytic drugs were more common in the PCOS group.
CONCLUSIONS: Previous studies have found that PCOS is associated with decreased quality of life and self-rated mental symptoms. This study demonstrates that PCOS is also linked to psychiatric syndromes as verified by structured clinical assessments. The clinical implication of this study is that clinicians treating women with PCOS should be aware that these women are a high risk group for common affective and anxiety disorders as well as suicide attempts.
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July 31, 2008
I remember the day that my soon-to-be husband got his first pager. He was so excited to be considered important enough to be given a company pager because, to him, it meant that he was now the new go-to guy - the guy who could be trusted to fix any problem that came up, day or night. He could hardly contain himself!
I, on the other hand, wanted to throw the pager in toilet after its third day on my sweetie’s hip. He had received no less than 25 pages during the few hours we had spent together during these three days. This left me wondering where the line had been crossed between work and home. It also made me think about how I was going to get my fiancé to become more engaged in his life outside of work when he was so unfairly lured by the demands of the people who support his self esteem and who also pay his bills.
What we needed was a work-life balance plan. I had heard of these before, but had never put one together myself. After going through the process, here’s what I have learned:
1. Figure out your priorities.
In order to achieve a work-life balance you first need to figure out what really makes you happy. Is it your family? Your friends? Your career? Something else? Take a moment to write down, in order of importance, what really matters to you most. This will help you establish what it is you really want to spend your time on. If something is not on the list or is rated a low priority, you need to give serious consideration to eliminating this item from your life altogether. By sticking to mid-to-high priority items, you can start building a life that you can be proud of and are excited to actively participate in, not one that you are just going through the motions with.
2. Focus on a few activities.
Let’s face it. Most of us are extremely over-programmed. Every minute of our lives is taken up with various activities that, at some point, we thought we wanted to participate in. The reality is that some or even most of these activities are just drains on our time. If you are serious about achieving a happy work-life balance, then you need to figure out which activities you just can’t live without and focus solely on them. You’ll be amazed at how much time, stress, and energy you’ll save by whittling your activity commitment down to just one or two really rewarding ones.
3. Learn how to say no.
One of the things that gets us into the most trouble with our work-life balance is our inability to say no. As human beings we have empathy for one another and we really do not want to let anyone down. In the meantime, we are letting ourselves down because every time we accept a new responsibility, we are taking time away from our personal priorities. Saying no is not easy and it can takes lots of practice in order to find a way that makes both you and the person you are saying no to feel comfortable with the outcome. But in doing so, you are freeing yourself and your time to focus on things that matter most to you.
4. Don’t be afraid to ask for help.
Life can be overwhelming, even when we are organized and have our priorities in line. The fact is that everyone needs help sometimes. By not asking for help we are creating more stress in our lives that can be damaging to our overall health. Stress alone can bring on other health issues. As an example, pre-diabetes can be caused by Insulin Resistance-related obesity which, in turn, may be brought on by stress. Various forms of stress release the steroid cortisol and this process may result in weight gain. And we all know that added weight can bring on additional complications like high cholesterol and heart disease.
So what types of things can you do to relieve some of this stress and avoid potential health risks? Ask a neighbor to watch your kids while you go to dinner with your spouse. Or have a neighborhood kid mow your lawn so that you can spend some quality doing something else that you love. The extra effort is worth it as you keep your life and your relationships on track and keep stress down to a minimum.
5. Always have something to look forward to.
We all are a little happier when we have a vacation, fun activity or big family gathering coming up on the calendar. Everybody’s work calendar is booked with various activities so why not your home calendar as well? Planning special events will enhance your life by allowing you to keep those personal relationships with friends and family strong. So turn off your cell phone and make the most of these special occasions. You might find that you have more of a skip in your step at work because of it!
July 28, 2008
by Marcelle Pick, OB/GYN NP
Anxiety in women — causes, symptoms and natural relief
Many women operate in an ever-present state of low anxiety, also called generalized anxiety, that may blossom into episodes of full-blown panic attacks, phobia or anxiety disorders during times of psychological stress or biological change — like menopause.
A majority of my patients with chronic anxiety are so accustomed to living with it — often since childhood — that they don’t even mention it until I ask or until they begin perimenopause and their anxiety symptoms worsen.
Anxiety is a knot of both emotions and physiology. Most early psychologists viewed anxiety as purely emotional: the outward sign of repressed negative feelings and inner conflict. But over 30 years of scientific research into severe anxiety disorders and panic attacks has established that all anxiety has a real, physiological cause that is just as important to treat — especially for relief of anxiety related to hormonal imbalance.
This is good news. It means that anxiety symptoms that were once dismissed as character flaws (think of the terms “worry wart”, “head case” and “control freak”) are not feelings you just have to live with or medicate when they get too severe for you to function. There’s a lot more to the story — and a lot that you can do to get that monkey of anxiety off your back.
Everyone experiences anxiety or feels panicky from time to time: the shaky knees and thudding heart, the shortness of breath, the mind going a million miles per hour. Part of what keeps us alive is our ability to feel fear. In fact, we are made with a kind of built-in alarm system that brings the full weight of our mental and physical prowess to bear in the face of danger — the “fight or flight” response.
The limbic system, the parts of the brain responsible for orchestrating our emotions, including the fight or flight response, relies on a complicated interplay between neurotransmitters and hormones to fuel the body and mind to deal with a perceived enemy.
What’s not natural is to feel afraid and upset most of the time without any tangible cause. Like our immune response, our fight or flight response is meant to click into action in the face of danger and then rest. But in our day and age, too many of us never get to relax: our minds are perpetually on high alert with the accompanying physical response.
It’s no exaggeration to say there is an epidemic of anxiety. Over 19 million American adults and millions of children have anxiety disorders ranging from mild to severe. And the statistics only count the people reporting their anxiety symptoms to doctors. I know from my practice that there are many more on the mild to moderate scale who feel reluctant or even ashamed to admit their anxiety.
Our culture tells us that feelings of fear, vulnerability, and even shyness are signs of weakness — which makes anxiety the fault of the victim. Women are taught from childhood to “grin and bear it.” The people who accuse us of medicalizing anxiety are not being helpful. The truth is that telling women to suffer through anxiety is just as terrible as telling them that drugs are the only remedy for anxiety and panic attacks. Neither is correct.
Let’s start by looking at the major types and symptoms of anxiety and then examine the real roots of anxiety. That’s where we’ll find solutions.
Severe anxiety disorders
Severe panic and anxiety disorders like obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), social phobias, and stress disorders affect only a small minority of anxiety sufferers. (Click here for a brief overview of severe anxiety disorders.)
Severe anxiety disorders are highly treatable but require medical diagnosis. If you think you may be experiencing any of these disorders, contact your healthcare practitioner right away. Different approaches that include drugs and cognitive-behavioral therapies (such as exposure therapy) are proving to be very successful.
One hot topic of study is the connection between anxiety disorders and genetics, because anxiety disorders clearly run in families. At Women to Women, we think genes are a factor in some anxiety disorders, but generally not the most important factor. More often than not, anxious women grew up in anxious households. Anxiety is usually a learned behavior that can be unlearned — even when it’s severe. We’ll return to this topic after we explore generalized anxiety disorder, which affects many more women than the severe anxiety disorders.
Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)
Mild to moderate anxiety is far more common but harder to identify than severe anxiety disorder. Called generalized anxiety disorder, or GAD, it’s characterized by compulsive worrying and physical symptoms of anxiety which persist for more than six months. Often these women were anxious — and medicated — as children, suffered some form of childhood trauma, or grew up in anxiety-ridden households.
More often than not, my patients are so used to their anxious feelings that they don’t mention them until I ask. That’s because while anxiety can be debilitating - and may grow increasingly so if left untreated - symptoms of mild to moderate anxiety may not obviously impact your ability to function.
In fact, quite the opposite may seem to be true. Often it is the high-achieving, seemingly “together” woman who finds it difficult to admit she has chronic anxiety. And frequently I see dynamic, non-stop women who rarely felt anxious in their younger lives get slammed with anxiety and panic attacks as they enter perimenopause.
These signs of anxiety can be misread at the doctor’s office precisely because these women appear to be such powerhouses. So let’s find out what the symptoms of anxiety really are.
Symptoms of anxiety and panic attack
To continue reading:
http://www.womentowomen.com/depressionanxietyandmood/anxiety.aspx?http://www.womentowomen.com
