psychotherapy

Insomnia

Insomnia

Insomnia

Insomnia

Insomnia is a common sleep disorder that can make it hard to fall asleep, hard to stay asleep, or cause you to wake up too early and not be able to get back to sleep. You may still feel tired when you wake up. Insomnia can sap not only your energy level and mood but also your health, work performance and quality of life.

 

How much sleep is enough varies from person to person, but most adults need seven to eight hours a night.

At some point, many adults experience short-term (acute) insomnia, which lasts for days or weeks. It’s usually the result of stress or a traumatic event. But some people have long-term (chronic) insomnia that lasts for a month or more. Insomnia may be the primary problem, or it may be associated with other medical conditions or medications.

You don’t have to put up with sleepless nights. Simple changes in your daily habits can often help.

Symptoms

Insomnia symptoms may include:

  • Difficulty falling asleep at night
  • Waking up during the night
  • Waking up too early
  • Not feeling well-rested after a night’s sleep
  • Daytime tiredness or sleepiness
  • Irritability, depression or anxiety
  • Difficulty paying attention, focusing on tasks or remembering
  • Increased errors or accidents
  • Ongoing worries about sleep
Depression

Depression

Depression

Depression

Depression is a common and serious medical illness that negatively affects how you feel, the way you think and how you act. Fortunately, it is also treatable. Depression causes feelings of sadness and/or a loss of interest in activities you once enjoyed. It can lead to a variety of emotional and physical problems and can decrease your ability to function at work and at home.

Depression symptoms can vary from mild to severe and can include:

  • Feeling sad or having a depressed mood
  • Loss of interest or pleasure in activities once enjoyed
  • Changes in appetite — weight loss or gain unrelated to dieting
  • Trouble sleeping or sleeping too much
  • Loss of energy or increased fatigue
  • Increase in purposeless physical activity (e.g., inability to sit still, pacing, handwringing) or slowed movements or speech (these actions must be severe enough to be observable by others)
  • Feeling worthless or guilty
  • Difficulty thinking, concentrating or making decisions
  • Thoughts of death or suicide

Symptoms must last at least two weeks and must represent a change in your previous level of functioning for a diagnosis of depression.

Also, medical conditions (e.g., thyroid problems, a brain tumor or vitamin deficiency) can mimic symptoms of depression so it is important to rule out general medical causes.

Depression affects an estimated one in 15 adults (6.7%) in any given year. And one in six people (16.6%) will experience depression at some time in their life. Depression can occur at any time, but on average, first appears during the late teens to mid-20s. Women are more likely than men to experience depression. Some studies show that one-third of women will experience a major depressive episode in their lifetime. There is a high degree of heritability (approximately 40%) when first-degree relatives (parents/children/siblings) have depression.

frozen shoulder

Frozen Shoulder

frozen shoulder

Frozen Shoulder

Take care of your body

  • Eat well: To stay as healthy as possible, give your body the best nourishment it needs. You can start making healthier food choices today. Instead of potato chips, reach for an apple and a handful of nuts to snack on.
  • Improve your posture: Good posture can prevent future arthritis pain. Years of compensating for a sore knee can result in pain in a hip or ankle. Jutting the abdomen forward can cause lower back pain, as can slouching in a desk chair. Consult a physical therapist. A physical therapist can observe how you sit, stand and walk and teach you how to adjust your posture so you can move with less pain.
  • Stay active: Regular exercise strengthens muscles that support the joints and improves flexibility and balance. To start, try a 20–30 minute walk four times a week. If you are new to exercise, a physical therapist can suggest appropriate movements that will improve your strength and range of motion.
  • Take a break: Balance activity with periods of rest. Rest can help reduce inflammation. If you need to, take time out to relax your entire body by lying down for 15 minutes. Or allow a specific joint to rest by wearing a brace or splint. Letting yourself refresh mentally and physically can reduce  pain and restore energy.
back pain

Back Pain

back pain

Back Pain

Back pain is a common reason for absence from work and for seeking medical treatment. It can be uncomfortable and debilitating. It can result from injury, activity and some medical conditions. Back pain can affect people of any age, for different reasons. As people get older, the chance of developingTrusted Source lower back pain increases, due to factors such as previous occupation and degenerative disk disease.

Lower back pain may be linked to the bony lumbar spine, discs between the vertebrae, ligaments around the spine and discs, spinal cord and nerves, lower back muscles, abdominal and pelvic internal organs, and the skin around the lumbar area. Pain in the upper back may be due to disorders of the aorta, tumors in the chest, and spine

The human back is composed of a complex structure of muscles, ligaments, tendons, disks, and bones, which work together to support the body and enable us to move around. The segments of the spine are cushioned with cartilage-like pads called disks. Problems with any of these components can lead to back pain. In some cases of back pain, its cause remains unclear. Damage can result from strain, medical conditions, and poor posture, among others.

 

knee pain

Knee Pain

knee pain

Knee Pain

The knee joint consists of an articulation between four bones the femur, tibia, fibula and patella. There are four compartments to the knee. These are the medial and lateral tibiofemoral compartments, the patellofemoral compartment and the superior tibiofibular joint. The components of each of these compartments can suffer from repetitive strain, injury or disease.

Running long distance can cause pain to the knee joint, as it is a high-impact exercise.

Knee pain is more common among people working in the cold than in those in normal temperature. Cold-induced knee pain may also be due to tenosynovitis of the tendons around the knee, in which cold exposure has a specific role, either as a causative or a contributing factor. Frank arthritis has been reported in children due to frostbite from extreme cold causing direct chondrocyte injury.

There is also a hereditary disease, familial cold autoinflammatory syndrome (FCAS), which often features knee pain, in addition to hives, fever and pain in other joints, following general exposure to cold.

A lower level of physical activity and a work environment where one is required to sit in a chair during the work day is one reason for developing knee joint pain, as the lower degree of physical movement tends to weaken the knee muscles. Blood vessels also can be affected, leading to development of painful conditions.

As age progresses the movement of the knee joint involves higher friction with adjacent tissue and cartilages.

Scroll to Top