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Experts are not sure why, but many people confuse schizophrenia with dissociative personality disorder, which is when someone has two or more identities or personalities. Schizophrenia may cause hallucinations or delusions, but it does not create multiple personalities.

Schizophrenia makes people violent or dangerous

Movies and other media may make it seem that having schizophrenia makes one unstable and likely to harm others, but having the disorder does not make one more prone to violence. In fact, some studies show that it can increase the risk of being a victim of violent crime.

Family causes

Experts do not know exactly what causes schizophrenia. It has multiple risk factors, including, for example, genetics, or having an infection in the brain, or even complications during pregnancy , drug use and extreme stress over long periods of time.

You can get Schizophrenia if one of your parents had the disease

The fact that schizophrenia already runs in the family does not necessarily mean that one will get the disease. More than one gene contributes to the risk of getting sick, so an automatic diagnosis is not formulated if one of the parents has been affected.

You are not smart enough if you have Schizophrenia

Some brief studies have found that people with schizophrenia would have lower IQs after the onset of the disorder. Other studies show that some people with schizophrenia have very high IQs. It is not a given that having the disorder makes one more or less intelligent.

It means living in a structure

In the past, when schizophrenia was not so well understood, people with the condition were often removed so that they did not pose a “danger” to society. But advances in medications and a better understanding of mental illness now make it possible to find the treatment and therapy one needs while continuing to live and work in the community.

You cannot perform and maintain a job

People with schizophrenia can be productive and valuable employees in the workplace. Research shows that the causes can be attributed more to the persistence of clichés about the disease rather than the symptoms making it harder to find a job.

The illness begins with a psychotic break

Often an episode of psychosis leads to a diagnosis, but research shows that people often have gradual changes in thinking, mood, and social behavior before a breakdown occurs.

There is no recovery

Although it is true that schizophrenia does not yet have a definitive cure you, can cure it and live a productive life , despite the disorder. Studies show that nearly two-thirds of sufferers significantly improve their symptoms and even have remission from symptoms if they start appropriate treatment immediately after their first episode.

A blood test shows the presence of the disease

There is nothing that can prove to the doctor that you have a schizophrenia disorder . The diagnosis of schizophrenia requires a combination of tests and questions about symptoms and behavior over time, and is not based on any laboratory tests.

Edited by the medical editorial staff of mySpecialDoctor

What is fibromyalgia?

Fibromyalgia is a lifelong condition that affects millions of people worldwide. People who suffer from it have sore and stiff muscles, but no abnormalities show up on X-rays or most laboratory tests. Doctors diagnose it based on symptoms and a clinical examination. Although fibromyalgia does not damage joints or organs, constant pain and fatigue can really take a hard toll on daily life.

The Symptoms

The typical sign of fibromyalgia is muscle pain felt throughout the body. Other symptoms are also usually present.

• Fatigue
• Sleep disorders
• Anxiety or depression
• Joint pain and numbness or tingling

The Pain Points

One of the unique features of fibromyalgia is the specific areas of the body that hurt when pressed. Healthy people would only feel the pressure exerted on their muscles. The symptom of pain is generally experienced by all patients.

Since traditionally no laboratory test or X-ray can confirm a diagnosis of fibromyalgia, one might think that the pain is not real but rather “present in their head.” Today the medical world recognizes the reality of fibromyalgia pain.
Research advances the hypothesis that pain may be caused by a problem in the body’s perception of pain.

Which people are at risk?

Women between the ages of 25 and 60 are most likely to develop fibromyalgia. The reason is not yet known, but it seems that women are 10 times more likely to contract it than men.
At the research level, it is believed that the causes could be genetic, although the genes that would be responsible are not yet known.

Fatigue is the second most common symptom. A symptom not to be confused with the normal tiredness that follows a busy day, but of a persistent feeling of fatigue.
People with fibromyalgia may experience fatigue even in the morning after many hours of sleep at night. Fatigue may be greater on some days limiting work the various activities at home or outside, causing the person’s quality of life to deteriorate.

The many theories advanced but research is still unable to determine the root cause clearly. Some theories explain the disease as caused by hormonal or chemical imbalances that alter the nerves’ ability to perceive pain.
Other theories theorize that a traumatic event or chronic stress may increase the likelihood.
Most experts credit the hypothesis that the disease may be caused by a combination of concomitant factors.

Fibromyalgia in daily life

Persistent pain and fatigue can make the person irritable, anxious and depressed, with difficulty staying focused on work, taking care of their children or keeping up with household chores, for example.
Physical activity, taking care of different activities, taking care of one’s hobbies can become manageable initiatives among many difficulties. The patient appears exhausted and in a difficult mood, so much so that social relationships are also affected. Treatments, although not resolving, can alleviate symptoms while improving the patient’s quality of life.

The Diagnosis

At the medical examination, it is good for the patient to be able to point out to the doctor the most painful points on the body, describing in detail the pain and its manifestations such as intensity, periodicity, and also associated symptoms such as fatigue, sleep problems, or anxiety symptoms. Your doctor may prescribe a blood test for fibromyalgia and other tests to rule out any other medical conditions.

Getting help in the treatment of Fibromyalgia

At one time, rheumatologists, physicians who specialize in arthritis, were the only ones who treated Fibromyalgia patients. Today, the condition has captured the attention of a wide range of health care providers. Many people are treated by their primary care physicians. You can contact local support groups and hospitals for a list of fibromyalgia experts in your area.

The Triggers, Triggering Factors

An important first step in preventing and counteracting symptoms in order to feel better is to identify those factors that are most likely to trigger or worsen symptoms of the disease. Common triggers include:
– Cold or humid climate
– Insufficient or even excessive physical activity
– Physical fatigue
– Insufficient sleep

Sleep

Many people with fibromyalgia experience a are disturbed, with difficulty falling asleep or often waking up during the night.
Patients often complain of superficial and never deep, restorative sleep, sometimes resulting in a repetitive cycle of insufficient sleep/pain and vice versa, which tends to worsen health status.

Depression

Nearly one-third of people with fibromyalgia also suffer from major depression at the time of diagnosis. With symptoms such as difficulty concentrating, feeling hopeless and having little interest in one’s favorite activities.
Research is investigating various hypotheses, including that depression may be caused by chronic pain and prolonged fatigue, or that depression along with unusual pain sensitivity are the result of altered brain chemistry.

Drugs

The goal of treatment is to minimize pain, sleep disturbances, and mood problems. To relieve symptoms, the doctor may recommend such as over-the-counter or prescription painkillers such as amitriptyline.

Prescription drugs that specifically treat the pain of fibromyalgia include:

• duloxetine
• milnacipran
• pregabalin

Physical Activity

Physical activity can reduce pain and improve fitness. Exercising just three times a week can relieve fatigue and depression, but do it moderately. Walking, stretching and water aerobics are good ways to start.

The Diet

Dietary choice may play a role in fibromyalgia, but not the same role for everyone. For some patients foods or ingredients, such as aspartame, MSG, caffeine, and tomatoes, seem to make symptoms worse for some people. It is convenient to identify in one’s diet which foods may be triggers for symptoms, keeping a diary of foods allowed in the diet or discontinued to check their effects on symptoms.

The Massage

Rubbing, and massaging the sore parts can help relieve pain. Regular sessions of about 20 minutes each can certainly be part of the treatment.

Acupuncture

This traditional Chinese practice uses thin needles inserted into key points of the body to restore the flow of energy. Medically, the process can affect nerves, muscles and connective tissue. Many patients benefit from this treatment.

Fibrous fog

Sometimes patients complain of difficulty concentrating, a symptom referred to as “fibro fog” , which can be mitigated by treatment for pain and insomnia , but also by a patient’s habit of making written notes of things to keep in mind or remember , and exercising their attention by reading books or solving crossword puzzles.

Fatigue

It is one of the most common triggers of flare-ups. Although you cannot completely eliminate stress from your life, you can at least reduce it. Identify which factors are most stressful while trying to avoid the most harmful ones. Possibly use helping disciplines such as yoga, meditation and other relaxation techniques, putting aside unnecessary activities or labors, relieving stressors.

The Improvements

Many people with fibromyalgia find that their symptoms and quality of life improve greatly when they find effective treatment and adapt their behaviors and habits. Most people are able to work and perform normal activities.

FIBROMYALGIA
Edited by Medical Editor of MySpecialDoctor Portal

1. Memory loss: aging, Dementia or Alzheimer’s?

Sometimes we feel as if our memory loses strokes. It happens sometimes to forget things especially when life gets more complicated. We begin to pay attention to it when the fact tends to recur over the years. It is physiological that a limited portion of memory leaves us as we grow older, a fact that does not foretell a condition of dementia, especially since only a low percentage of the elderly are affected by a state of dementia.

2. At what point does not remembering represent a problem?

If a certain memory deficit ends up making it difficult to manage one’s daily activities, it is an obvious condition that needs serious consideration. Forgetting a fact you just heard or repeating the same question over and over again, resorting to many paper “memos” to succeed in not forgetting the basic facts of your day are signs to talk to your primary care physician about.

3. If organizing one’s day becomes a constant concern as well as solving even elementary problems, solutions must then be adopted

Sure, it can happen to anyone to make a mistake in an indication, to write an incorrect figure on a payment, or to mistake one person for another, but it starts to become a problem if you have difficulty doing things the way you used to do them. If you lose your grasp of the ways where you have always lived, or if you can no longer remember a certain direction or how to follow directions on a street, you should interpret these signs as evidence of progressive memory loss.

4. Experiencing the day’s activities with difficulty

Even looking up your favorite channel on the TV can become a problem or even a chore, as can using household appliances that you have always used. If you have trouble performing regular activities as usual such as driving from home to the home of friends you have known for years, if you forget the basic rules of games or sports usually played, then you are getting serious about memory problems.

5. Can’t remember where the car was left, on which street, in which parking lot

A fact that has surely happened to many at least once. Returning from shopping does not bring back memories of where you left your car. If the occurrence is repeated with some frequency better to report it to your doctor, as these could be different signs of an overt dementia condition. Usually, it happens to many people that they cannot remember where they forgot their house keys or sunglasses, but Most of the time, by going backwards or reconstructing the actions performed in succession, one is able to recover both the memory and the forgotten object. If losing objects or not remembering where you left them becomes a recurring occurrence, there is no doubt that you are facing a memory problem…

6. When a person loses track of time.

As soon as you wake up, if you don’t immediately remember what day it is, don’t worry, it can happen, if you already after a few seconds reconstruct the facts and focus on the day of the week or even the date or related commitment or activity. If, on the other hand, one has really lost track of time and is confusing dates, or even seasons, while a certain state of confusion prevails in attempts at recollection, it means that memory loss has extended to the cognition of time.

7. Not being able to remember how you got to a certain place

If we walk into a room and cannot think of why, it is a moment of lack of memory, but a few moments later the memory of why quickly surfaces, thus a fact that is not a cause for concern. However, it may happen to a person afflicted with memory loss to enter a building or store without then being able to remember what the errand was to be performed. People with Alzheimer’s sometimes lose awareness of where they are, basically becoming as if lost, not even remembering how they got there. This is a real condition for seeking assistance or help.

8. If the word one would like to enunciate does not come to mind.

What happens is that we try to say in a speech the name of a restaurant we would like to recommend, or mention the name of a famous movie actor, but nothing, absolute emptiness. This happens sometimes to so many of us. In the presence of Alzheimer’s disease, there is some difficulty in expressing oneself, speaking and even writing. Affected people may not remember the name of one of their family members or old friends. In practice, the person with Alzheimer’s may not only forget a name of a person close to him or her but also fail to express a concept at all by not remembering the words used to express it.

9. Secluding yourself by avoiding seeing friends and relatives

Of course, if one has expressive difficulties or even significant memory loss, one tends to avoid meeting or hanging out with friends, family members or colleagues from work, and tends to isolate oneself progressively, while losing interest in social and communication life, and in usual personal activities. When this is the scenario, the necessary steps need to be taken to be assisted, helped, and appropriately treated therapeutically.

10. Test your memory with a specific test

If you simply suspect that you are not dealing with physiological problems of aging or otherwise unimportant but think you are at serious risk of progressive and major memory loss, with the help of your doctor you can resort to memory testing. This can serve both to correctly guide the diagnosis toward dementia or Alzheimer’s disease, considering all aspects of the clinical issue under consideration, and also to better understand the effect of the medications the person takes regularly.

11. What to do in such cases?

If memory loss is not diagnosed by medical checkups, then it can be prevented from worsening by adopting strategies to train memory, reading books by playing games that exercise attention and the intellectual sphere, in short by keeping in constant training. Also helpful would be to add a more balanced diet and constant exercise activity. If, on the other hand, the diagnosis leans toward dementia or Alzheimer’s Disease, appropriate medical care must be sought, which includes a whole range of therapeutic prescriptions, advice related to the prevention of recurring problems, and guidance on assistive methods for patient care.

Memory loss: aging, Dementia or Alzheimer’s?
Edited by Medical Editor of the My Special Doctor portal