What I meant to ask was if I took 4 sleep-aids medication all at once to sleep ….could it be harmful?

Yes, it could be very dangerous. That is the suspected cause of Heath Ledger’s death. Mixing sleep aids.

Don’t mix medication without the direct approval of your physician.

Reading classic literature always calms me down. This is especially true when I read the diaries of famous writers of the nineteenth century. It seems like you have conversed with an intelligent person, who doesnâ??t need to make himself look better than he really is. Such reading is very comforting to me, because the pace of life in the nineteenth century was much slower than it is today. Interests and passions were less competitive then, and the slower passage of time allowed for individuals to expand their thoughts into questions, a practice we seldom have time for anymore. Diaries and other accounts from this period take me far away from the reality of everyday life today, and the only thing I regret is that you cannot find new works by novelists such as Swift, Defoe, and Dickens, or new poetry from such poets as Byron.

I like this sort of detailed work, and you would probably be surprised at the content of the books I pursue, because I tend to read completely useless books on topics such as agricultural reports of ancient Rome, written by contemporary writers of that time.

Reading for me is not just about acquiring information. It is first of all a thought-provoking activity which helps the flow of my own thoughts and channels them into unique and different directions, allowing my mind to figure out better ways of perceiving my surroundings and the world in which I live.

Reading for me is a routine action, and routine actions are very common in nature. Most processes in nature begin with elemental, progressive steps, building towards a desired end. Unfortunately I suffer from a need to be engaged in routine action, anything but reading.

We can achieve only the illusion of peace of mind. This illusion is somehow connected to places, times, people, and images. Alas, if you look at the details you see that situations that you perceive as safe and comfortable in reality are not that safe. This is true not only with regard to personal experiences, but also can be seen in the biographies of successful writers, philosophers, and scientists. The perception of their success deteriorates the more you read, and you may find many disturbing details in their biographies that could have easily jeopardized their success and forfeited their claims to the pages of history.

There are many examples of images imprinted in our minds as ultimate success stories that in detailed investigation prove to be only another illusion offered to us by the media, books, and movies. In many cases we do the opposite, making negative conclusions about some events that actually are not as bad or at least donâ??t have any serious negative effect on ourselves or our lives. For example, we tend to over-estimate the danger of getting killed in terrorist attacks or becoming a victim of airplane crashes when in fact we have a much greater chance of dying behind the wheel of a car. Lucius Annaeus Seneca[1] gave all of us very valuable advice when he said that we shouldnâ??t worry about troubles in the future because they will most likely never happen, and even if they do happen then we can worry about them then. But if we worry about future troubles now and they never happen, then we just poison our lives and lose all hope for happiness.

The state of peace of mind and stable feelings of happiness and self-enjoyment are not all based on the facts of your life. What is more important is which system of beliefs you have in place to cope with different situations. The only way to achieve a stable state of happiness and peace of mind is to learn more about yourself in order to find the true source of your unhappiness. Only through introspection can we purge the negative images that may currently occupy our thoughts.

Seneca can be a good guide for such self learning. His letters to Lucilus include volumes of practical advice which still hold true today, even though much of it has been long forgotten. In modern Western culture we perceive action as a better choice than absence of action, though in many cases absence of action allows one to find more successful ways of balancing oneâ??s state of mind.

Avoiding action is perceived in puritanical cultures as the sin of laziness, and doing whatever you have to do without a lot of thinking about the reasons or the results appears better than the state of inactivity. â??No strain, no gainâ? is a slogan that can illustrate the modern approach. This creates a lot of stress and exhaustion, making people engage in the frenzy of the modern lifestyle: â??Do first, think later. Or even better, donâ??t think at all.â?

If you were to ask the majority of people walking down the street what they are doing, most will struggle with this question and then tell you where they were going. Then if you were to ask why they were doing what they said they were doing, most would struggle once more but would be unable to give you an answer, because they in fact do not know why they do what they are doing. For example, if you ask a high school student on his way to school, â??Where are you going?â? He will answer, â??to schoolâ?. If you then ask, â??But why are you going there?â? the answer will most likely be, â??Because thatâ??s what Iâ??ve got to do.â? You wonâ??t find a very deep explanation of peopleâ??s actions in more mature individuals as well. Thinking is very rare and a highly prized commodity in todayâ??s society. â??Thought is a strenuous artâ??few practice it, and then only at rare times,â? as the first Prime Minister of Israel, David Ben-Gurion, once mentioned, and this is very true. We donâ??t teach our children to think; we teach them just to act, no matter how illogical it may seem.

Peopleâ??s inability to analyze their motives and actions creates a lot of stress and causes frustration. Thinking is not that difficult, if you are used to doing it; it is just needs to become part of your lifestyle. People generally donâ??t like to think, not because thinking requires more energy (which it probably does), but as a result of the erroneous assumption that thinking is not a useful way to spend their precious time. Therefore, as a result of this assumption, thinking is not highly valued by the majority of the members of todayâ??s society.

We have certain amounts of time which are allocated for certain purposes every day. We may spend about 10 minutes showering, 30 minutes or more eating, 2-3 hours watching TV, but we neglect allocating time for simple contemplation. There is no such thing as a special time for thinking; you are supposed to do it if you really need to, while youâ??re in the shower or eating or watching TV, which is not very comfortable because sinking into a deep thought in the shower can make you forget whether you have already washed your hair and therefore you may have to do it again, considerably increasing the amount of water and shampoo you use. Thinking during meals increases the probability of choking and therefore dying prematurely, and thinking while watching TV is almost completely impossible because the specific intent of many TV producers is to distract us from thinking about our lives and replace it with something else that has nothing to do with our daily reality.

The absence of thinking time in our culture is a bad thing. In order to stay self-consistent, humans need some time to review their actions and to adjust their thoughts and beliefs accordingly. The modern world doesnâ??t quite support us in this endeavor or allow us to adjust accordingly, because our culture perpetuates the problem. When you have allocated some time for thinking, sometimes you may come to the very surprising conclusion that most of the actions you have been undertaking in the past were actually not leading you to any particular aim.

Western culture idolizes perfection. This imposes a lifestyle on most people that expects them to be perfect in their personal life, their career, and any endeavor they undertake. The individual then evaluates all aspects of his life in terms of success or failure. We can see this approach even in psychological terminology where modern psychology describes a family experiencing crises in relationships between its members as a â??dysfunctional familyâ??. This demonstrates the core values presented by modern psychology; where the family is supposed to function like a machine or a computer system. Therefore the psychology of society today doesnâ??t allow any room for failure, subsequently increasing the pressure on any particular individual.

We are living in an era of perfectionism. You donâ??t meet many successful individuals who value the calmness of quiet thought while observing the sunset, or individuals who find real pleasure in non-material values. I am a perfectionist myself, but I suffer from a most frustrating form of perfectionism which is complicated by an intolerance for routine work. I get easily excited by new ideas, but I find a lot of difficulty in conducting the repetitive actions that usually are necessary to succeed in any endeavor.

Perfectionism causes a lot of suffering, because there is no place for happiness in such an approach. You cannot be happy until you get your work done, but neither can you be happy when you get the results, because the perfectionist is never satisfied with any results. Modern culture is a huge factory that manufactures unhappy souls. I am trying to put an end to this by training myself to not be as perfectionist as I used to be, but even in this simple endeavor I am trying to be perfect and therefore my effort defeats my purpose.

I have always despised non-perfectionists, whom I call in my personal vocabulary â??episodistsâ?. By â??episodistâ? I mean a person who is not result-oriented, but rather process-oriented. I always thought that this kind of person was either stupid or just some kind of hippy, but now I realize that I was probably wrong. Look at nature. We donâ??t have much evidence that time itself is real and not just an illusion of our minds. So, without time, there is no meaning to any result. Without time, the only meaningful action is to put effort into the process itself. Letâ??s look at nature again. What is the ultimate result of a nice meal? Obviously it is the energy that we get out of eating food, but since energy is not something material, the material result of a nice meal is nothing more than what our digestive system produces, which could be considered neither aesthetically pleasing nor a desirable outcome.

The ultimate result of any blossom is rotting. The ultimate result of any life is death. That is why paying too much attention to results is not very desirable; without anticipation of results you donâ??t have anxiety about failure. Nature is taking care of our ultimate results because we are left in charge of only the process, not the results.

How does one learn how to stop looking at results, to value the simple aspects of life? Take me, for example, sitting in this room writing this book. Rather than focusing my attention on the publishing of the book or the final product of my efforts, I focus only on the fact that I am enjoying writing and sharing my thoughts. It is a pleasant atmosphere, and I am in good company with a sleeping cat, a lazy dog, and the pleasant chimes of the clock. I am not anxious or nervous about how I come across or about any deadline that I must meet. Does this make me a bad person trying to enjoy my life independently of the results? I donâ??t think so.

But still, in the back of my mind I am anxious as to how the book is going to turn out. I canâ??t wait for the time when I submit this to the editor. I canâ??t wait until I get the first copy and see the cover. I am not happy that I cannot see all of this right now, right here. This is a good illustration of my dilemma, whether to abandon the ultimate preoccupation with the results and start to enjoy each and every moment of my existence, or to be like everybody elseâ??a crazy perfectionist who cannot think of anything but successful results.

Natural selection has made us strive for perfection, however unnatural that may sound. Even now we need to eat some animalâ??s flesh in order to survive, and episodists are not very good hunters. If love is an ultimate aim of the development of the universe, why shouldnâ??t I make an effort to escape my anxieties, even for a moment, and devote myself to pure reflection on the outside world, my inner soul?

The way to achieve piece of mind is to come to the realization that we need to understand ourselves, our primal responses. We need to get acquainted with our standard reactions, the way we often overestimate or underestimate ourselves and anticipate our possible behavior in different situations, all of which eventually adds up and makes us much more anxious about the days yet to come. Our fear of the future is not only based on a fear of unfortunate events, but also on a fear of our inability to provide the proper response.

Our previous experience usually provides us with sufficient information about our ability to cope with different stressful events in our lives, but for some reason this doesnâ??t provide us with enough confidence to be able to cope with future events with the same or even greater success. Analysis of our previous performance, however, allows us to achieve peace of mind about future challenges.

One of the problems in estimating our own abilities is the obstacle that can come from the opinion of others that our own evaluation is subjective and therefore cannot be right. Thus we have a deep need for the approval of a third party to provide us with a second, external opinion about ourselves and our abilities. The most amazing thing is that sometimes the source of this opinion could be the very person that we donâ??t perceive as a reliable source of opinions on many other issues. This is a paraphrase of a statement by Arthur Schopenhauer that aims to persuade the reader not to care too much about othersâ?? opinions. He was curious as to how many people there are in our lives whom we actually value and whose opinions we respect. Very often the answer would be zero, so why should we worry about someone elseâ??s opinion of us? Being objective about ourselves is important not only so that we donâ??t overestimate our abilities, but also so that we donâ??t underestimate them.

We need to learn to build our self-confidence not from frequently-heard phrases like â??I hate doing this,â? â??I never knew how to do this,â? â??I will never get over this,â? or any other sort of discouraging and counterproductive statements. We should rather make positive conclusions about our ability to adjust to new situations, to be flexible and creative, and therefore provide ourselves with the self-confidence to perform in the future at least as well as we did in the past.

Inflexibility is the main cause of failure and therefore anxiety, depression, and absence of peace of mind. Nature supports us to be as flexible as possible because â??adjustmentâ?? in life, especially among creatures living in the wild, is synonymous with â??survivalâ??. If you can adjust to a harsh winter, you will survive. If not, then you die. Pretty straightforward, isnâ??t it? Flexibility in human society is also a valuable commodity. I had to adjust during my life to at least five different language environments, and even though I have never perfected them I was pretty successful in all of them. You donâ??t need to be perfect in order to survive. Moreover, trying to be perfect may exhaust your energy resources and eventually lead to your downfall.

Common sense is another key to reaching a state of peace. But in my vocabulary common sense is not the opinion of the majority; rather it is a sober insight into the problem which is free of pre-judgments and the misleading conclusions of others. I have learned to question anything I see and I am not new to this approach.

I completely agree with Rene Descartes in his â??Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting Reason and Seeking Truth in the Sciencesâ? where he states, in Chapter Two:

â??â?¦but as for the opinions which up to that time I had embraced, I thought that I could not do better than resolve at once to sweep them wholly away, that I might afterwards be in a position to admit either others more correct, or even perhaps the same when they had undergone the scrutiny of reason. I firmly believed that in this way I should much better succeed in the conduct of my life, than if I built only upon old foundations, and leaned upon principles which, in my youth, I had taken upon trust.â?

Following this advice of Descartes, I re-examine any concept or belief that I once took for granted, comparing it to my current experience and that of the modern world, especially where thatâ??s significantly different from what I experienced as a child and adolescent. I must admit that this old approach benefits me in many ways, because regrettably it is still very rare and therefore it gives me an advantage over others that donâ??t employ this simple approach.

We frequently hear the opinion that most of the things in life depend on chance and opportunity. Many people argue that if or when opportunity comes they will not miss it. But the truth is that such people are not quite sure of what they are saying, as a result of decades of waiting for the right opportunity to present itself. They usually lose hope and just repeat comforting words and phrases in the â??maybe somedayâ?¦â? style. How can you be sure that you wonâ??t miss the right opportunity when it arises simply because youâ??ve never had one like it before? How can you train yourself to catch an opportunity when it comes along if opportunity is such a rare commodity? As a matter of fact, such people lose their opportunities because they fail to recognize them when they present themselves. I found a way to train myself to seize these opportunities when they arose. It is by taking the initiative to create my own opportunities. That is how I know I will not miss one when it arises, because usually they come at the right time and the right place, as everything which is carefully planned in advance does.

I always consider myself my ultimate source of opportunities. This can be a substantial component to my peace of mind, because if you donâ??t wait for opportunity to come you wonâ??t be anxious. You will just know that when you need it, you will find a way to create it. Of course it costs a lot of money, but opportunities have a very special way of bringing even more money than it cost to create them. Usually I end up with something at the end of the day that I can then spend on the next opportunities that I create, and of course on my creation-friendly environment with the sleeping cat, the lazy dog, and the chiming clock.

Marco Polo went all the way to the Far East trying to mix the different pages of history, because medieval Europe doesnâ??t go well with medieval China as they were greatly separated. As I have learned, they werenâ??t only separated by distance; they were also separated in peopleâ??s minds at that time. Europeans, and their overall spiritual leader, the Catholic Pope, made numerous attempts to create relationships with Tatar-Mongols.

All of these proposals of co-operation in the Crusades were met with resistance. It was like different civilizations were unwilling to relinquish their isolation and culture. Tatar-Mongols would be reluctant in the same way to co-operate with aliens, if these green men should have the audacity to ask for their assistance.

It is not just that individual people were not co-operative; entire civilizations were inflexible as well. What would the world look like today if the Tatar-Mongols had interfered in the Crusades? Here we come to a question of the risk of accepting or declining a certain opportunity. This makes the moments of our lives unequal, because some crossroads are more important than those routine days where nothing eventful occurs. Thoughts like â??what ifâ?¦â? add a lot of anxiety and distortion to our peace of mind: â??What if I went to law school?â? and â??What if Iâ?¦.â? Creating opportunities for yourself precludes the need to entertain such possibilities.

As a matter of fact, I donâ??t believe in opportunities. Most of the time when I create opportunities for others I can divert them for a limited time. Sometimes it is only days, sometimes it takes years, but sooner or later such people come back to their original state and move on with their path as if there was no opportunity in the first place. Probably I could create an opportunity to divert someone from his chosen path for a period of time which coincidentally would be longer than his lifespan. This doesnâ??t mean that this individual wouldnâ??t have an internal need to come back to his original state of mind.

Now I have to make a confession. I am exactly this type of individual; I always follow my own path. If troubles or opportunities divert me from this path, this doesnâ??t mean that I cease to have an internal sub-conscious impulse to come back and go on with the path. A very important consideration in changing our paths is to analyze what is in fact our chosen destiny, because most people arenâ??t quite aware of their destinyâ??s true nature and direction.

The last thing I would mention that is important for maintaining oneâ??s peace of mind is the management of multiple images of the same things that we usually have in our memories and imagination. For example, I have three images of Paris in my head: the first is the one that I had before I visited the city, the second is my actual memory of the city itself, the third is the image that I am constantly recreating from reading French periodicals and recent novels and listening to French news. These are three absolutely different cities. Realization of the multi-imaging nature of our consciousness is a very important step towards establishing a well-balanced mental state. Admitting the existence of these multiple impressions allows me to avoid their inner conflicts and helps me function in a more stress-free manner.

Paris had a magical aura for me as a young man. Whenever I was in Europe I tried to visit it, for the sake of the marvel and wonder it held for my mind. But when I actually visited there it was not as pleasant and exciting, and not nearly as magical, as I had thought. I have to admit that some details of this visit were indeed magical on a personal level, because when I stood in the square in front of the Notre Dame cathedral I was thinking about my beloved grandmother as she stood in this very place over half a century ago, and this had a vivid emotional and spiritual effect on me. And although certain aspects of the visit were disappointing, overall it was still very nice to have a refreshing point of view on the city I thought I knew. So in the end the visit wasnâ??t disappointing at all. Now that I am a grown man and am immersing myself in French culture, I find that I am discovering a whole new Paris through the media and through the people I talk to and hear from. In the final analysis, though I have three very different ideas of what Paris is to me these three images do not conflict with each other in my mind but rather build and grow off each other.

I notice the same effect with the multiple impressions created in my mind by philosophers, writers, and other great minds. For example, I possess two copies of the poems of George Gordon Lord Byron, such as the one that whispers in my ears:

It is the hour when from the boughs

The nightingale’s high note is heard;

It is the hour — when loversâ?? vows

Seem sweet in every whisper’d word;

And gentle winds and waters near,

Make music to the lonely ear.

And there is another Lord Byron, who fought on behalf of the Greek rebellion and died far away from his home.[2] They are two different Byrons for me, and I need some way to settle them in my head. Some objects or events, some people or places may have multiple connotations for us, and we need to learn to deal with this without allowing them to cause internal conflicts and disturb our peace of mind.

Peace of mind is the most valuable experience that can and should be achieved in our earthly lives. I hope that some thoughts mentioned herein may be of some assistance to you as well as cathartic to myself.

[1] Lucius Annaeus Seneca, known simply as Seneca or Seneca the Younger (ca. 4 BCâ??AD 65) was a Roman philosopher, statesman, dramatist, and (in one work) humorist of the Silver Age of Latin literature.

[2]Despite being a poet, Byron had come to feel that action was more important than poetry. He boarded a brig, the Hercules, and sailed to Greece to aid the Greeks, who had risen against Ottoman oppression. Byron died far away from his home, in Missolonghi, on 19 April, 1824.

Bruce Kriger
http://www.articlesbase.com/self-improvement-articles/achieving-peace-of-mind-366815.html

How many pills does a person "mistakenly" needs to swallow until he/she dies. If the ingredients are as follows:

Diphenhydramine Hcl 50 Mg. Inactive: Edible White Ink, Fd&C Blue #1, Gelatin, Glycerin, Polyethylene Glycol, Purified Water and Sorbitol Special. May Also Contain: Povidone.

I’m doing a paper of how dangerous over the counter sleeping pills can be. And if they should be banned. The ingredients were taken from an over the counter brand.

*Please don’t be rude, I’ve asked this before and everyone was rude.

Try looking in the British National Formulary (BNF). (It’s online too) It’s basically a big book of drugs and should contain information about the brand of pill you’re researching

Over the past decade, as I have worked with cops, firfighters, abuse victims and children of addicts, I have learned that there are many causes for PTSD. It has also affirmed my belief that PTSD is real and harmful, not only to those who have it, but also to those around them. It impacts the way we act, react, our motivation and our capacity to feel–well, anything.

Terrifying experiences that shatter people’s sense of predictability and invulnerability can profoundly alter their coping skills, relationships and the way they perceive and interact with the world. The criteria for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) are 1) exposure to a traumatic event(s) in which the person witnessed or experienced or were confronted with an event or events that involved actual or threatened death or serious injury, or a threat to the physical integrity of self or others, and 2) the person’s response involved intense fear, helplessness or horror DSM IV p. 427-28). Gradual Onset Traumatic Stress Disorder can be caused by repeated exposure to “sub-critical incidents” such as child abuse, traffic fatalities, rapes and personal assaults.

Nevertheless, not all people exposed to trauma are “traumatized.” Why? In 1998, Pynoos and Nader proposed a theory to assist in explaining why people have different reactions to the same event. They asserted that people are at greater risk of being negatively impacted by traumatic events if any of the following are present: 1) they have experienced other traumatic events within the preceding 6 months, 2) they were already stressed out or depressed at the time of the event, 3) the situation occurred close to their home or somewhere they considered safe, 4) the victims bear a similarity to a family member or friend and 5) they have little social support.

It has been argued that officers, emergency service personnel, children of addicts and abuse victims experience traumatic events or threats to their safety on an almost daily basis. Being abused, not knowing when or if your parents will come home, repeatedly seeing children murdered, people burned in car fires and devastated victims starts to take its toll. People like idealistic officers who joined the force to change the world and protect the innocent begin to feel like nothing they do makes a difference, they cannot even keep their zone safe (criteria 3). This is especially problematic for officers who live in or near their work zone and often leads to frustration and burnout (criteria 2). Children start to feel that the whole world is uncontrollable and unsafe.

It is still not totally accepted within the law enforcement community for officers to discuss the impact of situations on them. Anger, humor and sarcasm are but a brief outlet for what many officers dream about at night. As their condition worsens, many officers withdraw, because they are fearful of seeking help or support for fear it is a one way ticket to a fitness for duty evaluation or will get out and be an obstacle for future promotions. Several studies in recent years have shown that Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is among the most common of psychiatric disorders.

Another thing that distinguishes people who develop PTSD from those who are just temporarily overwhelmed is that people who develop PTSD become “stuck” on the trauma, keep re-living it in thoughts, feelings, or images. It is this intrusive reliving, rather than the trauma itself that many believe is responsible for what we call PTSD. For example, I have worked with officers who have responded to child abuse calls and had a child of their own who was a similar age (criteria 4). In the course of daily life children get hurt and have bad dreams. As parents they have seen looks of pain and fright on their kids faces. This makes it just that much easier to envision the looks of terror and agony on the face of the child as their parent beat them. Sometimes this visualization gets corrupted and officers suddenly they start to see their child in their mental re-enactment of the trauma, obviously a much more powerful memory. These officers are much more likely to be “traumatized” by the incident and potentially get “stuck.”

Traumatized individuals begin organizing their lives around avoiding the trauma. Avoidance may take many different forms: keeping away from reminders, calling in sick to work, or ingesting drugs or alcohol that numb awareness of distress. The sense of futility, hyperarousal, and other trauma-related changes may permanently change how people deal with stress, alter thier self-concept and interfere with their view of the world as a basically safe and predictable place. In the example above, these people often became even more overprotective of their children, suspicious of others, and had difficulty sleeping, because every time they close their eyes they see the child.

One of the core issues in trauma is the fact that memories of what has happened cannot be integrated into one’s general experience. The lack of people’s ability to make this “fit” into their expectations or the way they think about the world in a way that makes sense keeps the experience stored in the mind on a sensory level. When people encounter smells, sounds or other sensory stimuli that remind them of the event, it may trigger a similar response to what the person originally had: physical sensations (such as panic attacks), visual images (such as flashbacks and nightmares), obsessive ruminations, or behavioral reenactments of elements of the trauma. In the example above, sensory triggers that triggered some of the officers memories were certain cries, hearing or seeing a parent spank their child, returning to the same neighborhood for other calls and, of course, television shows or news reports that involved descriptions of abuse.

The goal of treatment is find a way in which people can acknowledge the reality of what has happened and somehow integrate it into their understanding of the world without having to re-experience the trauma all over again. To be able to tell their story, if you will.

The Symptoms of PTSD

Regardless of the origin of the terror, the brain reacts to overwhelming, threatening, and uncontrollable experiences with conditioned emotional responses. For example, rape victims may respond to conditioned stimuli, such as the approach by an unknown man, as if they were about to be raped again, and experience panic.

Remembrance and intrusion of the trauma is expressed on many different levels, ranging from flashbacks, feelings, physical sensations, nightmares, and interpersonal re-enactments. Interpersonal re-enactments can be especially problematic for the officer leading to over-reaction in situations that remind the officer of previous experiences in which she or he has felt helpless. For example, in the child abuse example above, officers may be much more physically and verbally aggressive toward alleged perpetrators and their reports tend to be much more negative and subjective.

Hyperarousal. While people with PTSD tend to deal with their environment by reducing their range of emotions or numbing, their bodies continue to react to certain physical and emotional stimuli as if there were a continuing threat. This arousal is supposed to alert the person to potential danger, but seems to loose that function in traumatized people. This is sort of like when rookie officers start and a hot call is toned out, they usually have an adrenaline rush. After two or three years, the tones hardly have any impact on them. Since traumatized people are always “keyed up” they often do not pay any attention to that feeling which is supposed to warn them of impending danger.

Numbing of responsiveness. Aware of their difficulties in controlling their emotions, traumatized people seem to spend their energies on avoiding distress. In addition, they lose pleasure in things that previously gave them a sense of satisfaction. They may feel “dead to the world”. This emotional numbing may be expressed as depression, and lack of motivation, or as physical reactions. After being traumatized, many people stop feeling pleasure from involvement in activities, and they feel that they just “go through the motions” of everyday living. Emotional numbness also gets in the way of resolving the trauma in therapy.

Intense emotional reactions and sleep problems. Traumatized people go immediately from incident to reaction without being able to first figure out what makes them so upset. They tend to experience intense fear, anxiety, anger and panic in response to even minor stimuli. This makes them either overreact and intimidate others, or to shut down and freeze. Both adults and children with such hyperarousal will experience sleep problems, because they are unable to settle down enough to go to sleep, and because they are afraid of having nightmares. Many traumatized people report dream-interruption insomnia: they wake themselves up as soon as they start having a dream, for fear that this dream will turn into a trauma-related nightmare. They also are liable to exhibit hypervigilance, exaggerated startle response and restlessness.

Learning difficulties. Being “keyed-up” interferes with the capacity to concentrate and to learn from experience. Traumatized people often have trouble remembering ordinary events. It is helpful to always write things down for them. Often “keyed-up” and having difficulty paying attention, they may display symptoms of attention deficit disorder.

After a trauma, people often regress to earlier modes of coping with stress. In adults, it is expressed in excessive dependence and in a loss of capacity to make thoughtful, independent decisions. In officers, this is often noticed because they suddenly begin making a lot of poor decisions, their reports lose quality and detail and they are unable to focus. In children they may begin wetting their bed, having fears of monsters or having temper tantrums.

Aggression against self and others: Both adults and children who have been traumatized are likely to turn their aggression against others or themselves. Due to their persistent anxiety, traumatized people are almost always “stressed out,” so it does not take much to them set off. This aggression may take many forms ranging from fighting to excessive exercise or obsession about something—anything to keep them from thinking about the trauma.

Psychosomatic reactions. Chronic anxiety and emotional numbing also get in the way of learning to identify and discuss internal states and wishes. May traumatized people report a high frequency of headaches, back and neck aches, gastro-intestinal problems etceteras. Since the stress is being held inside, the body begins to become distressed.

Summary

After a trauma, people realize the limited scope of their safety, power and control in the world, and life can never be exactly the same. The traumatic experience becomes part of a person’s life. Sorting out exactly what happened and sharing one’s reactions with others can make a great deal of difference a person’s recovery. Putting the reactions and thoughts related to the trauma into words is essential in the resolution of post traumatic reactions. This should, however, be done with a professional specializing in PTSD due to the wide range of reactions people have when they start confronting and integrating the memories of the trauma.

Failure to approach trauma related material gradually is likely to make things worse. Often, talking about the trauma is not enough: trauma survivors need to take some action that symbolizes triumph over helplessness and despair. The Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem and the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, DC, are good examples of symbols for survivors to mourn the dead and establish the historical and cultural meaning of the traumatic events. There are several events for survivors of traumas that officers can also take part in. These events remind survivors of the fact that there are others who have shared similar experiences. Other symbolic actions may take the form of writing a book, taking political action or helping other victims.

PTSD is real, and can be resolved with time, patience and compassion.

Dawn-Elise Snipes
http://www.articlesbase.com/self-help-articles/post-traumatic-stress-disorder-ptsd-what-is-it-110738.html

I am asking because I have trouble falling asleep, more commonly know as insomnia.

I would take melatrol to if i were you. I think that product is the best to cure insomnia. With Melatrol, you won’t have that that dull, "hung-over" feeling the next day. Instead, you’ll wake up feeling refreshed and rested. As your body re-establishes its natural sleep cycle, you’ll find you can sleep more easily. You won’t become addicted to Melatrol in order to get to sleep.

Oh yeah, melatrol recently gives you free sample delivered to your home. just go to this site: http://offto.net/naturallyfallasleepfast and you’ll get their free product sample for free

Psychological First Aid for Boomers: 7 Powerful Reasons to Get Help

For most people, the idea of seeking professional counseling is likely to be very intimidating and even unsettling. But if your problems are severe, have persisted for some time, or your personal efforts have been ineffective, it is advisable and advantageous to seek professional help.

How do you know you need help? Here are 7 major symptoms that are usually a signal you need professional counseling.

1. Your thoughts are confused and unreasonable: excessive panic, anxiety, fear, or an inability to cope with daily activities like, work, family or personal care.

2. Prolonged depression, sadness or apathy, specifically feelings of hopelessness, helplessness or loss of pleasure in activities that you used to enjoy.

3. Excessive anger / hostility or wide mood swings that result in erratic behavior or thoughts.

4. Marked changes in eating (binging or purging) or sleeping patterns (difficulty falling or staying asleep).

5. Alcohol or drug use that is affecting job performance, your personal or professional relationships or health.

6. Thinking or talking about suicide, including social isolation and withdrawal.

7. Difficulty dealing with loss as in a divorce, death or change in lifestyle due to illness.

Every day, some form of counseling makes a difference in the lives of people, young and old. Especially for boomers, who are transitioning through their midlife, it is imperative to be aware of the emotional changes you may be experiencing. A trained therapist can help you begin the process of deepening your insights, coping with challenges and creating a happier, more fulfilled life.

Amy Sherman
http://www.articlesbase.com/motivational-articles/psychological-first-aid-7-reasons-why-you-need-help-135578.html

longs sleep aid

Melatonin is the only sleep aid safe, but your body can grow tolerant over time.
All the over-the-counter sleep aids contain some antihistamine, such as diphenhydramine. Over time it can actually become detrimental for sleep and thus it shouldn’t be used for more than 1 to 2 weeks.
The better options are by prescription.

I usually go to sleep around 11:00, but rarely have I been able to sleep past 2:00am…..any help?

Be careful with the drugs because they can cause dependency. I had a friend who sometimes had troubles sleeping and she said that her doctor said that sleep aids should only be used for short periods of time because, if you take them for extended periods, you will become dependent.

Some non-drug tips for falling asleep:
1. Drink warm milk or hot chocolate before going to bed.
2. You can try drinking raw eggs before bed if you’re brave enough.
3. Make sure your bedroom is warm enough to be cozy but no so warm that you’re sweating.
4. Make sure your mind is clear because thinking too much when you’re trying to fall asleep will keep you up.
5. Counting sheep. This is cheesy, I know. But the methodological activity of counting can (a) clear your mind of other troubles and (b) lull you into a kind of hypnosis that will lead to sleep.
6. Singing a soft, lulling song in your head while trying to fall asleep can help too. Don’t worry if you know all the words. Just hum the tune. Silent Night works well for me.
7. I’ve been told that concentrating on the colour black can help you sleep.
8. While trying to fall asleep, visualize yourself curling up in a cozy cloud or snuggling in some other beautiful, peaceful, and cozy place.
9. Read something boring.
10. Some people find that listening to music or watching TV helps them sleep. Others (myself included) find that it keeps them awake.
11. If you can’t fall asleep after about 30-45 minutes, get up, walk around, maybe go to the washroom, have a snack, maybe do something (read, internet, sewing, whatever) to employ your time for a few minutes, and then go back to bed. (This tip came from a credible source, but I forget exactly where I encountered it.) Odd as this one sounds, it is actually quite effective. Once you’ve perked yourself up, you’re going to bed afreash; and this, in some weird way, helps.

Asthma is a malady that for the severely afflicted can be lethal if not properly addressed. It is especially difficult for the parent of a child with asthma. Asthma symptoms can rob a child of many things that are part of being a child. Having to constantly be on guard for an asthma attack is a never ending problem for the parent of child with asthma. The problem is no less worse for an adult with asthma. An asthma attack can be fatal in the severely afflicted. Every asthma attack is cause for alarm and has to be immediately addressed and treated.

Asthma attacks have early warning signs. It is important to recognize these signs so that you can begin treatment of an attack as early as possible. The sooner you begin treatment the better the results you can expect from the treatment given. Some typical warning signs of an oncoming asthma attack are coughing with a runny nose and headache.Other signs that can appear are moodiness and sneezing and also breathing changes can be the sign of an oncoming attack. Other signs are dark circles under the eyes, fatigue and throat and chin itches. Trouble sleeping, difficulty at physical tasks like exercise and a downward trend in peak flow number.

Asthma symptoms can be mild or severe for the asthma sufferer. Airflow is obstructed during an asthma attack caused by changes in the air way that channels the air to the lungs. This causes difficulty in breathing can get progressively worse and in extreme cases can result in death. Wheezing is a sign if an oncoming attack, so is coughing and tightness in the chest. Close attention has to be paid to children due to the fact that a child can sometimes have a tendency to ignore the initial symptoms during play and can delay treatment by doing so.

Severe asthma symptoms are a serious issue as a severe asthma attack can be fatal. It is absolutely imperative that the severe asthma sufferer have a plan in place for addressing these attacks. This plan should be designed by a medical professional and be ready to be implemented at a moments notice. The signs of a severe asthma attack are as follows. Severe coughing and wheezing with shortness of breath and tightness in the chest. A grey or blue tint to the skin brought on by lack of oxygen in the blood stream. Fast and shallow breathing can be sign of an oncoming severe attack. A severe decrease in the peak flow numbers.

Any of these symptoms should never be ignored. Even mild symptoms if ignored can develop into more severe symptoms. It is important that emergency medical care be prompt in the severe asthma sufferer if these symptoms appear. Paying close attention to your symptoms and their frequency and severity should be part of the asthmatics treatment plan. Doing so will help your physician more accurately direct his or her plan of action in your treatment. Merely telling your doctor about the symptoms is not enough A written log or record of the symptoms is what is required to properly develop and make adjustments in an ongoing treatment plan.

This log should be as detailed as possible. It should include the following. The asthma symptoms and their severity when they occur. The number of night time awakenings or sleep disruptions. This would include when they occur and how often they are spaced apart. Any changes of the use of quick relief medicines. This would include any increase or decrease in their effectiveness and their frequency of use. The number of school days or work days missed and hospital visits. Peak flow numbers should be recorded so that any patterns can be recognized and established. In the end it is you who are responsible for you or your childs treatment plan.

Sven Ullmann
http://www.articlesbase.com/diseases-and-conditions-articles/the-symptoms-of-asthma-125798.html

Going on a 18 hour plane flight soon and I can’t fall asleep on my own on a plane so I’m wondering if anyone can recommend a good over the counter sleep aid. Also wondering if anyone has some good suggestions for things to do to pass the time on a long plane flight (besides reading a book or bringing some sort of hand held game). Thanks

Unisom! You can find them at any CVS/Walgreen’s or grocery store. I think they work the best especially if you haven’t taken them before.