Psychiatry and Psychology

Why can people never just say "Ok I'm happy about my life". I find the majority of people need to be giving out about something or they don't feel content. Is this an inadequeacy of people or the system they live in. They're always wanting more, in some form or another. (This I know is necessary to the progression of our race but hear me out) Even if "more" may cause hardship to another person. (Survival of the fittest yes....wait) But I increasingly find myself questioning civilised human nature. By that I mean on one hand we say "That's wrong, you can't steal from him/her", on the other a person is allowed to make a decision which affects thousands in a d…

Is ADD a real disorder? I mean, my brother swears the reason he can't learn is because he has ADD. Now, he's only started using the ADD excuse since two of his friends were diagnosed. Suddenly, he has the disorder. No longer does he take responsibility for his piss poor study habits, its ADD's fault. Knowing my brother, this is total bs. He can learn and I've seen him learn. He just has horrible study habits. I don't remember anyone talking about ADD 10 years ago, why the sudden emergence? Is this a valid disorder, or some catch-all group for kids who can't focus. How many Indian (india) children have ADD? I don't know ANY. Why? their parents STRICLY ENFORCE …

Are they? Does lucid dreaming replenish your mind as well as regular REM?

From http://www.alexfridman.com/sexuality/essays/short/5.html Extreme perversion is widespread now. The mediums of sex fantasy are unimaginably large today. Arguably the internet is the biggest channel for unrestricted exploration of our desires. On the internet, a person can become a whole different being. A shy overweight middle-aged man could become a sexy confident young guy looking for a one-night stand. Of course, such possibilities are rarely left unabused. I can type in “bestiality” in a search engine and receive thousands of sites that contain thousands of pictures of women having sex with animals. So the question is: “Is this kind of free explorations o…

if someone was given an addictive substance such as nicotine, but were unaware that they had been given such an addictive substance, what would te effects be? it just seems odd because even though they are physically addicted they wouldn't know it and instead might just attribute it to being sick for a few days.

Hey I need sum help wif a Research Methods assignment. The question is if two variables are totally independent, then the correlation between them is: 1) -.01 2) -1 3) +1 4) zero 5) none of the above Any help would be great Im very stressed!!!

I've been thinking long and hard about this because my girlfriend just recently told me that she is bisexual and I'm trying to understand her point of view. I have formulated two theories; these theories are sort of along the lines of nature vs. nurture: [Nurture] Every human being is born a heterosexual and environmental stimuli cause a hormonal/neurological imbalance that causes the individual afflicted to become sexually attracted to the same sex. This is the side that many heterosexuals take, claiming that bi- and homosexuality is unnatural and abnormal. [Nature (and then nurture)] Every human being is born bisexual and environmental influences cause an indivi…

Over the past month or so, I haven't slept much at all. It's been an average of like 4-6 hours a night, with sometimes not being able to sleep at all and other times sleeping for 18 hours or so straight (waking up once or twice but immediatly afterwords). Generally, I'm really tired/exausted and want to go to sleep, but when I lay down, suddenly I'm wide awake. I tried warm milk, a lavender extract senct placed on the pillow (a friend suggested it), I even tried NyQuil. I haven't tried sleeping pills (I can't really afford to because I actually have to wake up at a certain time). But, also within the past 3 weeks or so, I don't get hungry. I've actually gone two day…

Here is a common illness illustrated by a documentary video. http://64.27.0.30/785/dadshome.swf

Is this a real phenomenon? What are the psychological explanations for why people post on message boards?

Hi everyone: I'm new to the forum, but I hope you won't mind if I start with a question. I'm 27 now, and ever since I was 15 I've had the same dream over and over. I'm having a normal dream and then suddenly a man comes into my bedroom and stands next to my bed and says he has something he has to tell me. I can't see the man, it's more like I sense his presence and can read his thoughts. I think this is a lucid dream because whenever it happens I start fighting the paralysis feeling like mad and trying to wake myself up. Usually, I'll then dream that I have managed to wake myself up, only to realize that I'm still asleep and the whole thing starts all over. The first time…

There doesn't seem to be a thread for sharing these, so I'll start one and go first. Actually, I've never had one before last night, and before last night, I first read about Lucid Dreaming here... I was at Troy during the War of Troy. I was fighting Achillies (Brad Pit mind you). When de delivered what should have been the final blow, his sword broke for no reason on my chest. Suddenly, I realized that although I was on my knees because he'd slashed my legs, that I was completely fine. Suddenly, I realized the sillyness of me being at Troy, realized I was dreaming and offered Achillies a piece of my cake which had suddenly appeared. Then the booze came out a…

Adults attracted to minors are called pedophiles, we all know that. But is there a name for the state of mind in which minors seek out similar relationships with adults, or are minors deemed not able to come up with such thoughts? Not that i'm actually going through that or anything, it's just a curiosity about what it's called.

hello there. my name is ashley. i'm 15 years old and a sophomore in highschool. yes, i am young, but i enjoy discussions of this nature and found this place to be quite intelectually stimulating. anyways, the reason i've created this thread has more to do with a personal problem than anything else. i, like many others, have been diagnosed with many disorders, including OCD, depression, & anxiety. there are several others that i meet the criteria for, but have not been officially diagnosed as such. the main focus of this post, though, as you may have gathered from the title, would be phobias. i've suffered from a severe phobia of tornadoes (random, i know) since bef…

Dear Psychiatry/Psychology friends, I am having a extremely bad time with a Psychiatry/psychological word. The word is "NORMAL"! I have been several times to both of these people and found help. The problem I have is with this word "NORMAL. These folks cannot and will not use this word! The word to me means middle,they will diagnose un-normal are even abnormal but the word nornal they will not even talk about and they state there is no NORMAL! Those in the mental health please explain why you wont claim the word NORMAL. After I have your answer I will debate it with you if you wish. Thank you. pljames

I have a habit of psychoanalyzing my personal problems. I have no degree in any mental field but the basics. I love problem solving especially people problems. Is it harmful to think about analyzing your personal problem so to understand them more rationally and correct them? pljames

Do you think that some people think in words , while others think in pictures…some even might think in feelings or numbers? I myself for example can easily visualize complicated shapes and rotate split combine etc…and then draw and build what I visualise. I was wondering if everyone naturally does this or has each person got a particular strength?

Would increased supply of pornography in a society increase or decrease birth rate? Are there any studies that look at this question? An argument can be made that pornography encourages sexual expression, increasing the likelihood of impregnation, thereby increases birth rate. On the other hand, the sexual expression may be in a form that doesn't involve sexual penetration (e.g. masturbation). Furthermore, high birth rate is dependent on stable families and pornography exposure may give viewers unrealistic expectations about how beautiful women should be and how frequent sex should be, weakening the importance of family.

As I was driving home with my groceries today, I noticed a biker-guy wearing sunglasses in the parking lot as I drove out. So that got me wondering why people wear sunglasses. I mean, aside from the transparently obvious "it's bright out", which could just as easily be solved by a hat. It occurred to me that, while eye-contact is a sign of confidence, staring is an agressive/dominance signal in many mammals, including primates. Ever notice how you always tend to assume people wearing sunglasses are looking at you, even if they aren't? Maybe it's because this simplified form of "false eyes" gets interpreted by our monkey brains as agressive/assertive/dominant staring, henc…

We can assume that dreams are altered states of consciousness which actually effect the body while sleeping. This is because the brain never sleeps. but how does the brain decide on what "movie" to run that night? Just random selection, what ever is floating around on the subconscoius level? and what of truly scary alterated states..while wide awake. Are we like those cars that are able to produce a surprising number of clowns, or is there only One Consciosness, sending out its armies, but like a General never entering the war himself.

This thread might be related to another thread about controlling dreams. A couple nights ago, I had a dream where one second I was standing with someone and a flood was coming, and the next second they were gone and someone else replaced them and we went into a candy store. If I had realized that the first person disappeared during the dream, why didn't I do something? It kind of bothered me when I woke up trying to remember the dream. Maybe they were separate dreams, and I remembered them as one dream. The next night, I had a dream where I was on a boat. The person on the boat who was speaking, might've been like a guide of some sort, and he talked about something I …

From the last two years , I have experienced that though most of my exams go well , I perform in patches. Mostly , the last two or three exams out of exhaustion do not go well In my view , it is because I am moody person or anything else. I just want you all to give me some sort of suggestions and help me out to preform better in academics. Thanks

We see and hear in dreams. Might they not be originating in visual and auditory centers? I know there are 13 visuals!!! Maybe dreams are asociated with one or more of these.

When I was a kid, between ages 5 and 10 or so, I used to be able to control my dreams, or at least recognize that a dream was a dream. When monsters started attacking me, I would just blow them up with my "spirit gun." Then I would say ,"Wake up," and wake up a second later. I could be walking along a path and say to myself, "This is just a dream and I can do anything I want here. Let's go flying." Then I would lift myself off the ground and fly somewhere. When I got bored with a dream, I could say "Wake up," and then wake up. But now I can't do that. I can't tell the difference between dream and reality. I'm still not sure whether or not I skipped classes in mi…

Tom Cruise recently aired his views on anti-depressants, because the Scientology movement which he is a part of is against the prescription of psychiatric medicine. This got me thinking, are we living in a culture where the psychiatric profession advocates pillpopping? Is it an easy solution or an effective solution? What are the effects on the depressed? I couldn't really answer my question. I've seen the negative side of anti-depressants and when they are not effective, but I've never had the opportunity to see the positive. So, I'm open to opinions. Vote me do! http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/film/4622357.stm -:Edit:- it's a multiple choice po…