Ketamine Addiction

Basics

Ketamine, or K, is a fast-acting 'dissociative anesthetic'. Rather than blocking pain like traditional painkillers, it shuts off the brain from the body. With the brain no longer processing information from nerve pathways, awareness expands resulting in a hallucinogenic state.


Since 1970, it has been popular in medicine in the UK and US and all over the world as a safe anesthetic for children and the elderly.(1) It is also used by vets on animals for short operations, hence it being dubbed a "horse tranquilizer". Find out more about Ketamine's use in medicine here.

Appearance

Ketamine comes in three main forms. The most common form is white powder which is snorted. It looks like cocaine but is smoother and less likely to form hard rocks or a flowery texture if damp.

Most users start out by taking Ketamine in powdered form as it allows them to introduce themselves to the drug with small amounts.


Tablet

Ketamine also appears intermittently in tablet or capsule form, often masquerading as a brand of Ecstasy with the same meaningless 'dove' or 'mitsubishi' logos.

Ketamine pills are usually very diluted and cut with a stimulant like ephedrine (a natural amphetamine-like chemical) to produce a mildly trippy speedy effect.

Ketamine sold as Ecstasy may be the origin of the "smacky pills" legend.


Liquid

Ketamine Hydrochloride, intended for use as a hospital anesthetic, is sold in liquid form in small 10ml bottles, often with the brand names Ketaset, Ketavet and Ketalar.

Some recreational Ketamine users inject this liquid. We strongly advise against injecting Ketamine intravenously. You could pass out immediately.

Avoid drinking it as well. Liquid Ketamine is very hard on the stomach. Profuse vomiting is possible. If you pass out, you may choke on your vomit.

Do not mix with alcohol.


CK1

Ck1 is a combination of cocaine or crack cocaine (smokeable cocaine mixed with sodium bicarbonate) and ketamine. The cocaine roots the user in the real world and counters the tendency for higher doses of K to send you into a conscious, paralyzed state.

from : http://www.thegooddrugsguide.com/ketamine/basics.htm

Teen Fear Unmasked

Source :
http://nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/articles/20091112102624/Article/index_html

Norshazzwin Shamsuz Zaman,
WE asked psychologist Datuk Dr Mat Saad Baki from Pantai Medical Centre what teen angst really meant.

“The word angst means a feeling of fear and anxiety,” he said. “It happens at any age and is usually related to life’s tasks, i.e. that of teenagers’ such as school, friendship, family, and love.”

Teen angst, according to him, can come from any where.

“School-related teen angst include getting bad results, being bullied, or having too much homework.

“If it is friendship, it could be related to group or individual friendships.

“Group friendship includes things like dating. It depends on your appearance, whether you are attractive enough for the boys or if girls are attracted to you.

“Or maybe you and your girlfriend or boyfriend have problems, and this might cause you distress.

“Also, say, if you have a good friend with whom you text a lot. Texting then becomes an addiction and this can also be a problem.

“In family relationships, angst comes from being away from your family, ie: staying at boarding schools and hostels.

“You then become closer to your friends than with your family. Sibling rivalry can also trigger angst.”

Love relationships are also another cause, says Dr Mat Saad.

“Many teenagers are also addicted to the internet, texting, and eating.

“They are also fearful of not being accepted, of being a nerd, or being unpopular. The list goes on.”

Although diseases do not usually result in angst, says Dr Mat Saad, teens do experience a lot of emotional pain such as depression, especially the girls.”

“A girl may get so depressed that she ends up hurting herself physically.

“Health problems like asthma also cause emotional pain and it can be triggered by rejection, unrequited love, or family problems.”

Dr Mat Saad: Talking to friends, a school counselor, an adult mentor, or parent can help alleviate fears.

How does one cope?

A lot of teenagers think they can solve their problems by eating, which is wrong.

According to Dr Mat Saad, teens can cultivate hobbies such as reading books or taking part in activities that provide an outlet for expression.

But be careful of surfing the internet, he adds, saying that there are a lot of “predators” waiting to prey on us teens.

I asked Dr Mat Saad how fear and anxiety affect a teenager’s emotions and feelings.

“Firstly, fear affects emotion and behaviour.

“The first type would fall into the yes-fear-no-emotional-problem category. The person is usually matured and can manage him/herself emotionally.

“Next would be the no-fear-no-emotional-problem type. This is okay, but it can lead to something else. For instance, if they don’t feel fear, they won’t feel guilty, and they can rob a bank without thinking it is wrong.

“The no-fear-yes-emotional-problem is what people call neurosis. There’s nothing to be feared but the teen is still afraid.

“Lastly, the yes-fear-yes-emotional-problem. It means the teen hasn’t managed it and needs to find a solution.”

What I learnt from my talk with Dr Mat Saad was that if you are experiencing some form of angst, find out the cause and look for the solution, and then work at it.

Find someone who is experienced, whom you trust, and ask for advice.

Don’t use drugs, overeat, or hurt yourself. These NEVER are the right solutions.

If you imagine yourself in love, remember that teenage love doesn’t last.

And if you have nothing to fear, just don’t be afraid! Finally, just calm down and take it easy

Voidable Marriage - For Those With Mental Illness ....

Source

http://www.lawyerment.com/library/kb/Families/Marriage/1030.htm

What is a void marriage? What is a voidable marriage? What are the differences?


Void Marriage

A void marriage is a marriage that is void and invalid from its very beginning. Such marriage is unlawful and requires no formality to terminate. A marriage shall be void if:

1. at the time of marriage either party was already lawfully married and the former spouse was still living at the time of the marriage and such former marriage was then in force;
2. a male person marries under eighteen (18) years of age or a female who is between sixteen (16) and eighteen (18) years of age marries without a special marriage licence;
3. the parties are within the prohibited close family relationships; or
4. the parties are not respectively male and female.

The children of a void marriage will only be considered legitimate if at the time of the solemnisation, the parties to the marriage reasonably believed that the marriage was valid and this only applies if:

1. the father of the child was domiciled in Malaysia at the time of marriage; and
2. in so far as it affects inheritance of any property only to children born after March 1, 1982.

Voidable Marriage

A voidable marriage is a legal marriage that can be cancelled at the option of one of the parties and it is subject to cancellation if contested in court. You can petition to the court for a decree of nullity to declare your marriage void on the following grounds:

1. the marriage has not been consummated due to the incapacity of either of you to consummate it;
2. the marriage has not been consummated owing to the wilful refusal of your spouse to consummate it;
3. either of you did not validly consent to it, whether in consequence of duress, mistake, unsoundness of mind or otherwise;
4. at the time of marriage, either of you, though capable of giving a valid consent, was a mentally disordered person within the meaning of the Mental Disorders Ordinance 1952 of such a kind or to such an extent as to be unfit for marriage;
5. at the time of the marriage, your spouse was suffering from veneral disease in a communicable form;
6. at the time of the marriage, your wife was pregnant by some person other than you.

If you are asking for a decree of nullity of marriage on the above grounds, you must prove to the court that you were ignorant of these facts at the time of the marriage.

The court will not grant a decree of nullity if your spouse satisfied the court that:

1. you, with knowledge that is was open to you to have the marriage avoided, gave your spouse the impression that lead him or her reasonably to believe that you will not seek a decree; and
2. it would be unjust to your spouse to grant the decree.

Collusion does not prohibit the granting of a decree of nullity.

A decree of nullity granted on the ground that the marriage is voidable operates to annul the marriage only after the date of the decree and the marriage shall, notwithstanding the decree, be treated as if it had existed up to that time.

Similar to a divorce decree, a nullity decree becomes absolute only after a period, usually three (3) months.

Only it becomes absolute, you are free to marry.

The children born of a voidable marriage which has been annulled will be and will remain legitimate.

Common Misconceptions about Mental Illness

Myth: "Young people and children don't suffer from mental health problems."
Fact: 13% of children in Malaysia aged between 5 - 15 years old suffer from a mental health disorder that severely disrupts their ability to function at home, in school, or in their community. (Source: National Health and Morbidity Study, 1997)

Myth: "People who need psychiatric care should be locked away in institutions."
Fact: Today, most people can lead productive lives within their communities thanks to a variety of supports, programs, and/or medications.

Myth: "A person who has had a mental illness can never be normal."
Fact: People with mental illnesses can, and do, recover to resume normal activities. For example, Kay Redfield Jamieson, who has bipolar disorder, has received treatment and is today Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She has written extensively on mood disorders and manic depressive illnesses.

Myth: "Mentally ill persons are dangerous."
Fact: The vast majority of people with mental illness are not violent. In cases when violence does occur, the incident typically results from the same reasons as with the general public, such as feeling threatened or excessive use of alcohol and/or drugs.

Myth: "People with mental illnesses can work low-level jobs but aren't suited for really important or responsible positions."
Fact: People with mental illnesses, like everyone else, have the potential to work at any level depending on their own abilities, experience and motivation.

How You Can Combat Stigma

1. Share your experience with mental illness. Your story can convey to others that having a mental illness is nothing to be embarrassed about.
   
2. Help people with mental illness re-enter society. Support their efforts to obtain housing and jobs.
   Respond to false statements about mental illness or people with mental illness. Many people have wrong and damaging ideas on the subject. Accurate facts and information may help change both their ideas and actions.

Article from : http://www.psychiatry-malaysia.org/index.php

In Developed Countries, 8 of the 10 Leading Causes of Disability Are Mental Illnesses

The massive Global Burden Of Disease study conducted by the World Health Organization, the World Bank, and Harvard University measured the leading causes of disability (counting lost years of healthy life).

In developed countries, the ten leading causes of lost years of healthy life at ages 15-44 were:

(1) Major Depressive Disorder,
(2) Alcohol Use,
(3) Road Traffic Accidents,
(4) Schizophrenia,
(5) Self-Inflicted Injuries,
(6) Bipolar Disorder,
(7) Drug Use,
(8) Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders,
(9) Osteoarthritis,
(10) Violence.

"The Global Burden Of Disease" by C.J.L. Murray and A.D. Lopez, World Health Organization, 1996, Table 5.4 page 270
(can be downloaded here..: http://files.dcp2.org/pdf/GBD/GBD.pdf

"A Theory of Human Motivation" by Abraham Maslow

Background

Abraham Maslow (1908 - 1970) was a well-known American psychologist. He made his most important academic contributions in the 1940s and 1950s. He is considered one of the founders of 'humanist psychology'. "The Theory of Human Motivation", originally published in 1943 in "Psychological Review", Vol. 50, NO. 4, pp. 370-396 is one of his best known articles.

The theory consists of two parts. The first part is a short preface, first published in 1943 in "Psychosomatic Medicine", Vol 5, pp. 85-92. The preface describes the most important presumptsions to the motivation theory, while being Maslow's definition of 'humanist psychology'. The main thesis of the theory itself is that all human needs can be categorized into a hierarchy where 'higher' needs emerge only once the 'lower' needs have been (partially) satisfied.

The preface

The presumptions to the theory of motivation, that are listed in the preface, form the author's definition of humanist psychology. The key propositions are the following:
A human being should be viewed as a an integrated unit.
The needs of a human being are felt more unconsciously than conciously, thus cultural and social context do not play a significant role in the theory of needs.
Man is a perpetually wanting animal.
Behaviour is motivated by a complex set of conscious and unconscious needs, as well as the socio-cultural context. Thus, studying one single need is usually too little to explain behaviour.

The theory

As described, the main thesis of the theory of human motivation is that all human needs can be arranged into a hierarchy of pre-potency, where the appearance of a certain need is connected to the satisfaction of the other, more pre-potent needs.

The author proposes a five-level hierarchy. Starting from the most pre-potent needs, the hierarchy is the following:

Physiological needs, such as - breathing, drinking, eating, staying warm (homeostasis).
Safety needs – the personal mental and pshysical safety.
Love/belonging needs – finding a partner, establishing relationships, building a community.
Esteem needs – finding a status/reputation in the community.
Self-actualization needs – unleashing the creative power inside.

The first four levels of needs, as the author describes, can be called 'deficit needs'. He explains that these needs are felt by every human being, but once any of these needs is satisfied, it is no longer motivating.

The fifth level of needs, however, is called 'the being need'. It differs from the lower levels, because it is never fully satisfied. The author explains that although people are mostly occupied with satisfying their urgent 'lower' needs, it is the self-actualization need that drives us to the real innovation and satisfaction. A famous quote from the article states: "what a man can be, he must be!"

Limitations

Abraham Maslow's article offers the motivation theory in a form of a philosophical argumentation. The author himself does not back the theory with any real-life experiments. He underlines the fact that the hierarchy of needs is never fully exposed in human behaviour, as behaviour is always affected by a large number of factors. He underlines that although cultural differences make a difference on how people satisfy their needs, the needs are felt in the sub-conscious level and thus they not much affected by social or cultural circums

Depression Link to Processed Food

Original article from :
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8334353.stm

Eating a diet high in processed food increases the risk of depression, research suggests.
What is more, people who ate plenty of vegetables, fruit and fish actually had a lower risk of depression, the University College London team found.

Data on diet among 3,500 middle-aged civil servants was compared with depression five years later, the British Journal of Psychiatry reported.

The team said the study was the first to look at the UK diet and depression.

The UK population is consuming less nutritious, fresh produce and more saturated fats and sugars
Dr Andrew McCulloch, Mental Health Foundation

They split the participants into two types of diet - those who ate a diet largely based on whole foods, which includes lots of fruit, vegetables and fish, and those who ate a mainly processed food diet, such as sweetened desserts, fried food, processed meat, refined grains and high-fat dairy products.

After accounting for factors such as gender, age, education, physical activity, smoking habits and chronic diseases, they found a significant difference in future depression risk with the different diets.

Those who ate the most whole foods had a 26% lower risk of future depression than those who at the least whole foods.

By contrast people with a diet high in processed food had a 58% higher risk of depression than those who ate very few processed foods.
Mediterranean diet

Although the researchers cannot totally rule out the possibility that people with depression may eat a less healthy diet they believe it is unlikely to be the reason for the findings because there was no association with diet and previous diagnosis of depression.

Study author Dr Archana Singh-Manoux pointed out there is a chance the finding could be explained by a lifestyle factor they had not accounted for.

"There was a paper showing a Mediterranean diet was associated with a lower risk of depression but the problem with that is if you live in Britain the likelihood of you eating a Mediterranean diet is not very high.

"So we wanted to look at bit differently at the link between diet and mental health."
It is not yet clear why some foods may protect against or increase the risk of depression but scientists think there may be a link with inflammation as with conditions such as heart disease.

Dr Andrew McCulloch, chief executive of the Mental Health Foundation, said: "This study adds to an existing body of solid research that shows the strong links between what we eat and our mental health.

"Major studies like this are crucial because they hold the key to us better understanding mental illness." He added people's diets were becoming increasingly unhealthy. "The UK population is consuming less nutritious, fresh produce and more saturated fats and sugars.

"We are particularly concerned about those who cannot access fresh produce easily or live in areas where there are a high number of fast food restaurants and takeaways."

Margaret Edwards, head of strategy at the mental health charity SANE, said: "Physical and mental health are closely related, so we should not be too surprised by these results, but we hope there will be further research which may help us to understand more fully the relationship between diet and mental health."

Theories of Motivation – Freud , Rogers , Maslow & Murray

There are differing views about what drives humans to think and behave the way they do. While the theories differ, the basis for each of them is similar, and therefore, all could be seen as derivatives of Freud’s theory of human motivation.

Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) insisted that sexuality and aggression were the driving forces behind all human motivation. He theorized three areas of the mind, namely the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious. Freud argued that the material in the unconscious mind would bring feelings of fear, emotional pain or guilt. “We cannot bear to know certain things about ourselves. Therefore, we do not (consciously) know them. Yet what resides in the unconscious profoundly affects our behavior and experience, even though we do not know we are being affected”. Freud believed that our behaviors stemmed from deep-seated sexual and aggressive motivation in our identity, and were outwardly projected in a manner which was controlled by the ego and superego. These are the regulatory systems which manipulate the motivators so that we behave in a manner which is in line with our beliefs, and in ways which are acceptable to society.

Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow had similar theories about human motivation. Rogers believed that strivings were consistent with the need to obtain, thrive and advance. Rogers believed that humans have a natural internal need to advance, and that all of the needs and influences, both internal and external, dictate the course of actions and thought processes we go through toward achieving our goals. This entirety is what Rogers refers to as “the phenomenal field”.

In his theory, similar to Carl Rogers, Abraham Maslow concurred that strivings for self-enhancement were indeed, the combinations of ingredients humans drew upon in their quest for self-improvement.

Maslow developed a system which demonstrates the needs in order of importance. The five tiered hierarchy puts physiological needs as the primary need, followed by safety, and above them, belongingness and love, self-esteem, and self-actualization. Maslow insisted that in order to achieve the highest level of needs, the lower level needs must first be met.

Maslow’s theory is a common sense approach, and was adequately summed up by saying that “a starving man will not act in accord with his needs for belongingness until he has secured food (physiological needs) and a safe position in life (security needs)”.

Henry Murray’s diversity theory was that we behave in ways which reflect a combination of past experiences and future goals. Murray’s theory of needs and wants were described as themas. Physiological and psychological needs interact with press, the opportunity or need for expression, to produce the thema.

Similar to Maslow’s hierarchy, Murray’s list of needs rang from viscerogenic, or physiological needs such as food and warmth, to psychogenic needs like affiliation and autonomy. Because the common denominator of all theories is that we do what we do in order to achieve and thrive, all theories of human motivation are feasible.

The theories are relevant to each other in many ways. Carl Roger’s theory perhaps are above others because it clearly suggests that in order to advance, we must first be content within ourselves.

ReferenceMcAdams, D. (2006).

The person: A new introduction to personality psychology. (4th ed.).Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

Herzberg's Motivation - Hygiene Theory

Description

We have basic needs (hygiene needs) which, when not met, cause us to be dissatisfied. Meeting these needs does not make us satisfied -- it merely prevents us from becoming dissatisfied. The 'hygiene' word is deliberately medical as it is an analogy of the need to do something that is necessary, but which does contribute towards making the patient well (it only stops them getting sick). These are also called these maintenance needs.There is a separate set of needs which, when resolved, do make us satisfied. These are called motivators.This theory is also called Herzberg's two-factor theory.

Research

Herzberg asked people about times when they had felt good about their work. He discovered that the key determinants of job satisfaction were Achievement, Recognition, Work itself, Responsibility and Advancement.
He also found that key dissatisfiers were Company policy and administration, Supervision, Salary, Interpersonal relationships and Working conditions.What struck him the most was that these were separate groups with separate evaluation, and not a part of the same continuum. Thus if the company resolved the dissatisfiers, they would not create satisfaction.

Example

I need to be paid on time each month so I can pay my bills. If I am not paid on time, I get really unhappy. But when I get paid on time, I hardly notice it.On the other hand, when my boss gives me a pat on the back, I feel good. I don't expect this every day and don't especially miss not having praise all of the time.

So what?

Using it

Differentiate between hygiene needs and motivator needs. Ensure you address motivator needs when getting someone to do something. Attacking hygiene needs may be effective when trying to stop them doing something.

Defending

Beware of the person giving you what you really need. Ask 'What's in it for them?'