Dysthymia is one of the mood disorders that I never did diagnose till I bought this book. It is so easy how this book make it:
"2 of these 6, with depressed mood, for 2 years sugnify dysthymia:
Appetie disorder
Concentration deficit
Hopelessness
Enegry deficit
Worthlessness
Sleep disorder
The dysthymic patient is "allergic" to happiness; hence, the mnemonic refers to a dysthymic patient's (misspelled) sneezes (achoos) on exposure to happiness".
Those were the few lines about dysthymia in this magnifisant book. I looked for the book to take a picture of it. I thought I may found it next to a nice thing so that the picture will be nice. I found it lying above other books turning his face away from them. "You are special!" I said to it.
9 comments:
Sami,
i love the way you put the title...just precious! Thank you for yet another informative and very interesting entry. i love learning about psychiatric diagnosis. i hope you are well,
my best always, tracy
A wise professor I once knew said this about diagnostic texts:" if u see urself in every chapter, u're fine. If u see urself in only one chapter, come see me!"
GESUNDHEIT dear Sami! ; )
Thank you Tracy for your encouragement and the title was formed from the idea of that great book which helped me to be a better junior psychiatrist. Sami
Dear Laura that was a very wise saying that I will use everynow and then because I sometimes wonder about whether I got Dysthymia, Cyclothymia, Personality disorder, Major Depressive disorder, Minor depressive disorder, Post traumatic stress disorder, abnormal grief reaction, and so on... I will use that saying with all those who asks about whether they are mentally ill or not..
Thank you again Laura. sami
Hi there,
I am an Iranian with a degree in psychology. I was wondering if there are any legitimate online volunteering opportunities where I can use my knowledge and help the Iraqi people. You seem like an intelligent guy and I would appreciate it if you can give me any advice.
God bless,
Arash
Dear Arash,
It was kind of you to wonder how to help Iraqi people. I readlly don't know, more than you know, about how to do that "online" as you said. The first thing come into my mind is opening a blog, in arabic if possible, to give people advices and encouraging them to write you there problems. If you can do that tell me about it. You got to know that people in Iraq are still worried about they daily life and they don't use the internet that much. Yet, if they here that there is an Iraqnia psychologist offering consultations online for free, many will contact you. Much thanks and hopes that you succeed. Sami.
sami, thank you for your response.
Unfortunately I do not speak Arabic (I used to a little but I have forgotten and I love to learn again:)).
Also I only have a bachelor's degree in psychology (a four year program) but to give advice I think you need PhD (another 5 years) or ged an MD and become a psychiatrst.
To tell you the truth Sami, in my small world I used to think studying psychology I could make a difference in the world. Then a number of things in my life happened...a good friend got an incurable disease, the Iraq war happened, and suddenly doing psychology and trying to make a few people feel better seemed insignificant and unimportant compared to the real suffering in the world. And I got depressed.
I am still planning to go back to school but studying psychology I am not even sure can make much difference in the world. When I hear that over a million Iraqis are dead, what difference does it make to talk to somebody in my city about his anxiety or whatever? I guess the world was always full of injustice but I didn't know about it.
I have thought about getting a degree in something else but I want to make sure I can make a big difference in people's lives. I thought about politics but there is so much corruption there. I thought about sociology, philosophy...I don't know:)
Thanks for your opinions Sami. You are a nice person.
Dear anonymous: here's a little story. Once upon a time a person was walking along a shore upon which thousands, millions of tiny star fish had been beached. The tide had receded, leaving them to dry out and die. Ahead of him, an old woman walked a pace or two, bent down to pick up a star fish, walked to the sea and threw it in. He watched her do this, again and again. Bemused, he caught up to her and asked: "why are you doing this? Can't you see how many there are? Thousands! Millions! What good can you do? What difference can you make?" The old woman bent down, picked up another star fish, flung it into the sea and said: "I made a difference to THAT one!" Then she went on, bending, scooping, throwing, and as she grew smaller and smaller in the distance, he could hear her say: "and that one....and that one...and...."
To add eloquence to a simple story, these words from Gandhi: "Be the change you want to see in the world. Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it."
One person cannot do it all; each of us can do much. Stay hopeful. When you can't, rely on others to hold hope for you!
Best to you and your endeavors.
Dear Arash,
Laura had told us a little story full of wisdom. I don't know what to say more.
Thank you both Arash and Laura.
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