Health Psych Inc.

When she came into my office she had a story to tell : "I was always a thin child. Everyone was jealous, nomatter how much I ate I never put on. Somehow people thought I was too thin. This one time I tried eating a medium pizza for a month to increase my weight but I put on just 2 kgs. I was always an anxious child, eager to please others, eager for appreciation which according me I rarely got. I didn’t have many friends growing up I was always considered an ugly duckling. I guess I was always body-conscious. As a teenager I had several dysfunctional relationships and food was always a comfort. I think things changed when I started working. The hours were so hectic I couldn’t control when and what I ate. The stress and being hungry for long I often chose comfort food. After I got married, I had an episode of MDD. My weight just shot up after that. My relationship with food became overly dependant. I just couldn’t control my hunger like before. The weight wouldn’t go down no mat

Men are disturbed not by things, but by the views which they take of them. REBT - a therapeutic approach which empowers the individual by offering the philoso phical approach of unconditional acceptance of self , others and the world. Many of us have established “being happy” as one of our main goals in life. However, our own self-talk often interferes with our ability to achieve this goal. We express our beliefs through our self-talk, and these beliefs can be rational or irrational. While rational beliefs are realistic, irrational beliefs are those that don’t accurately represent the world. One of the best ways to increase our happiness is to replace “irrational” self-talk with more realistic and adaptive self-talk. A great tool for doing this is called Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy. www.peaceofmind.co.in

When it comes to Bariatric surgery there is one common thing between the rate of procedures done and the myths held about the procedure - Both are highly common. Bariatric/Metabolic surgery has evolved way past the flawed tag of a "cosmetic" procedure since the declaration of Obesity as a disease.  Bariatric surgeons are fast growing in numbers and this says much about the rate of procedures in India. However patient's are still in dark about understanding what is the best way to go about after suggestion of the surgery.  GO TO AN INTERNATIONAL CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE.  The main reason being the incorporation of a multidisciplinary approach to treatment. Multi-disciplinary also reminds me to advise you to always, ALWAYS demand ... for a standardised "BEHAVIOURAL HEALTH ASSESSMENT" in accordance with international standards. Patients are advised a host of physiological tests before going into surgery. Evaluation of psycho-social factors is just AS n

I am tired of people declaring they subscribe either to a bio-medical pr psycho-social perspective. Its high time we realise the the Mind is the control centre to the body and it does not make sense to separate the two or ignore either one while providing medical care.  Next time you go to a hospital, see whether your doctor asks about your work, your family, your eating behaviours, your thinking pattern, personality etc. Because it is these factors that are going to affect whether you will stick to treatment and how soon will you recover. It is time to start integrating psychology in the medical setting, not as a separate department but as an adjunct to all the existing departments. This is essential not only for treatment adherence, patient satisfaction and to avoid patient attrition. We need to focus on creating STRONG RELATIONSHIPS for better health care. We need to go beyond accurate diagnosis simply writing a prescription. We need to start asking what is going on