Mental illness affects millions around the world.

The symptomology of various mental illnesses can vary depending on the disorder and other variables.  Symptoms can include physical problems, emotional expression, cognitive ability and behavior.

Types of mental illness include bipolar affective disorder, paranoid schizophrenia, anxiety attack symptoms, types of depression, borderline personality disorder symptoms, childhood disorders, and cognitive disorders.

Anxiety or fear that affects normal functioning may be an anxiety disorder.  Some categories of anxiety include Social Anxiety Disorder, Post-traumatic Stress Disorder and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder symptoms (OCD symptoms).

When a person experiences not just the occasional winter blues but an unusual degree of sadness or despair they may be suffering from Clinical Depression.

When a person’s belief’s, language and way they perceive become disordered they may have a psychotic disorder.  For instance, they may be schizophrenic or have a delusional disorder.

There are disorders that seem to originate in the body, but are thought to be related to mental state.  These are referred to as somatoform disorders.

When a person has a problem with memory and thinking they may have a cognitive disorder.  There are many cognitive related illnesses, two of which include amnesia and Alzheimer’s disease.

There are other disorders that involve human functioning like eating disorders, sleep disorders, substance abuse and addictive disorders like gambling.

The causes of mental illnesses are not completely understood.  Problems come about from a combination of biochemical, biological, and environmental sources.

Biochemical causes are connected to the natural chemical processes in the body; therefore, some experts think of mental illness as a brain disorder.  In fact in imaging studies people with mental illness actually have different characteristics in their brains then those people who do not have mental illness.

In terms of biology, researchers believe that people who have a family history of mental illness may be more susceptible to it and the symptoms are more likely to express themselves under stressful life situations.

Environmental factors may play a role as well.  When there are hard to resolve difficult situations, like chronic illness, people can be more susceptible to emotional challenges short and long term.

How is one tested for mental illness?  There is not one test that determines whether someone has a mental illness, for instance there is not a  “bipolar test” to test for bipolar disorder.  Instead there are psychological and medical tests that aid in ruling out other causes for the symptoms.  The procedures include a physical exam, laboratory tests and psychological evaluations with a health care practitioner.  Some of the topics your doctor is likely to discuss with you are your feelings and behaviors.  They may have a depression chat, a chat about depression and the ways depression hurts.

If you believe you may be suffering from a mental illness please speak with your doctor.  In order to get an accurate diagnosis it is helpful to speak with a doctor who is quite familiar with the mental health field.

Would you like to change your look quickly, and inexpensively?  If so, then wearing colored contacts could be the answer!  They change your eye color and your whole look.  Best of all there are contacts just right for your lifestyle!

Are you always on the go?  Do you fall asleep with your contacts still in your eyes?  If so there are contacts that can keep up with you day and night!

On the other hand, do your eyes sometimes feel dried out and uncomfortable?  Do you have depression when your eyes hurt?  Do you like to have your eyes contact free when you sleep?  If the answer is yes you are in luck.  There are contacts just right for you!

What about astigmatism?  Do you have cheap plastic glasses that break when they fall?  Is your goal to have vision that is consistently clear and comfortable and not to wear glasses?  Guess what?  There are contacts that can help you meet your goals.

How about age related challenges with your eye site?  Are you over 40 and having difficulty reading fine print?  Do you need reading glasses?  Do you want to see clearly near and far?  Contacts, with color or without, can be just what you need.

Color contacts come in different types of tints and colors.

Visibility tint:  often a pale blue or green tint added to a lens so that you can see the contact if you drop it.  Because the tint is so light in color it does not effect eye color.

Enhancing tints: these are a solid colored contacts but you can see through them. They are best for lighter colored eyes and accent the original color.

Color tints:  contacts that are single colors like green contact lenses, blue contact lenses, and even red contact lenses which some people wear as costume “jewelry” during Halloween and on Valentine’s Day.  These solid colored tints are best for those with dark eyes.

Before buying contact lenses you will need a contact lens prescription which you can get from your doctor.

There are a few myths out there that should be cleared up.

Clear lenses and colored contact lenses can not get lost behind the eye.  It’s physically impossible.  That’s because there is a thin membrane covering your eye and it connects to the inside part of your eyelids, so the contact lens can’t move from your eye’s front surface.

Another myth to clear up is can lenses pop out of the eye?  Almost never, not with the correct fitting.  Occasionally a soft contact moves out of place but does not pop out of the eye, and you can put the lens back in place by yourself.

Where can you buy these lenses?  One online source is Lens.com.

There are many colored lenses to choose from.  You should have fun finding those that are best for you!

Alcoholism.  It’s a hard illness to have and a hard topic to talk about.

Alcoholism is a chronic illness that occurs when your body becomes dependent on alcohol.  You are unable to control your urges to drink despite the fact that your actions might be negatively affecting yourself and others.

There are those whose excessive drinking causes problems to their health and their social life but they have not lost control over their behavior.  This is called “alcohol abuse”.

Alcohol addiction and abuse is treatable through medications, self-help groups, and counseling among other therapies.

Many alcoholics deny they have a problem.  The following is a list of some signs to look for for both alcoholism and alcohol abuse.

• Do you keeping alcohol in secret places like the car or at work?
• Is your drinking negatively effecting your workplace productivity, relationships and finances?
• Are you “blacking out”.  Not remembering commitments or people you’ve spoken with?
• Are you losing interest in things you used to enjoy?
• Are you drinking by yourself?
• If you have no alcohol do you experience physical withdrawals like shaking and sweating?

If you are not sure whether you have a problem ask yourself these four questions.

• Do you drink alcohol first thing in the morning?
• Do you get frustrated when others comment on your drinking practices?
• Do you have a bad conscience about your drinking?
• Do you think that you’re drinking too much?

A yes answer to two, or maybe even one, of those questions above indicates that you likely have a problem.

Addiction to alcohol happens slowly.  By drinking excessively, over time, chemicals in the body change so that the body craves alcohol to make it feel better again.

There are a variety of causes that can make one more susceptible to problems with alcohol.  These include genetics and emotional well being.  For instance, concerning emotional well being, problems can include office stress, anxiety sometimes accompanied with anxiety attack symptoms, different types of depression and stress.  Plus if you are around others who drink and help create an atmosphere of tolerance then it could be harder for you to decrease your drinking.

There are several risk factors.  These include history in the family of this illness, sex (women are less likely then men to become addicted), your genes, if you started drinking by age 16 (you are more likely to have a more severe problem if you start drinking by age 16 or earlier).  And if you have mental disorders including depression, anxiety or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.  In fact, those with mental illness may create their own depression treatment or ways to overcome anxiety by trying to drink away their painful feelings.

There is not an alcohol test to diagnose whether you are an alcoholic.  In order to find out if you have an alcohol problem you will need to have at least a few of the symptoms as listed in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).

If you are having adverse side effects from alcohol but are not dependent then the goal of treatment is to decrease problems related to alcohol.  These can include psychological therapy or brief intervention, possibly from an alcohol-abuse specialist who may come up with a treatment plan.  Other interventions can include behavior modification techniques, goal setting and self-help manuals.  If you have alcoholism then treatment at a rehab center and alcohol detox might be necessary, plus you will need to stop drinking alcohol permanently in order to have increasing productivity.  But there are medications and other methods to help you along the way.