Children's Needs – Parenting Capacity - Digital Education Resource ...

52 Children’s Needs – Parenting CapacityAbout a quarter of people with major depression will also experience a manicepisode. Although the depression is similar to that in the unipolar affective disorder,manic episodes are experienced as overwhelming surges of physical and mentalenergy. It is as if the floodgates have burst allowing a multitude of different thoughtsand ideas to vie for expression. As a result, sufferers become over talkative, frequentlyto the point of incoherence. Others can become argumentative, dictatorial andhaughty as a result of inflated self-esteem or grandiosity. The feeling of extremephysical energy can result in restlessness and excitability, and the manic depressivefeels driven to continual activity. When in this state sleep appears unnecessary, forsome impossible, and eating an inconvenience that can be dispensed with.Manic depression is often associated with substance abuse, and personality andanxiety disorders and as many as 25–50% of patients with bipolar disorder attemptsuicide during their lifetime (Berk et al. 2005).Anxiety disordersThere are various types of anxiety disorder including generalised anxiety disorder,panic disorder, agoraphobia, phobias, social-anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsivedisorder and post-traumatic stress disorder (Royal College of Psychiatrists 2008).Sufferers of anxiety disorders experience a range of fear symptoms in the absenceof a dangerous situation, including increased arousal, restlessness, sweating, heartpalpitations and shortness of breath, trembling and difficulties in concentration.They may experience chest pains and fear that they are dying or having a mentalbreakdown.Generalised anxiety disorder is characterised by long-lasting unrealisticor excessive worries that are not focused on any particular object or situation.The constant fear and inability to control their worries may result in sufferersexperiencing heart palpitations, dizziness, insomnia, and chest pain. When suchphysical symptoms are combined with intense and long-term anxiety, sufferers findit difficult to cope with everyday life. Generalised anxiety disorder affects morewomen than men. A review of 41 prevalence studies on anxiety disorders in theadult population found a lifetime prevalence of 18.5% for women compared with10.4% for men (Somers et al. 2006).A panic attack is usually a brief recurrent attack of terror and apprehensionwhich has no identifiable cause. It is often accompanied by physical symptoms suchas shortness of breath, trembling and shaking, confusion, dizziness, nausea, feelingsof impending doom, fear of losing control, of going crazy, of having a heart attack oreven of dying (Plewa 2008). Panic attacks commonly last 15–30 minutes althoughon rare occasions they may last for some hours. Those experiencing panic disorderhave a four-fold risk of alcohol misuse and an eighteen-fold higher risk of suicidethan the general population (Plewa 2008).