Mal être
Motion sickness (seasick or motion sickness) is a common condition that affects chronically over 3 million people in France. One in three develops, at least once in his life, the symptoms of motion sickness.
In motor vehicles, the incidence of sickness is variable by car it is 3 to 5%, it appears to be higher in children.
The incidence is higher seasick at sea, but varies depending on the size of the building, sea conditions and duration of the voyage.
In flight, the impact would be 0.5% to 10% on long and medium haul aircraft. The rate is higher in gliders, jets and military aircraft. 6 to 20% of student pilots from the Air Force are affected during their training and 2-3% never adapt.
In normal physiological conditions, mazes (or vestibules: proprioceptive organs of the ear) provide information on the individual’s position in space and the movements he makes it.
The mazes are sensitive to changes in direction (angular acceleration) through the semicircular canals and the accelerations in the same direction (linear acceleration) by the otolith of saccule and utricle.
The land, sea and air in turbulent environment creates intense stimulation of nerve endings labyrinthine. These strongly stimulated to pass the vestibular nuclei (near the center of vomiting) and other higher brain centers (cerebellum, reticular formation) a series of unusual and even contradictory impulses thus leading to impaired balance and events associated.
However mazes do not explain the entire motion sickness; Balance is a complex function also provided by the vision and proprioceptive information from muscles, tendons and deep layers of the skin.
The seasick also due to the difficulty or inability of the brain to integrate conflicting information from different organs that normally balance.
Schedules psychological factors and environmental factors are also involved: the smells (tobacco, food, oil …), heat containment, aggressive noises promote or intensify symptoms of motion sickness.
Motion sickness occurs more often against a backdrop of anxiety (fear of being sick) who participates in the onset of malaise, itself aggravating the state of anxiety. It is creating a vicious circle.
The first is the simple discomfort characterized by a feeling of unease. At this stage the physical signs are paleness of the face, with drowsiness and yawning belching.
During the second phase occurs nausea and uncontrollable vomiting. These are accompanied by hypothermia with reduced skin blood flow, tachycardia with increased pulmonary ventilation, salivation, a mydriasis (pupil dilation).
The third stage of sickness does not occur in all individuals during the normal evolution of motion sickness but in some cases it may also occur immediately.It is characterized by a worsening of all symptoms that can lead to a state of syncope. In most cases there is an intense hangover with total loss of any will and any defensive response. The patient is prostrate, closed in on itself with a fixed idea: his discomfort. The sudden loss of consciousness with hypoglycemia or hypotension are not uncommon.
The syndrome is often more attenuated. It boils down to light-headedness, migraine with loss of attention span and concentration. The patient has a tendency to drowsiness and isolation.
Behavioral disorders are associated and have been studied by and for the military: loss of muscle coordination of eye and hand, the ability to estimate time, the pressure force of hands, spontaneity , intellectual performance (mental arithmetic), and a need for isolation.
The space sickness is very annoying in the short space missions as provided in the U.S. shuttle program:Indeed, the space sickness affects almost two astronauts, there is nothing to predict its occurrence in a given subject (no possibility of testing ground, in normal gravity) and it lasts three or four days. As assignments last, they, between six and eight days, it is essential to control the phenomenon if we want that missions are operational.
Person recovers immediately if you subtract the accelerations, otherwise it gets used and gets better within a few days later if he restarts in space, it becomes less and less sensitive, but its tolerance is specific mode of transport.
It is administered transdermally (Scopoderm TTS). This is a small adhesive disk that fits 6 to 12 hours before the start behind the ear. It gives good protection against seasickness
Fear of unemployment, failure, exclusion, attacks, AIDS and even fear of fear … Our fears have now several faces paradox of a society that has never much bothered welfare. The sociologist Vincent Gaulejac us his thoughts.
Isabelle Taubes
Professor of sociology and director of a laboratory study of social change at the University of Paris VII, is the author of Sources of shame and History Legacy (Desclée de Brouwer, 1996 and 1999).
Objectively, our time is far less terrible than others, relatively recent, notably the years 30-40, where we were caught between Nazism and Stalinism. No one else was bothered much of the welfare and happiness of individuals. Given the risk of unemployment, sickness, we have social security cover. Certainly, AIDS darkens the horizon of sexuality, but there is nothing like the plague!But overall, we are in France, much more anxious than other people who are not as easily as we have access to medical care and institutions to help …
Should we conclude that our anxieties are illegitimate? In my view, anxiety is always legitimate. Ours are from a number of contemporary phenomena which, juxtaposed, producing a climate of personal and collective insecurity. Firstly, the development of individualism. Isolation factor, it grows in addition to consider me as a well to grow, a capital which the individual is alone responsible. Hence the continuing obligation to be ‘self’, to achieve, at all levels – professional, personal, emotional. Our ego has become a burden to everyone.
Faced with this situation, some fell back on themselves – the unemployed, young job seekers for example, who believe themselves fully accountable for their exclusion, having failed to take steps to integrate.Others flee to hyperactivity and constant stirring. Anxiety is not a new emotion. Caught between his desires, unrestricted, and the frustrations imposed by coexistence with others, the individual is not only exposed, but doomed. It is part of the human condition. But to keep it liveable, yet must be able to dump it, express it in a socially acceptable manner. For example, by investing in large collective ideals factors of hope, promising a better future. However, our age do we propose, if this is an ideal of success based on enrichment and career submitting self-realization in purely economic criteria.
In addition, all the traditional rites, the collective release (carnival, etc..) That allowed negative emotions, violent expression, are disappearing. Also, everyone is left alone with his anguish! Diffuse anxieties, but which are to focus on the reasons for fear that the company tells us.Thus, attacks, particularly since Sept. 11, are among the leading causes of fears. Yet there is much more likely that we would die in a car. And the fact is that in recent years, the Vigipirate is more a state of exception: we are standing on red alert, which brings the painful feeling that the threat is everywhere …
The state of anxiety in our society is also explained by the gap between our expectations fantasy and reality. The scientific, technical advances we have the right to believe that we were going towards a more harmonious and without conflict, that we could control our destiny. Slogans such as ‘Be positive, open, welcoming,’ made the misery, suffering unacceptable. In fact, we lived in the illusion of a sanitized world, anesthetized. And now that AIDS shatters the beautiful image of sexuality, instead of freedom, self-fulfillment, forged in the years 60-70.Today, sex must be protected because it is likely to kill. Other scandals: one can catch serious illnesses in hospitals to heal us; school, traditionally held integration has become a place of violence, racketeering, insecurity. The institutions do not play their protective role, at least subjectively.
What folly to imagine that suffering, illness, violence, can be evacuated. The ordeal, destruction, death, are fully part of life. They inhabit the innermost of our being, with this drive that Freudian psychoanalysts call the death drive. The more one seeks to deny the negativity, the more it returns in force. And most unbearable. Finally, the company does offer more ways to be good together, it produces an ‘evil being together’ which serves as a sounding board for our individual anxieties. ‘
Our anxieties are nothing like the terrors and baroque abstract 1000.A recent Louis Harris poll for Libération (dated November 19, 2002), 78% of French people expect a major military conflict, 76% to an ecological disaster or large-scale natural and a sharp economic downturn and 75% believe that in the coming months, they or a loved one might find themselves unemployed.
For many psychologists and sociologists, our inner anxieties are heightened by the dramatic style news programs that bombard us, recoilless cascading tragedies. This accumulation can only lead us to believe that uncontrollable forces, demons, bent on destroying the planet and we can not respond.
Alain, 41: ‘The social climate’ The social climate is scary. You hear about job cuts and violence. Without being personally affected by the economic instability, I am very sensitive to the atmosphere it creates, this threat, the stress it places on people. It makes them vulnerable and anxious …. ‘
Monique, 53 ‘attacks’ When I read the newspapers when I watch the news and I discovered that these attacks are increasing, I am deeply disturbed. I say: ‘It happens to others, it can happen to us too,’ and that’s what scares me, see that one is safer from a disaster. ‘
Nicolas, 24 years: ‘My becoming’ Whether I will live up to what my ambition to become, what I think and be what others expect of me … This relationship between what I want to be and what I get really, that’s scary. ‘
Eric, 36 ‘Illness’ I fear the disease because I am part of a community affected by a pandemic, and I have many gay friends who are affected. I’m single, I want to meet someone, but when I see how the disease progresses, I’m afraid. ‘
Victoria, 30:’Ecology’ When I see what you are doing to our planet, when I hear this indifference on the part of the powerful, including the United States, who refuse to take environmental measures actually not that draconian, j ‘I am afraid … very afraid for the future … ‘
Bernard, aged 28: ‘Terrorism’ The terrorist threat and conflict: that’s what I find very distressing. Because I was born in Beirut during the war and I do not want to live again. ‘
Samira, 20 years: ‘The fear of failure’ To my brothers and sisters, I’m the only one to study. Suddenly, my whole family has high expectations of me, and it frightens me … I feel this pressure on me, the fear of failure. But it is also an anxiety that motivates, that makes me want to succeed, for personal pride and they are proud of me. ‘
Richard, 61: ‘War’ ‘The possibility of a war against Iraq is now my great anguish.I’m worried for the consequences that would, not only for my country, the United States, but also for Iraq and for the rest of the world. I’m afraid, because I think it would be the outbreak of World War III. ‘
Sebastian, 20 years: ‘My school’ As I am in my final year, all my anxieties revolve around this: ‘Will I get my competition? I’ll make a good internship? And especially after, would I enter the job market and be successful? ‘
Laetitia, 30: ‘Old age’ For five years, I am conscious of time and age and that terrifies me. Look in the mirror and see old, I do not know more horrible. Because even taking care of ourselves, we can not control: we know we see you get older. ‘
Anne-Laure, 22 years:’The media paranoia’ What I find really scary, not so much the threat of terrorism that all relevant information which we stuns morbid, this paranoia about suicide bombers, killers, the media spread. It’s suffocating, frightening. ‘
Vincent, age 30: ‘Delinquency’ All these young people that degenerate, taking drugs, raping, stealing … These young people are becoming worse, all this crime is a real fear in our society. Me, they never done nothing, I have no reason to blame them. But I think the day when I have children … ‘
Alexis, 25 years, ‘nothing found’ What makes me freak it when I tell myself that maybe I’ll wake up at 80 years and I realize that I have nothing … I founded No ‘t want to discover that it has served me, we took everything from me and that I have nothing left. ‘
Beatrice, 45:’Solitude’ If there’s one thing I find distressing is solitude. I do not suffer now, but it has happened to me, then I see a lot of people are facing. This is what is more violent: living in feeling alone. ‘
Marielle, 29: ‘Politics’ The politicians – those of my country, Argentina, as well as those here or elsewhere – m’angoissent by their hypocrisy and selfishness. I am afraid when I see none of them has the means to fight against suffering and injustice. ‘
Christopher, aged 35: ‘The anguish of being anxious’ I’m in a period where everything is going well for me. Is this going to last? That is the question! Yes, in fact, my only fear now is that I can have reason to be anxious! I have anxiety about being anxious … Because that would mean I’m not as happy as now. ‘
erson to deliberately inflict injury. It can be made for several purposes, such as to punish, or to alleviate personal or professional problems. The method most widely used self-harm is cutting, self harm but also covers a wide range of behaviors, including but not limited to: burning, scratching, hitting parts of the body, interfering with the wound healing, hair pulling (trichotillomania) and ingesting toxic substances or objects.
Risk Factors
Diagnoses that are commonly associated include depression and borderline personality disorder. People with eating disorders, obsessive compulsive disorders, phobias, substance abuse and suicide are considered high risk to use self-harm. Particular forms of it, often more severe, are associated with autism and certain psychoses.
The causes of self-harm are difficult to determine and vary widely from person to person. There still two main factors, but far from universal: sexual abuse and invalidations (being criticized openly, not being encouraged, have been whipping or any other conduct directly damaging self-esteem ).
Those affected are mostly teenagers or young adults. Despite the relatively high number of people involved, little information relevant French are available on this subject.
Treatment
Self-harm is a behavior that, far from being trivial, is generally indicative of a deeper malaise. Insofar as this behavior helps to overcome certain situations or daily newspaper considered too hard to bear and can find some relief, self control, it can become an addiction that is hard to leave, for many people s installs a phenomenon similar to addiction, with an increase in the number, frequency or severity of injury.
Quite often, we notice that people who self-injure have difficulty to recognize, manage and express some feeling other than injury. A first step may be to become aware of its ill-being and express it in a non-destructive, for example through writing or through speech.
The relatives of such person may act by being available and listening, establishing mutual trust, offering their help but without insisting on an ongoing basis.It is essential for the relatives to provide support without judging the person who is injured, without requiring him to show his wounds or punishment in case of relapse.
The use of psychological counseling is usually necessary. Find the therapy and the psychologist or psychiatrist who agree can take time and several changes. Drug treatments are occasional help reduce the discomfort, fatigue and suicidal tendencies in many cases but does not solve problems at the root of self-harm. People who self-injure do not want to commit suicide but to punish or relieve themselves.
Relapses are frequent, progress is often slow and performed ‘background’ but nevertheless real. Get hurt less often, less severely, to use alternative methods to self-harm (eg draw cuts on itself, pour a red liquid at the point where we want to get hurt; tighten ice cubes in his hands) is considered a significant advance.Ending with a final self-harm a lot of desire, or willingness of sufferers is often negated by a depressive disorder. Self-mutilation is the drama of a deep malaise, solving the problem of the act without understanding the underlying problem is usually not sufficient and leads then to replace it with other self-destructive behavior .
To ensure that a person self-injures, do not take away all objects that can be used to injure themselves, except in cases of life-threatening. Indeed, self-mutilation is a symptom, and preventing injury does not solve the underlying problem. Without a substitute for relief or express his discomfort, suddenly deprived of the possibility of getting hurt can aggravate the discomfort, and even cause suicidal behavior.
Definition
The term ‘self-harmIs debatable since it defines a variety of behaviors to the seriousness and purpose variables, some involving an irreversible mutilation and other bodily injury that persists for several tens of minutes. In all cases, the injuries are inflicted alone, without the intervention of a third party. Self-harm is listed by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (in English: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM-IV) as a symptom of borderline personality disorder and is sometimes associated with other psychopathology such as depression or eating disorders.
The practice is most commonly used cut but this is not the only and the definition also includes beatings, burns, abrasions, bites, and other bodily injury inflicted on oneself.
We can not talk of self-harm if the person who is injured does in an aesthetic purpose, sex (masochism), social (rituals of acceptance in some societies, fashion), religious or spiritual.
In animals
Self-harm is not limited to humans. The birds and monkeys, for example, are also known to practice self-mutilation in captivity. In dogs, obsessive-compulsive disorder may cause self-inflicted injuries, such as lick granuloma. Pecking is a chronic abnormal behavioral symptoms in birds.
Self-mutilation in fiction
In the film In My Skin, 2002, Marina de Van’s quest Esther shows that attempts to reclaim his body by self-mutilation. According to Nicolas Azalbert, critic for Cahiers du Cinema, ‘[t] he self-harm which engages the character of Helen (played but not played by Marina de Van) is not in a suicidal tendency, to turn against itself his physical strength but to find for himself. ‘
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