Chronic fatigue and nervous system overstrain

Severe fatigue is familiar to many people. It is usually associated with the presence of physical and mental stress the day before. It quickly disappears after rest. These conditions often occur after rush jobs at work, passing exams, going to the countryside and other similar activities.

In this case, people know what causes fatigue and clearly determine the moment when they felt it. When chronic fatigue develops, a person does not realize at what point it arose. The patient does not understand the cause of this condition and experiences serious inconvenience due to decreased performance.

Description

Chronic fatigue is a condition when a person is bothered by a feeling of discomfort with constant mental and physical weakness. The patient is in a state of fatigue. It occurs for unknown reasons and lasts more than six months.

A distinctive feature of asthenic syndrome is that its main symptoms persist after prolonged sleep and prolonged rest. Changing activities or avoiding daily responsibilities does not resolve problems.

For the first time, chronic fatigue syndrome began to be presented as a separate diagnosis to patients in 1988. Before this, it was not considered a disease. Severe variants of asthenia were classified as atypical infections.

Asthenic syndrome often affects young people. In women, this disease is detected more often. The syndrome develops in hyper-responsible and active people, who can be called workaholics.

Astheno-neurotic syndrome

Astheno-neurotic syndrome is manifested by chronic fatigue, apathy, increased fatigue and irritability. This disease is complemented by loss of appetite and insomnia. Physical signs are associated with apparent heart disease. It may seem to a person that he has a slow heartbeat, or vice versa – tachycardia. No changes are observed on the cardiogram. However, the patient feels pain in the heart muscle. Stomach problems and migraines are also possible. Diagnostics involves interviewing and examining a person. An examination is being carried out for a viral infection. The prognosis is favorable, especially if the person additionally attends art therapy sessions. Drawing has a relaxing effect on the psyche, negative thoughts dissipate, and the patient feels harmony.

Causes

The exact causes of this disease in humans are still being studied. Experts believe that pathogens of infectious pathologies play a leading role in the development of chronic asthenia. The following pathogens are identified:

• cytomegalovirus;
• coxsackie viruses;
• herpes virus;
• Epstein-Barr virus and others.

Presumably, the pathological condition occurs due to prolonged antigenic stimulation of immunocompetent cells. During their activity, cytokines are released. Fever, muscle pain and chills have been associated with these substances.

Experts have identified a connection between asthenia and a disorder of the limbic system in the brain. This structure is responsible for the emotional sphere, memory, autonomic regulation of organ activity, circadian rhythms of the body, and performance. These functions are impaired in people with chronic asthenia.

Psychological, neuropsychic overload and stress in children: what are the causes

Mineeva

Psychological, neuropsychic overload and stress in children: what are the causes

Psychological , neuropsychic overload and stress in children :

what are the reasons

For many of us, childhood is associated with a time when there are no worries or worries. And few people think that modern children, like their adult parents, live in constant stress .

How does childhood stress ?

A huge number of children are forced to go through the problems of the older generation of the family, the divorce of their mother and father. Even a common cold in suspicious children can already be the cause of increased nervousness . What can we say about those children who, due to physiological nuances, often have to deal with medical manipulations in their lives while undergoing treatment? Against the backdrop of all this, childhood no longer seems such a carefree time. And it is within the power of adults to do everything possible to ensure that the influence of unfavorable factors has as little impact as possible on the stable development of the younger generation. And if problems arise, help to overcome them gently.

Stress is a consequence of the body's inability to cope with increased emotional and mental stress.

The first and main symptom of its manifestation is a sudden change in the child’s usual behavior.

Psychologists identify several main signs that should alert you:

Increased aggression. If just yesterday your little one was a sweet and obedient angel, but today he has turned into an uncontrollable little devil who offends children in kindergarten and conflicts with classmates and adults; hits his brothers and sisters, throws toys - think: have there been any changes in his life recently that could provoke such behavior?

Unexpected fears. Probably most of the parents have encountered a situation when their younger child suddenly refuses to fall asleep in the room, talking about “scary monsters under the bed”

. Or he becomes tearful, begins to fear death (his own or those of loved ones, and worries.

Regression in development. Similar symptoms are well observed in young children . A common situation: a brother or sister was born into the family. And the older child suddenly begins to behave like a little one: he is capricious, asks to be held in his arms all the time, remembers the pacifier, forgets to go to the toilet on time. The reason is simple : stress in the older child . With his behavior he simply wants to draw attention to himself.

Health problems. The child may develop a fever, a severe stomach ache... Adults begin to look for the cause in viruses and bacteria, prescribe treatment with pills, completely forgetting about the psychological component . After all, if you remove the psychosomatic irritant , your health will improve dramatically without medications.

Fatigue and sleep disturbance. They manifest themselves in the fact that yesterday’s excellent student begins to receive bad grades, and the baby, despite an active day, does not want to fall asleep. Mothers are guilty of laziness and whims. But the reason is different : increased loads tire; the abundance of emotions in a day is overstimulating .

Compulsivity. Outwardly, the baby can behave calmly. But at the same time, unusual movements appear for him, which arise spontaneously. And he himself doesn’t even make sure that he does it consciously. For example, girls begin to wrap long hair around their fingers or suck on strands of hair; boys - bite their nails, keep their hands in their underpants. In children , after exertion, signs such as sudden twitching of the shoulders, frequent blinking, and constant coughing may appear.

Any listed above are a reason to seek the advice of a specialist. Only a professional can determine the need for specific treatment.

Stages of childhood stress

Stress , like any other disorder, has its stages:

Overexcitement . Manifested by increased emotional excitability. Moreover, bright positive emotions can also be attributed here. Example: relatives are preparing the baby for kindergarten. He, not knowing the realities, in an exalted state, talks about how he will go to the children and looks forward to the day when he begins to visit the kindergarten staff.

Negation. “no” to everything

: I won’t go to the garden, I won’t eat there, I don’t want to play with the children, I’m not going to listen to the teacher.
If adults do not pay attention to children's stress , considering it banal disobedience, it can occur in an aggressive form.
A big mistake adults make at this stage is to punish the child. Without understanding the reasons for inappropriate behavior, without solving the reasons , they only drive it inside. A little person tries to experience emotions within himself , which sooner or later will lead to health problems.

Apathy. This stage is already directly related to depression. Therefore, it becomes more difficult to get rid of it. It manifests itself in the fact that the little one meekly accepts his position. He also provokes with behavior, but at the same time experiences hopelessness and insecurity. His body is simply depleting its reserves.

Physical illnesses. The last stage, at which various health nuances are shown upward: fever, pain in various parts of the body, stuttering. The psychosomatics of diseases can be different: grievances and suppressed emotions begin to result in respiratory pathologies, disorders of the respiratory system and gastrointestinal tract. The same temperature is a signal. Then they begin to treat the symptoms of physical diseases, but do not get rid of the psychological basis for their occurrence . It's a vicious circle. At the same time, working with the emotional component can eliminate physical pathologies once and for all.

The best prevention is proper preparation of the child for upcoming changes in life.

Remember: if a child feels protected and supported in his family, he will be able to cope with any stress .

Games to relieve stress in children

overcome stress and anxiety by playing games with him. To do this, it is important to be in harmony with yourself, to be calm and positive. We offer several simple but effective games that will help relieve your child of stress , anxiety, and teach him to express his feelings.

Let's jump with all our hearts

Have you scolded your child for jumping on the bed or sofa? You will have to change your mind because this is the perfect game to relieve stress in a child . The fact is that jumping relieves tension, makes it possible to feel support on the foot, “weightlessness”

when jumping, it affects the brain stem structures.

How to play: instead of prohibiting jumping, you can create “special places for jumping”

. Or take your child to jump on the trampoline.

Colorful days

The child may become fixated on the past. transfers the experience of the difficult past , constantly reliving it . To bring your child back to reality, record every day, reviving your feelings.

How to play: Assign a specific color to each day. Let Monday be yellow, Tuesday blue, Wednesday red, and so on. On Monday, throughout the day, pay attention to yellow objects, eat yellow vegetables and fruits, wear yellow clothes.

Taking off the mask

When a child has experienced a traumatic event, his face may seem to freeze, turning into a mask. “Plastic” ones will help to remove it

games for
stress .
How to play: Start by kneading a real piece of plasticine. Then invite your child to turn into plasticine. Knead carefully

his face,
“sculpt”
him into different shapes: rub his cheeks, ask him to puff out his cheeks or pull him in. Organize a competition for the best antics. Make different faces with your child.

Buy masks or make them yourself with your child. Let the child put on a mask in which he feels his strength, and walk, speak, and gesture in this role. Then he will change it to a mask of “weakness”
(for example, fear)
and speak on behalf of this mask. At the end, when the child takes off the mask, ask when he would need the first mask? How could she help the second mask?

Turn into actors and make a small production of any fairy tale.

We release into the sky or along the river

Negative experiences are difficult to let go of. After experiencing a traumatic event, a child may “cling”

for what he considers important and dear, for fear of losing it.

How to play: to learn to let go, and to do it with joy, float paper boats along the river, release balloons into the sky. Such games, simple at first glance, will help your child relieve stress and forget about unpleasant events.

Paper garland

Despite the need for communication, the child may avoid contact with other children and adults.

How to play: to help your child overcome the barrier, invite him to cut out a garland of people holding hands from paper. You can draw their faces, write the names of friends, relatives, familiar children . Thus, we create an image of unity, let the child understand: “we are together”

. This practice is also suitable for a shy child to help adapt to a new group.

A drop of paint

This simple game will help relieve stress and tension , relax, and get rid of fixation on one experience , state, or event.

How to play: drop watercolor paint into the water and look at the patterns that the paint forms in the water, watch how it gradually dissolves. Try with your child to depict this drop of paint in water using dance and body plasticity.

Prints

A traumatized child seems to stop feeling . He is afraid that if he allows himself to rejoice, pain and fear will arise again.

How to play: in order to “unfreeze”

child, invite him to dip his finger in the paint and make a few prints on a sheet of paper. Ask what needs to be completed to make a puppy, sun, swan, fish.

Where are you?

To help your child focus on the present and relieve stress during the day, play the game “Where are you?”

.

How to play: unexpectedly, at any time of the day, ask your child the question “where are you?”

.
He should begin his answer with the words “I’m here!”
.
And then let him say a few sentences, describing in more detail his “here”
. He may use descriptions of aroma, sound, taste and other sensations. For example: I am here. In the room, I’m sitting on the sofa with a book in my hands, eating a sweet apple.

Letting off steam

Any negative feeling needs to be given an outlet. So, if a child is experiencing aggression, look for ways to live eco-friendly - pop packaging bubbles, fight with pillows, knock down skittles, hammer nails.

Is your child afraid of loud noises? Play musical instruments, do not skimp on applause.

If you are afraid of being touched, suggest imagining that it is raining: first it knocks on the child’s palms (knock on the palms with the pads of your fingers, then on the whole body. The rain can be of varying strength - sometimes it intensifies, sometimes it subsides.

Now you know how to use games to relieve stress in a child and help him

relax and find peace of mind.

Symptoms

The onset of the disease is often preceded by any infection. It could be a common cold. Normally, after an acute period of illness, weakness is observed for no more than three weeks. Periodically, the patient experiences headaches, depressed mood and increased fatigue.

In the case of chronic asthenia, these symptoms do not go away even after six months. The patient understands that this situation is abnormal and turns to doctors. The main symptom with which he comes to the doctor is a feeling of constant fatigue. It does not go away after a night's sleep. Even resting for several days does not help get rid of it.

A small proportion of patients experience drowsiness. Most people develop insomnia. They often report that their performance has decreased and their attention has weakened. Patients complain of the inability to concentrate. They are concerned about changes in their emotional state, such as:

• hypochondria;
• depression;
• apathy;
• phobias.

Patients often experience thermoregulation disorders. Temperatures rise or fall over a long period of time. Patients are constantly worried about headaches, photophobia, dry eyes, dizziness, sore throat, and palpitations. Some patients lose weight dramatically.

Ways to deal with stress

In any stressful situation, it is very important not to lose composure and control. You can cope with surging emotions with the help of such actions.

1. Sit down and relax. It is important to ask yourself how important the problem is at the moment and how its solution (or lack of solution) will affect the near future (a few months, a year or five years). This will help you understand the importance of anxiety.
2. Write down on paper individual words or phrases that come to mind during stress. This will be a bit of a distraction. You can read these phrases the next day and understand how significant stressful events are.
3. Run your index finger horizontally across your lips. This technique calms well and quickly.
4. Tighten all your muscles, clench your fists and grit your teeth for 10 seconds. This will help you feel how your body switches and how relaxation comes
5. Try any classic relaxation methods. This could be a walk, a warm bath, herbal tea, a bar of chocolate, a hobby, or chatting with friends. Perhaps this is what will help you relax.
6. Try to turn a negative into a positive. The most important thing is not to let stress take over.
7. Stop overwhelming stress and negative thoughts. To do this, you can simply clap your palms.
8. You can’t turn off your phone or ignore the attention of loved ones and friends. Even the thought of hiding from others should be avoided in every possible way. Live communication is the best medicine against stress. On the contrary, you should not isolate yourself: this will only aggravate the situation.

Recommended techniques for dealing with stress are simple. If you contact them for several days after a difficult situation, they will definitely help. Even one of the suggested techniques will help cope with a difficult situation.

By learning to control stress, you can reduce the risks of developing depression, bronchial asthma, heart and vascular diseases, gastritis and obesity. For this you need very little. Even small lifestyle changes will improve your condition and reduce the negative effects of stress.

As a rapid diagnostic method, the Reader scale for self-assessment of stress levels can be recommended.

Diagnostics

Patients are diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome based on characteristic complaints. They must meet the following criteria:

• presence of severe fatigue for more than six months;
• the condition does not improve after a long rest;
• There are no somatic or mental diseases that can be considered the cause of asthenia.

There are also minor criteria that may be present in a patient with chronic asthenia. These include the following:

• temperature rise to 38.5 °C;
• pharyngitis;
• increased pain in the lymph nodes;
• muscle pain;
• general weakness;
• severe headaches;
• low exercise tolerance;
• joint pain without signs of inflammation;
• sleep disturbance;
• psycho-emotional disorders: depression, loss of memory and attention.

The disease often has a sudden onset. The diagnosis is made when the patient has two major and four minor criteria.

Nervous symptoms and pain

The most common symptoms and complaints, that is, they can arise from “nerves”:

• insomnia, early and frequent awakenings, difficulty falling asleep, daytime sleepiness,
• lack of air, feeling of incomplete inspiration, increased breathing,
• a wave of heat or cold throughout the body, chills,
• feeling of inner trembling,
• palpitations, arrhythmia,
• headache, pain of any localization,
• feeling of heaviness in the chest or other localization,
• lump in the throat, feeling of a foreign body in the throat,
• anxiety, melancholy, apathy,
• obsessive fears, doubts, movements,
• floods of thoughts,
• obsessive feelings of guilt or resentment,
• increased or decreased body temperature,
• weight gain (obesity), weight loss (cachexia), weight fluctuations,
• increase or decrease in blood pressure, pressure surges,
• skin rashes of any shape and location,
• nausea, vomiting, abdominal discomfort, diarrhea or constipation,
• frequent urge to urinate, feeling of a full bladder, difficulty urinating,
• trembling, feeling of “internal trembling”,
• feeling of numbness in any part of the body,
• loss or increased perception of taste, light, smell, sounds, touch,
• decreased memory or excessive memorization,
• attention disorders,
• increased tearfulness or lack of feelings and emotions,
• aggressiveness, resentment, rancor, vindictiveness, heightened sense of justice, jealousy,
• decrease or increase in volitional activity.

These complaints may be a consequence of a malfunction of the nervous system (that is, arise from nervousness). However, such symptoms can also manifest themselves in ordinary somatic diseases (inflammation, trauma, dystrophy, vascular disorders, infections, etc.).

Therefore, even if you are faced with the presence of several symptoms from this list at once, you cannot draw a conclusion about the presence of “nervous soil”. Such a conclusion can only be made by a doctor who will examine, clarify the condition and determine the diagnosis.

Treatment

Treatment for chronic fatigue syndrome is carried out by a neurologist. It is intended to eliminate symptoms and improve performance. The doctor prepares an individual course for the patient, based on his complaints. With the help of medications, nervous tension or pain is relieved. The patient is prescribed vitamins and microelements.

The patient is recommended to cure all chronic pathologies. He must strictly observe the work and rest schedule and adhere to a nutritious diet. The patient is undergoing psychotherapy. He is recommended to engage in swimming and physical therapy. It is necessary to give up bad habits.

Treatment of chronic fatigue syndrome takes a long time. The patient must be patient and strictly follow all the doctor’s recommendations.

Diagnosis and treatment of neurotic disorders

A person should contact a psychologist or psychotherapist. Diagnostics requires an integrated approach.

The color technique is widely used.

1. All shades take part in it. Neurosis-like syndrome is noted when a person selects or repeats gray, purple, brown or black.
2. With hysterical neurosis, the patient chooses 2 colors - purple and red. This also indicates low self-esteem.

To determine the symptoms, a test is carried out - it makes it possible to identify the presence of chronic fatigue, anxiety, and self-doubt. Diagnosis and treatment of neurotic disorders are closely interrelated.

Drug therapy is used in the first stages to relieve internal tension and eliminate insomnia. Antidepressants and tranquilizers are widely prescribed. Depending on the severity and duration of the clinical picture, the doctor prescribes drugs from different groups to the patient:

• non-selective – Amitriptyline, Imipramine;
• selective influence - Maprotiline, Fluoxetine;
• sedative antidepressants – Doxelin, Azafen;
• balanced – Sertalin, Tryptophan;
• stimulants - Heptral, Bupropion.

Obsessive states are well relieved by drugs from the SIDS group - Prozac, Paroxetine, Escitalopram. Frequently prescribed tranquilizers include Phenazepam, Tofisopam, Meprobamate. All medications are prescribed in a short course of 5-7 days, sometimes extended to 10.

Important! If a person self-prescribes medications, the disease may transform and the condition may worsen.

Psychotherapy for neurotic disorders

To achieve maximum effect, doctors recommend supplementing drug treatment with rational, cognitive psychotherapy. The main objective of this technique is to eliminate the consequences of a stressful situation so that the general condition of a person improves and the symptoms of neurosis are eliminated. The doctor discusses the cause of the problem and works through the traumatic circumstances. The patient learns relaxation techniques, the ability to level out negative emotions and complexes. The most difficult thing to eliminate is negative attitudes given by parents. A person must show his will, diligence, and do his homework. Typically, psychotherapy for neurotic disorders consists of 7-15 sessions, depending on the degree of complexity of the problem. In severe cases, the patient is admitted to the department of borderline mental disorders.