MOODS and EMOTIONS an Unquiet Mind: Music to Handle
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THE Summer 2016 LOUDSPEAKERAmplifying the voice of mental health MOODS AND EMOTIONS 20 An Unquiet Mind: a memoir of moods and 8 madness How Can We Use Music To Handle Our Emotions? 29 HEALTHY USE OF TECHNOLOGY AMONG YOUTH Emotions on Handling Difficult 6 the Go… Emotions 32 THE ...Plus Our Regular Features1 LOUDSPEAKERAmplifying the voice of mental health NIMHANS Centre for Well Being A Centre for Mental Health Promotion #1/B, 9th main, 1st Phase, 1st Stage, BTM Layout, Bangalore– 76. Phone: 080-26685948 / 9480829670 email: [email protected] www.facebook.com/nimhanscentreforwellbeing Mental health for persons with medical illnesses Marital enrichment services Stress management Trauma recovery Brief psychotherapies & counseling services Enhancing positive mental health Services Family counselling Offered Parents support group Support in intimate partner violence Prevention & early treatment for addiction Enhancing parenting skills & child mental health Services for healthy use of technology Workshops & training programmes in mental health Elderly helpline & mental health helpline Youth well being THE 2 LOUDSPEAKERAmplifying the voice of mental health THE LOUDSPEAKERAmplifying the voice of mental health Editor Dr. Prabha S. Chandra Professor of Psychiatry Coordinator NIMHANS Centre for Well Being Editorial Team : (Left to Right) Meena K.S, Prasanthi Nattala, Manoj Chandran, Sub Editors Prabhu Dev, Padmavathy, Prabha S Chandra, & Taranum Taj Dr. Prasanthi Nattala Associate Professor of Nursing Editor’s Note NIMHANS riving to work every morning on one of the busiest roads in Bangalore, I spend my time during the inordinate wait at signals, watching Dpeople’s emotions. Dr. Meena K.S. Assistant Professor of The annoyance in the driver behind me who honks even when one is at a Mental Health Education red light, the smile on an auto driver’s face when he is having an interesting NIMHANS conversation with a customer, the surprisingly friendly banter between a transgender woman with bright red lipstick when she asks for money from a young man on a motorbike, the desperation of an elderly woman who sells Smt D. Padmavathy jasmine flowers on the road and of course the occasional person who flies off In-charge Staff Nurse the handle on the road, swearing at someone who overtook him. NIMHANS Centre for Well Being Emotions are all around us and often control the way we behave and respond to situations. Emotions and moods influence the atmosphere of our families and our work place in several different ways and are hence worthy of our Editorial Board attention. Emotions are also contagious and a smile can cascade into positive feelings of people around you while a frown can cause just the opposite. Mr. Manoj Chandran Most emotions are fleeting, like clouds, and pass on without lingering. Mr. Prabhu Dev However, sometimes emotions can remain as the predominant mood or they can get intense, causing distress to the person and the people around. It is Ms. Tarannum Taj these emotions that are worrying and need professional help. Many of us may not be aware of the nature of our feelings and find it hard to articulate them or even label them. In this issue, my efficient editorial team at Loudspeaker and the expert authors attempt to bring together various aspects of emotions . We address several Conceptualised and produced by aspects of moods, ranging from road rage to encouraging expression of feelings in children. We also discuss Bipolar Disorder, the extreme and sustained form NIMHANS Centre for Well Being of emotions becoming pathological and the role of music on our emotions. As the singer Manna Dey croons in the song from the film Anand - Cover photos: Zindagi, Kaisi hai paheli haaye Sunita Chakraborty Kabhi to hansaaye Kabhi ye rulaaye Photo Credits: (What a riddle this life is. Sometimes it makes us laugh and sometimes it makes us cry) So as we continue this journey that is life, we hope this issue of Loudspeaker will help you understand this riddle better, if not the solution to the riddle! National Institute of Mental Printing of the Magazine funded by: Dr. Ramachandra N THE Health & Neuro Sciences Moorthy Foundation for Mental Health and Neurological Sciences 3 LOUDSPEAKERAmplifying the voice of mental health THE LOUDSPEAKERAmplifying the voice of mental health Contents Emotions On The 6 Go… Fr. Rajeev Joseph Dr. Seema Mehrotra How to put a brake to negative emotions and enhance safety while on the road. 14 How Can We Use Music To Handle Our Emotions? Dr. Shantala Hegde Ageing And Elder Care: Making An Elderly Family “Without music, life would Member Feel More Secure 8 be a mistake” said the famous Dr. Santosh Loganathan philosopher and composer, How to make an elderly family member feel Friedrich Nietzsche. emotionally secure, particularly in these days when nuclear families are on the rise. What Is Bipolar Mood Disorder? How Can You Help Children To Express Their Dr. Muralidharan. K Emotions Better? Dr. Kavita Jangam Certain insights into Bipolar Mood Disorder, a serious, Ms.Chaitra Holla but treatable mental illness. Helping children to express their emotions, particularly as they are at a phase where they are very sensitive to the changes in their environment, and have an innate need to discuss what they 11 observe around them. 17 THE 4 LOUDSPEAKERAmplifying the voice of mental health An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir Of Moods And Madness Mr. James Joseph Dr. Krishna Prasad M 26 It indeed takes a great deal of courage to write about one’s own illness, and Kay Redfield Jamison, I Feel Like An Outsider - How Persons With Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins School of Schizophrenia Can Understand Other People And Medicine does not have any less in measure. Communicate Better 20 Dr. Urvakhsh M. Mehta How to improve social interactions among individuals with schizophrenia. 29 22 Healthy Use Of Technology Among Youth Managing Emotions In The Workplace Dr. Manoj Kumar Sharma Dr. Paulomi M Sudhir Ms. Janhavi Devdutt Promoting healthy use of technology among the youth, especially during this era when the internet Recognizing the importance of emotions and their has revolutionised how we communicate, and has role in workplace interactions. opened up entirely new forms of social interaction. Emotions And Eating: Feeding Your Feelings! Handling Difficult Emotions Dr. Preethi Sinha Dr. Poornima Bhola How to ensure that negative emotions do not Gretchen Rubin, chronicled her one-year search for promote unhealthy eating. the secrets of happiness in her bestselling book 24 32 THE 5 LOUDSPEAKERAmplifying the voice of mental health Emotions on the Go… Roads tell us the stories of the joys of travel as well a number of external reasons for the negative as our frustrations. Many of us spend about an hour emotions we experience: the unrelenting traffic, or more of our wakeful time on the road on a regular the bad road, the vehicles spitting thick black day. There are so many different emotions that we smoke and the blinding dust, the erring drivers frequently experience while on road, as a driver, a co- and the incessant honking. Some of these can be traveler, a passenger in a cab, or a pedestrian. These altered by judicious and committed actions of the emotions come from what may be happening off government and the citizens, but there are those the roads in our life as well as what happens on the little things that we can do as individuals too, roads. Have you noticed that there are times when which can make a difference. For instance, when we may take out our vehicle in order to experience an we are feeling sad or fatigued, slower reflexes may emotion or a mental state (e.g. excitement, a sense of hinder quick responding. It may be useful to use control/freedom) or to get relief from an unwanted our own uplifters/energizers such as talking to a emotional state (e.g. boredom, anger, helplessness)? supportive buddy, or a taking a power nap, before Some also report speeding up in order to get relief starting on a drive. At other times, we may be in from negative moods. Such experiences remind us the amber zone of emotions (e.g. feeling a little too about our vulnerabilities on the roads and caution excited or anxious) that makes it difficult for us us about the need to apply the brake on emotions to focus. Reminding ourselves to slow down and and the associated risky behaviours at the right time. focus on the task at hand may be useful. The red They remind us about the thin line between narrow zone of emotions (e.g. feeling angry) is clearly a escape and fatal error. signal to take a brief pause to cool down. Taking a few deep breaths, listening to soothing music/ There are multiple triggers on the roads that are humming and calming self-talk like “Let me put potentially bothersome. It is true that there are it on hold” might help. Our ability to manage our THE 6 LOUDSPEAKERAmplifying the voice of mental health own emotions wisely is sometimes really tested due to challenging road situations. Our response to such frustrations may at least partly reflect how we respond to challenges in life, in general. The other way of looking at our road experiences and behaviours would be to see the emotional triggers on the road as opportunities for us to learn, practice and strengthen certain skills. Oh no, no… we do not mean stunts, weaving/zigzagging skills or getting into racing competitions (for these, it is wiser to join a rider’s club)! We mean practising the art of staying patient, staying as calm as possible and responding truck driver who stopped (despite all the honking intelligently rather than reacting impulsively to and the protest behind him) and gave time to an old provocations.