Stress - an integral part of life. While some stress is normal and even useful, is too strong or frequent stress can negatively affect the quality of life and health. But you can use these simple tips to relax and relieve stress.

Relaxation: a few tips

When you feel stress, follow these steps:

• Take a deep breath and exhale slowly.
• Take a relaxing warm bath.
• Listen to soothing music.
• Take a walk or try another type of physical activity.
• Meditate Meditation - treats the body and the spirit   or yoga.
• Ask you to make a therapeutic or relaxing massage.
• Drink a warm drink that does not contain alcohol or caffeine.

You can also make some changes in lifestyle to reduce stress:

• Try to sleep more.
• Keep in touch with relatives, friends and other people you love.
• Regularly involved in fitness. It can help you clear your mind and to overcome the frustration and anxiety.
• Try to eliminate from the diet foods and drinks containing caffeine. Caffeine stimulates and often only adds to the stress.
• Do not smoke or use tobacco. Nicotine, like caffeine, increases anxiety Anxiety - how to distinguish normal from disease?   and prevents relaxation.
• Do not drink alcohol. Regular consumption of alcohol can cause sleep disorders Dreams: how to understand our dreams   and depression Depression - a little more than a bad mood .

Muscle relaxation to relieve stress

Our body often reacts to stress, muscle tension that causes pain and discomfort. If you learn to relax the muscles, you can reduce muscle tension and anxiety. Progressive muscle relaxation - a technique that will help you achieve this result.

Progressive muscle relaxation technique is based on an alternating tensing and relaxing muscle groups related. Technique is to consciously and consistently tense and relax muscle groups of the body, starting from the head ending with the toes. Exercises are performed in a uniform rhythm, in a comfortable sitting position with his eyes closed.

Find a quiet place where you will not be disturbed, and arrange with comfort.

For each muscle group:

• Breathe in and tighten the muscles in the selected group of 4 - 10 seconds. To strain hard, but not convulsions.
• Exhale, suddenly and completely relaxing the muscle group. Do not relax your muscles gradually.
• Rest for 10 - 20 seconds.

Groups of muscles

Hands and forearms

• Hands: squeeze the fist.
• Wrist and forearm: tense muscles, bend your arm at the wrist.
• Biceps and shoulders tighten fists and tense your biceps by bending arms. At the same forearm muscles should remain relaxed as possible.
• Shoulders: Lift shoulders up and tighten the muscles of the shoulders.

Head and neck

• Lob: straining muscles of the forehead as if frowning.
• The muscles around the eyes and on the nose: close the eyes (contact lenses before performing the exercises should be removed).
• Cheeks and chin tighten the muscles of the cheeks, smiling as broadly as possible.
• The muscles around the mouth: close your lips.
• Nape: tilt your head back and tighten the muscles of the back of the head. Then again completely relax.
• Neck: try to touch your chin to your chest.

The muscles of the trunk

• Chest: Take a deep breath and hold your breath, then exhale.
• Back: tense back muscles, so that the blades were pulled down.
• Belly: tighten your abdominal muscles so that the stomach has become hard, or gather in the stomach, or it puffed out.

Hips, buttocks and legs

• Hips and buttocks: Squeeze your buttocks together, tighten your thigh.
• Tibia (calf): pull the toes and feet down (in the direction of the head), so as to feel the tension in the calf muscles.
• Shin (tibialis): pull the toes and feet in the direction of the head to feel the tension tibial muscle. Then again, relax your muscles, feel the comfort and tranquility in the legs.

After this exercise, you may feel drowsy. To "wake up" the body count down from 5 to 1 and wiggle your fingers and toes. Finally, stretch at full length.

Postpartum psychosis - a serious and relatively rare mental disorder that develops suddenly after a few days or weeks after birth. Its symptoms are diverse and rapidly changing. Among them - depression, alternating with euphoria and excessive activity, confusion, hallucinations, inability to objectively assess the situation.

With postpartum psychosis, a woman should be as soon as possible medical assistance. This disorder can occur in any woman - it often affects women, who have never suffered from any mental disorder. As for the woman and for her partner, family and friends it can be a difficult and frightening experience. However, women are usually pretty quickly recover completely and begin to live a full life.

Postpartum psychosis is much rarer than postpartum depression - it develops in approximately 0.1% of women who gave birth.

How are the symptoms of postpartum psychosis from the symptoms of postpartum depression

Postpartum depression occurs in 10-15 out of 100 women shortly after childbirth. Its symptoms are similar to symptoms of other types of depression: depression, unwillingness and inability to do everyday chores, lack of interest in anything whatsoever, including a child, and at the same time - oppressive guilt. Sometimes there are suicidal thoughts, suicide attempts are possible Suicide in terms of the psychiatrist - can it be prevented? . The symptoms of postpartum depression are stored in more than two weeks, and the disease should be treated by a specialist. Some women suffer from postpartum depression time, which usually starts in the third or fourth day after birth and ends at the time when the child turns ten days. During this period, the woman can be depressed and irritable, but it all takes place quickly without the help of doctors.

Women suffering from postpartum psychosis, symptoms of depression combined with symptoms typical of mania:

• Very good, euphoric mood;
• Depression and tearfulness;
• Anxiety;
• Irritability;
• Sudden mood swings without objective reasons;
• Confusion;
• Anxiety, agitation;
• "Galloping" thoughts, inability to concentrate on anything;
• Unusual behavior;
• Woman becomes more talkative and sociable than before;
• Woman avoid contact with other people (this symptom may alternate with the previous);
• Difficulty falling asleep, or unwillingness to sleep;
• Paranoid thoughts, suspicion, fear;
• Various misconceptions, strange thoughts and ideas that can not be true. For example, a woman may feel that she won the lottery, or that her child is possessed by the devil, or that she herself someone pursues;
• Hallucinations.

Because of these symptoms a woman can not properly take care of any of the child, nor about yourself. However, she does not understand that the ill and seek medical advice should close it.

When developing postpartum psychosis

In most cases, the symptoms of postpartum psychosis appear in the first two weeks after birth; often this happens in the first days after the birth of the child. Much less often the disease begins to manifest itself in a few weeks after the child was born.

Why is this happening?

It is not known why developing postpartum psychosis, but not exactly the reasons are problems in family life, the misconduct of the mother or her partner.

With this disorder is associated factors such as genetic predisposition (the likelihood of developing postpartum psychosis in women whose close relatives suffer from this disorder, about 3%), hormonal changes and changes in sleep patterns after childbirth.

Who is most susceptible to postpartum psychosis

Chances of postpartum psychosis in women who have ever been diagnosed with depression, bipolar or schizoaffective disorder. Schizophrenia and other mental illnesses Mental illness - ashamed to ask for help?   also associated with increased risk of postpartum psychosis.

The highest risk in women who have postpartum psychosis develops after the previous birth. For at-risk groups likely to develop this disorder ranges from 25% to 50%, well above average. If you are at risk, you should consult with a psychiatrist, to evaluate the risk in your particular case.

Is it possible to prevent the development of postpartum psychosis in women at risk

Ideally, women at risk should consult a psychiatrist before they become pregnant. However, since many pregnancies are unplanned, you need to see a doctor as soon as you know you are pregnant. Guaranteed to prevent postpartum psychosis is impossible, but some measures can reduce the likelihood of its development. Firstly, the need to implement the recommendations of a doctor; secondly, at the end of pregnancy and postpartum avoid high stress How to beat stress? Create an oasis   and if possible to get enough sleep. Partner woman should know that there is a likelihood of developing postpartum psychosis, and if necessary, seek help immediately.

Treatment

Most women in the postpartum psychosis requiring hospitalization. If possible, a woman hospitalized with a child in the hospital and it not only treat, but also help to care for newborns. However, not every hospital has a department where suffering from a mental disorder can be a woman with child, so in most cases the patient is in the room alone.

To relieve the symptoms of postpartum psychosis appointed antipsychotics, mood stabilizers (mood stabilizers), or both types of drugs simultaneously. As a rule, while taking these drugs, as well as for some time after the end of treatment a woman can not breastfeed.

When the patient's condition is stabilized, for it will be very important to support the partner and family members. The following recommendations are addressed to them:

• Be as patient and calm as you can;
• Take time to listen to a woman;
• Temporarily take over most of the household tasks, and allow a woman to rest and sleep as much as possible;
• Do not invite a lot of guests in the house - as long as the woman does not get better, the house should be as calm.

Complete recovery can occur only after 6-12 months after the onset of the disease, but the symptoms are most severe for 2-12 weeks. After a period of recovery can begin depression and anxiety Anxiety - how to distinguish normal from disease? ; to cope with it, put up with an event, and again to believe in themselves, women need the support of loved ones.