Agoraphobia is one of the most common of all psychological disorders that is known in the present day and also represents the largest part of phobias the world over. Patients are most likely afraid to leave their homes or be around other people. The main thing is being in a comfort zone that is familiar to them, like their home, where an escape route is present in case of some perceived danger. Those who are forced to leave their comfort zone will display sometimes violent or even physical manifestations. Treatment is available and has proven very effective in helping the agoraphobic to overcome the fear.

Asperger’s Syndrome is also very common and is directly related to autism in many ways. There are also some related issues to other psychological disorders as well. The social interaction is the main element of this disorder. Most of the patients are extremely anti-social in the fact that they cannot process the amount of information they are getting from everyone around them. Most patients will have a tremendously difficult time functioning in any kind of situation that involves more than one person. Because they are able to speak and communicate, sufferers are considered to be high function autistic’s in most respects with all of the brain power moved to mundane tasks and the storing of information should it be needed later.

Tourette’s Syndrome is one of those diseases that was misdiagnosed for many decades before research was able to find the key. Patients will have a vocal and physical tic that will happen on a regular basis. These tics will be sudden and harsh movements and vocalizations. People with this disorder will often times use a word that is considered swearing in the tic without even realizing it. The outbursts will last for a moment or maybe longer depending on the severity of the case.

All in all there is a lot that can be done about psychological disorders as a whole. In many cases there is a medication that is available that will nearly eliminate the symptoms all together and allow the patient to live normally. There are the problems of side effects that come with these medications but they are not reported in every case.

The Newest Findings About Psychological Disorders is a post from: Healthy Life

Having a strong mental game is the Make-It-Or-Break-It skill that separates the winners from the You-Came-So-Close crowd. The mental game is the ultimate X-factor, that hidden dimension of sport that winners possess and losers wish for.

I don’t know if you are happy with your mental skills, but my guess is, you probably think you could improve your sport by improving your mind, and that’s the reason you’re reading this.

Perhaps you’re a middle school or grade school athlete, competing in your chosen sport, yet you want that extra edge to help you make the school team, or to get your ranking higher, or to compete at a higher level. Maybe you are looking ahead to making the high school team soon.

Perhaps you’re a high school athlete, frustrated with knowing that with just a little better mental approach to your sport, you could be great. Maybe you’re struggling with controlling your mind, and with some specialized help, you believe you could really take things to the next level. Maybe even get that college scholarship.

Perhaps you’re a college athlete, competing at a high level, yet your performances are inconsistent, and lack the deep focus required to succeed at such rarified stratas. You are looking for better mental preparation that will regularly catapult you into the zone. You want to reach your goals before you graduate. Maybe you’re thinking about playing pro afterwards.

If you’re a professional athlete, it’s a slam-dunk that you need a solid mental game approach–every day, all day. Anything less, and you’re sunk. Need we say more?

And of course, every athlete, at every level must have mental toughness.

Here is a quick overview of why people seek the services of a sport psychology coach. They typically want to:

1. Learn how to psych up for every practice, coaching session and competition.

2. Make mental toughness a strength in their sports performance.

3. Stop mentally beating themselves up and self-destructing when they perform below expectations.

4. Know how to get into the performance zone, naturally and easily, every time.

5. Handle the dreaded mind games opponents launch at critical times.

6. Harness the secrets of game momentum to win more.

7. Gain more satisfaction from their sport.

8. Reach new levels of performance.

9. Transfer lessons learned in sport to the rest of their life and business.

What are YOUR reasons for seeking sports psychology help?

This article covers only one small part of the mental game. A complete mental training program includes motivation and goal-setting, pre-event mental preparation, post-event review and analysis, mental strengthening, self-regulation training, breath control training, motor skill training, mental rehearsal, concentration training, pressure-proofing, communication training, confidence-building, breaking through mental barriers, slump prevention, mental toughness training, flow training, relaxation training, momentum training, psych-out proofing and media training.

For a comprehensive overview of your mental abilities you need an assessment instrument that identifies your complete mental strengths and weaknesses. For a free, easy-to-take 65-item sport psychology assessment tool you can score right on the spot, visit http://www.mentalgamecoach.com/Assessments/MentalGameOfSports.html This assessment gives you a quick snapshot of your strengths and weaknesses in your mental game. You can use this as a guide in creating your own mental training program, or as the basis for a program you undertake with Bill Cole, MS, MA to improve your mental game. This assessment would be an excellent first step to help you get the big picture about your mental game.

What Can Sports Psychology Do for You? is a post from: Healthy Life

This is a topic that is crucial and vitally important to trading.

It’s a Market of Emotions and 90% of all trading is based on psychology!

That’s a fact just like it is a fact that 90% of all traders who ever trade lose money and that 10% actually make a total loss going bankrupt. If the first number doesn’t set off your alarm bells then the second definitely should.

But why is it then that such a large number of traders get driven by psychology and fail? Intelligent people with a high level of education watch their trading accounts erode taking one loss after the other.

So why do traders fail?

Without Education And an Understanding of The Psychology of The Market Your Chances of Profitable Trading are Profoundly Limited!

While the trading instruments that make up the market have no emotions, the individuals that trade those instruments are human beings and are very emotional by nature. Realizing that the human emotions of fear and greed often drive prices up and down, allows one to begin to understand how to position oneself on the right side of the market. Because humans are very emotional, they often make rash decisions that end up being the wrong decision.

Every day there’s huge struggle being waged in the markets. A struggle between the bulls (buyers and the bears (sellers). Bears want to get top dollars for their equity, while the bulls want to pay as little as possible. In order for a transaction to be completed, one has to give into the other’s terms. If a greedy bull gives into a seller’s terms because he feels he just has to own XYZ stock, the price goes up. If an eager bear gives into a buyer’s terms, the price goes down. This is nothing new. It’s basic economics. It’s supply and demand.

Because both buyers and sellers are, more often than not, basing their buying and selling decisions on emotions, eventually these emotions will culminate and a trend will reverse. For example, when a stock is in an uptrend, there will be a point when the trend will become apparent to everyone. At this point there will often be one last buying frenzy as greed takes over in fear of missing the boat. It is precisely at this point that the trend will often reverse.

The same is true of a downtrend. Before a stock hits bottom, there usually is a panic-kind-of-selling as fear takes over and the weak run for cover. Once all the weak have thrown in the towel, the stock is free to rise again. This behaviour can be observed time and time again.

Often a stock doesn’t just drop because everyone starts selling. It begins to drop because everyone stops buying, at which point the price has to come down to entice more buyers. As the price begins to decline, the selling begins to pick up, forcing the price even lower. It isn’t until all the sellers are flushed out of the market that the selling stops. Now the demand for the stock becomes greater causing it to rise again and attracting more and more buyers.

If you have ever looked at a significant market bottom like the one after September 11, 2001 (9/11), you will notice that the selling pressure increased significantly due to the emotional insecurity of what might happen next. Once the selling became exhausted, prices stabalized and the crowd began to buy the market in droves.

Getting A Grip On Emotions

As individuals we have to realize and accept that we have no control and influence over the market nor the direction it’s taking. And thus, there are two crucial emotions that come into play and that we have to be aware of. Fear and Greed!

Fear:

The problem is that we all want to succeed and when we do make a loss, it is easy to let those losses effect us emotionally out of fear to lose even more.

In this case, a trader exits a trade as soon as the market hits the slightest bump even though the broad market is very bullish and the fundamentals of the company he’s trading are good. So instead of being patient and waiting for the trade to go up again, he sells and accepts the initial loss out of fear of losing even more.

Fear of losses can also show up in the following way.

Irrespective of any rationality, a trader holds on to a losing position for too long hoping for it to go up again. Even when the news and fundamentals are hopeless he won’t give up forgetting that this attitude can easily lead to a total loss.

In another case, fear can also manifest itself in not wanting to miss the boat and quickly jumping on. This can very often be observed by novices who listen to tips from friends and TV, where so called “experts” or shall I rather say, “opinion makers” speak up trying to sweet-talk you into a trade.

A trader sees the market go up rapidly and confirmation is all over the news. The excitement of a rising market is in full swing. Afraid of missing out, the trader makes a hasty decision and dives right into a trade.

Greed:

Becoming euphoric when you hit a winning trade is almost as detrimental as becoming depressed when you have a losing trade.

In this case a trader is actually afraid of losing a profit. He holds on to a winning position for too long. His trade is doing so well that he just can’t get enough. He may have made a 100% profit and now expects to make another 100%. And when his position goes down below this magic mark, he still holds on hoping for his trade to go back to 100% again before he sells instead of accepting say, 90%, which is darn good too!

But what was a 100% profit can easily become a total loss if you let greed take control!

I’ve seen traders that have watched their profits erode without doing anything about it. They held on to their positions right up to an almost total loss. Very often they then say: “Oh well. my trade has gone down so much now, what’s the use of selling? I won’t get much out of it now anyway, so I might as well keep my position”. Well, I guess in a way he’s right because by this time his stocks may have more value being used as wall-paper.

In another case, fear of losing out on a profit may even cause a trader to sell a winning trade too soon. As soon as his position went up a few percent, he bails out.

So watch out for fear and greed. These two guys aren’t good advisers and they’re not the way to trade!

And so. As traders we have to be rather impartial.

We have to accept that there will be losses just as there will be wins in any one’s trading career!
Reaching the stage where you can comfortably accept losses, and knowing that you have a good trading system that will also produce profits most times in the longer term is the state we all have to aspire to.

Yours in Successful Trading

Ricky Schmidt

Trading Psychology is a post from: Healthy Life

Now what is Anxiety? Is it tension? No. Is it fear? Well, not either. It is something which is invisible, intangible. It is a sort of sickness sometimes irresolute, sometimes violent and again at times it is unendurable! It is not real fear, yet it belongs to the fear syndrome. So what actually is it? Well, it is a kind of fear. But a fear which is inexplicable.

It is best describes as the fear of a danger which does not in reality exist. A fear for the unknown! Anxiety, during a period of crisis, sometimes bring about severe physical disturbances such as quickening or slowing down of the pulse rates, paleness, drooping mouth, sweat, haggard eyes and respiratory and cardiac troubles.

Effects of Anxiety

Anxiety is an exaggerated tension, with several common side effects. The very common effects of anxiousness or anxiety are:

1.A feeling of having a lump in the throat.

2.An obstruction in the throat.

3.A feeling of having an iron band across the chest or in front of the heart.

4.A choked throat causing dumbness.

5.Tightness of the bladder with frequent urine discharges.

6.Difficulty in digesting.

7.Bloated by wind.

8.Stammering.

9.Palpitations in the stomach or intestines, etc.

10.Agitation.

11.All kinds of twitches.

12.Fits of hysteria.

13.Over salivating.

14.Tears and flushes.

15.Convulsions.

16.Vomiting, and

17.Trembling and palpitations of the heart with heavy heartbeats.

Anxiety – physical or psychological?

Anxiety is basically a psychological effect, although certain physical illnesses such as epilepsy or cardiac troubles do cause anxiety. Psychologically, anxiety appears when some element within becomes menacing to an individual. For instance, take the case of a timid chef. Because of his job profile he is forced to appear timid. Yet the thought of being discovered as a timid person presents to him a permanent threat. It is very logical to assume that in the face of permanent menace, anxiety will appear. Now this anxiety may be a conscious or an unconscious one.

In any case, anxiety arising from a psychological cause is just as intense as a fear which is provoked by a visible danger. Too often, there is a tendency to diagnose such sickness as being ‘imaginary illness’ because the victims are unable to define their anxieties. They are not imaginary but very real illness. Whether the illness is objective or subjective dies not really bother!

Human Psychology and Anxiety is a post from: Healthy Life

Product Description
Connecting the study of cognition to everyday life in an unprecedented way, Bruce Goldstein’s COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY gives equal treatment to both the landmark studies and the cutting-edge research that define this fascinating field. The text employs a wealth of concrete examples and illustrations that help students understand the theories of cognition–driving home both the scientific importance of the theories and their relevance to students’ daily lives. Students g… More >>

Cognitive Psychology: Connecting Mind, Research and Everyday Experience with Coglab Manual

Cognitive Psychology: Connecting Mind, Research and Everyday Experience with Coglab Manual is a post from: Healthy Life

This paper will contain a detailed ten hour soccer team training plan and discuss the relationship of cognitive psychology to athletes’ over-all performance focusing mainly on the information processing model of Whiting, Welford, and Schmidt. The contribution of cognitive psychology to enhancing the players’ understanding and performance levels, the application of different theoretical approaches to a variety of sporting situations and the use of theory to enhance individual and team performance, specifically in soccer, will be explored.

There exists an array of sub-concepts under cognitive psychology which includes information processing. This elucidates the process in which our brain takes in information from the outside world through our senses, select and utilize the information which results to a decision, bringing about an output exhibited through behavior or actions, which is subjected to feedback from the environment.

The decision to pass the ball or to run for the goal is determined by the availability of a player in a more advantageous spot and the number of players guarding him (input). The success or failure of his moves (output) based on his decision is affirmed with a touchdown or a pass respectively (feedback). Now, the decision-making process involved during this split-second scenario is a product of simulated plays in which the player was trained and not born with. Through constant exposure to similar situation in the course of training, the learned skill has become intrinsic to a player’s mind which he was able to apply naturally in the actual game despite the pressured atmosphere…

Psychology and Soccer is a post from: Healthy Life

You know that with kids we need to continually encourage them to keep trying so they don’t get discouraged. You want them to keep striving for their goals.

Yet, for most people when it comes to themselves they do anything but encourage themselves to keep trying. When times get tough what do most do? Pack it in and call it a day. Whatever happened to the “just keep trying and you’ll eventually get it?”

If you are striving to achieve anything, you need to continually encourage yourself to keep going, and to never give up. A positive psychology starts with the way you talk to yourself. Here are some ways you can do this:

Don’t criticise yourself:

We all make mistakes; in fact, mistakes contain valuable lessons that we all need to learn in order to achieve our objectives. To develop a positive psychology don’t call yourself names, or beat yourself up by saying things like “You can’t do anything right!” Would you do this to the child who fell off his bike?

Tell yourself that you made a good effort, and that next time you will try harder. Learn from the mistake and try to implement it into your next effort.

Don’t overgeneralise:

If you make a mistake on a test, or in a specific situation, this doesn’t mean you are a failure and you are no good at anything! It just means that what you tried during this situation wasn’t appropriate for what you wanted to achieve.

Try something different next time and improve your effort with the knowledge that with each try you are getting closer to achieving your goals.

Understand that difficulties are temporary:

If you don’t achieve something when you try, don’t think that because you didn’t succeed this one time that you will not succeed again. Difficulty is only temporary. It arises to let us know that what we’re trying right now isn’t really working, and we need to try something different to succeed. People who give up never understand this, because when they face difficult times they never try something different.

Accept the lessons that adversity has to offer and change your direction if need be. Difficulties are only temporary, but positive psychology is enduring.

Some things you just cannot control:

There things in life that you can control, and there are other things you cannot control. You can control your thoughts, your actions, and the way you react to certain situations, but you cannot control how other people think, how they behave, and the weather. Do you sometimes get upset because of the weather? Furthermore, do you allow the weather to dictate your mood? You can’t control the weather, but you can control how you react to it.

Do not get worked up over things that are out of your control. Focus solely on the things you can control and take responsibility for your actions. Only you can dictate what you do and how much you accomplish. Do not allow external forces to influence your thought and actions.

Developing a positive psychology starts with how you perceive mistakes. By seeking the opportunity rather than the difficulty in mistakes, you will be setting yourself up for success.

Positive Psychology: It?s All in your Head is a post from: Healthy Life

Things can go wrong at any point of the 3 stages of producing and maintaining an erection:

First Stage: Sexual arousal, getting sexually stimulated from our thoughts and senses.

Second Stage Erection: The brain communicates the sexual arousal to the body which increases the blood flow to the penis.

Third Stage Erection: Blood vessels that supply the penis relax allowing an increased blood supply to flow into the shafts that produce the erection.

If anything affects any of these stages or the delicate balance between them, erectile dysfunction ensues. The good news is that nonphysical causes of erectile dysfunction are the root cause in only 10% to 20% of cases. In such circumstances, a patient is said to have psychogenic erectile dysfunction.

The most common psychological problems can generally be related to: inhibited sexual desire, anxiety disorders, depression, mental fatigue, stress, guilt, relationship problems, and lack of interest in sex by partner etc.

Often, the fundamental problem is anxiety or depression. One study found that erectile dysfunction is nearly twice as common among depressed men as it is among those who aren’t depressed.

Keep in mind, though, that nonphysical causes of erectile dysfunction play a contributing role in most cases, no matter what the cause. Even if the cause is purely physical or medical, erectile difficulty is almost certain to have an emotional and psychological impact.

These emotional consequences can lead to the kind of performance anxiety that triggers more severe erectile dysfunction. When this happens, a man may begin to avoid his partner or make excuses for not having sex – actions that can perpetuate anxiety or depression.

At this stage, the role of the psychological difficulties may in fact overshadow the original medical or physical cause. To cure the problem, you’ll need to address both the physical problem and the psychological one.

A very special type of dysfunction is what’s called as excessive masturbation impotence. Masturbation itself does not cause impotence. When your body has had enough, it will just refuse to respond, but this is very far from impotence. About the only ’side effect’ is that if the penis is rubbed for hours and hours, it can temporarily become puffy with fluid in the tissues.

It is possible, however, that a man can achieve an erection and masturbate successfully and not be able to achieve an erection which would enable him to have a satisfactory sexual intercourse.

In the past, it was believed to be a case of excessive masturbation impotence. It is a fact that masturbation causes less tension for men than sexual intercourse does, so it may well be that a man gets anxious when he is preparing to have sex with a partner.

Another issue is our own education. Feeling guilty about how often you masturbate could be the real issue for the onset of an erectile dysfunction. If you are experiencing negative emotions/thoughts related to the frequency of masturbation, masturbating less often may solve the problem.

Psychological Problems Can Cause Erectile Dysfuntion is a post from: Healthy Life

Product Description
Through lively writing and stimulating examples, authors Wade and Tavris invite readers to actively explore the field of psychology and the fundamentals of critical and scientific thinking. Invitation to Psychology presents the science of psychology according to six areas of the learner’s experience: Your Self, Your Body, Your Mind, Your Environment, Your Mental Health, and Your Life. This unique organization engages readers from the very beginning a… More >>

Invitation to Psychology, MyLab Edition

Invitation to Psychology, MyLab Edition is a post from: Healthy Life

It is interesting to know that severe erectile dysfunction in older men may be caused more by serious illness than by aging. Obviously, older men are more prone to heart disease, diabetes, and high blood pressure than younger men. These conditions and some of the treatments involved are considered major risk factors for erectile dysfunction.

Erectile dysfunction, sometimes called impotence, is a male sexual health problem characterized by the repeated inability to get or keep an erection firm and sufficient enough for sexual intercourse. The word “impotence” may also be used to describe a variety of sexual health problems that may hinder sexual intercourse and reproduction, such as lack of sexual drive, desire or interest, and difficulty with ejaculation or orgasm.

Erectile dysfunction, or ED, may be classified into mild, moderate and severe. Mild ED is the tendency to sustain brief erections. Moderate ED is an irregular ability to sustain erection while severe ED is a complete or total inability to achieve erection which can be crippling and cause emotional and relationship damages.

Although ED is nothing new in the field of medicine or human experience, it is something that is not easily or openly discussed by men in general. Social stigma as well as cultural expectations of male sexuality inhibit most men from seeking help for a disorder that can, in most cases, benefit from medical treatment.

Brief periods of impotence experienced by most men from time to time are considered normal. Physical and psychological impotence are caused by different situations. Only when the condition persists that men may start seeking help from health care professionals. Always remember that impotence or erectile dysfunction is usually treatable or could be a symptom of another illness.

Physical Impotence, on the other hand, is caused by internal medical conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure. Or it can also be due to external causes like surgery, injury and medications. Physical impotence usually develops gradually but continuously over a period of time. The patient is advised to seek medical attention by a urologist specializing in impotence. The patient’s inability to have an erection is circumstancial and experiencing and/or maintaining an erection upon waking up in the morning may suggest that the condition is a psychological impotence rather than physical.

Whether a patient’s ED is caused by physical problems or psychological impotence, behavioral therapy can be of great help before, during, and after completion of treatment. Involving the patient’s partner is beneficial during this process in order to gradually develop intimacy and stimulation. Maintaining a healthy diet, a regular exercise program to stay fit and being sexually active can also help prevent impotence.

Dealing With Physical and Psychological Impotence is a post from: Healthy Life