Client
Cadabam's Hospital
Cadabam’s Hospitals is a specialty center for psychiatry and neurology. It is an offshoot of the biggest psycho social rehabilitation group in India, Cadabam’s, which is a 400 bed center in the outskirts of Bangalore. For their online blog, they required three creative blog banners or three different psycho social concerns i.e Fortwin Addiction, Gaming Addiction and Personality Disorder.
FORTWIN ADDICTION
Fortwin is a pain-relieving injection given to manage chronic pain for which alternative treatments are inadequate. The drug is also used as a pre-anesthetic or as a supplement to surgical anesthesia. Pentazocine is the name of the drug which is prescribed as Fortwin.
What makes Fortwin Addictive?
Fortwin is an opioid analgesic (pain reliever) that works by blocking the transmission of pain signals to the brain to lower pain perception. (Opioid is a substance used to combat severe to moderate pain like morphine and codeine. It is prone to cause addiction). Opioids interact with the opioid receptors of the nerve cells changing the activity of the cell, hence producing feelings of comfort and sleepiness in the brain.
Is Fortwin drug addiction treatable?
Addiction to any substance is treatable, depending on the condition of the addicted patient. It must be treated like any disease as it has direct effects on the functioning of the brain. One must remember that no one treatment is right for everyone and the treatments need frequent revisions to fit the changing needs of the patient. It may take months or years to completely overcome the drug addiction.
GAMING ADDICTION
WHO defines gaming disorder as, “a pattern of gaming behavior characterized by impaired control over gaming, increasing priority given to gaming over other activities to the extent that gaming takes precedence over other interests and daily activities, and continuation or escalation of gaming despite the occurrence of negative consequences.”
What makes gaming addictive?
Any app be it gaming or a social media app, are designed to make the user spend as much time as possible. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter produced by our body and plays a major role in making us perceive feelings of excitement, pleasure and well-being. Video games eventually become a major stimulator of dopamine in our body as they instil feelings of thrill, winning and validation in our minds. Video games turn into an addiction when an individual resorts to a game to seek these emotions instead of having real-life experiences. (like playing a real sport) They would start refraining from real-life social interactions but would be making online friends with a mindset that the people in their gaming world are the only ones that truly understands them.
When should gaming become a concern for a parent?
Observation plays a major role in identifying what your younger one is going through in actuality. The number of hours he or she is spending on the game might not be the only parameter that can be considered a red flag. You must discern the overall routine of your child. Look out for anything that strikes out as an abnormal change. Is your child able to distinguish between the real and the gaming world? Is it affecting his/her decision making or behaviors? These can be some questions, to begin with, while trying to identify signs of gaming disorder.
Here are a few online gaming addiction symptoms:
Getting extremely angry, irritable or anxious about not being allowed to play
Not taking care of one’s hygiene and personal wellbeing
Neglecting other hobbies
Avoiding meeting friends and close family
Feeling restless when not able to play
Declining performance at studies and other areas of work and responsibility
Isolating from everyone to have more time for gaming
The obsessive need to play and win
PERSONALITY DISORDER
We are an amalgamation of our thoughts, perceptions, feelings, actions, and traits that are uniquely ours. Our personalities are developed- often shaped by the environment we are exposed to and the genes we inherit. It is precisely why humans are so distinct from one another.
However, problems arise when our personalities- the way we respond to and relate to the world, deviate from the established norm.
What are Personality Disorders?
Dr. Priya, Consultant Psychiatrist, Cadabams Group explains the disorder as, “Personality disorders are long-standing patterns of thinking and behaving that hinder a person’s psychological and social functioning. Often, people with the disorder do not know or are oblivious to their rigid patterns of behavior that interfere with their quality of life and cause distress to those around them. As a result, they struggle with forming healthy relationships and tend to have poor coping skills”
Since nothing is perceived to be out of the ordinary, people with it do not feel the need to work on themselves and improve or control their ways of being.