Loneliness is a universal human emotion that is both complex and exceptional to each individual. Because it has no single common cause, the prevention and treatment of this potentially damaging state of mind can differ vividly.

Health Risks Associated with Loneliness

Loneliness has a wide range of negative effects on both physical and mental health, including:

Depression and suicide: When you feel so low that things you previously enjoyed no longer hold that same joy.

• Cardiovascular disease and stroke: conditions that involve narrowed or blocked blood vessels that can lead to a heart attack, chest pain or stroke.
• Increased stress levels: Your body responds to stress by releasing hormones that increase your heart and breathing rates and ready your muscles to respond.
• Decreased memory and learning: forgetfulness, confusion, difficulty concentrating and other problems that disrupt daily activities.
• Antisocial behaviour: actions that harm or lack consideration for the well-being of others.
• Poor decision-making
• Alcoholism and drug abuse: addicted to alcohol, nicotine, opioid painkillers, and others.
• The progression of Alzheimer’s disease: causes a progressive loss of brain cells that leads to memory loss and the decline of other thinking skills.
• Altered brain function

Tips to Prevent Loneliness

Loneliness can be overcome. It does require a mindful effort on your part to make a change. Making a change, in the long run, can make you more contented, improved, and enable you to impact others around you in a positive way.

Here are some ways to prevent loneliness:
• Firstly you need to recognize that loneliness is a symbol that something needs to change.
• Then, you need to understand the effects that loneliness has on your life, both physically and mentally.
•  Consider doing community service or another activity that you enjoy. These situations present great opportunities to meet people and promote new friendships and social interactions.
• Focus on developing quality relationships with people who share similar attitudes, interests, and values with you.
• Expect the best. Lonely people often expect denial, so instead focus on positive thoughts and attitudes in your social relationships.

If you feel burdened by feelings of loneliness or feel them throughout the year and find it difficult to deal with, you can also talk to a professional about how you feel; this can often be more helpful than people expect.

All images are courtesy Pixabay

To learn more about Mentriq click here

Be Loving:

Get rid of that old wives take that hugging them, holding them, telling them you love them is spoiling your children. There are many children who suffered because their parents were too busy, too selfish and too preoccupied to spent time with them.

Mentriq Team talks about 10 Things to do Every Single day as a parent[/caption]

Act as a Role Model:

Have you ever noticed that you have many of the same attitudes, habits and opinions that your parents had when you were growing up- even though you swore you’d do it all differently. Well, that’s because your parents were your first, important role models and you are now the same as your children.

Involve yourself in your child’s Life:

One of the most important things you can do to safeguard your children is to spend time with them. No one ever feels that they have enough time to do the things they have to do. Strong family ties are formed between children and their parents if a little regular daily effort is made to spend time talking, eating and playing together.

Focus on Flexibility:

Your role as a parent changes as your child grows. What worked well when your child was in the nursery doesn’t necessarily work when she reaches junior school-and is likely to outright fail when she enters adolescence.

Set Boundaries and Rules:

The two most important thing children need from their parents are love and structure. Some of the parents don’t want to repeat the strict upbringing that they experienced, so they go the other way and have no rules and boundaries at all. They then wonder why their children don’t listen to or respect them.

Be Consistent:

The biggest single contribution to a kid’s disciplinary problems is inconsistent parenting. The secret of consistency is keeping your expectation clear and always meeting the same behaviour with the same reaction.

Mentriq Team talks about 10 Things to do Every Single day as a parent[/caption]

Encourage Independence:

From the day you play ‘peek-a-boo’ with your baby, you are preparing her for separation from you. From her first day at school, first sleepover and first school trip to France-to the day your daughter leaves home. Good parenting is the step by step process, a gradual moving out into the big world, confident and independent from you.

Firm and Fair in your discipline:

At each stage of your child’s development, you must establish your rules that you expect your child to obey. Your job is to do what best for your child whether she likes or not. Don’t let your toddler blackmail you into buying that ice-cream just before lunch with a screaming tantrum. You are building an adult part of tomorrow ’s future generation –so stand your ground.

Listen to the first talk later:

Listening to the best gift you can give anyone-including your kids. Listening make children feel valued, heard and understood. It makes them feel important.

Respect your child:

Your relationship with your child is the foundation of her relationships with others. If you treat your child with compassion, kindness and respect, she will grow up to be concerned about others, caring, considerate and respectful towards other people.

All Images are from Pixabay

To learn about our founder Dr. Prerna Kohli, click here

Who is a Victim?

A victim is a person who always views his Life through the glass of “I am not at fault or the world/destiny is the reason for all my misery”. He considers himself a victim of other people’s actions and circumstances and is certain that he cannot do anything about it.

Victim Mindset is a very wide spread and debilitating mental process. The Locus of control is always outside the person. Some common beliefs of the victim could be “I can never get what I want”, “People  are responsible for my sadness” and “ Life is tough” etc. He believes in his make-belief stories of “Poor-me” and cannot look past these.He cannot take responsibility for his actions.

If you notice,they will always come with a set of  un-solvable problems, like a boyfriend who deserted them, parents who are after their life or a boss who is responsible for their career problems. They will force you to be their therapist and demand rescuing.

The best way to deal with the “Victim” mentality is:

• Say “NO” with conviction. You do not have to please everyone or worry about what impact it will have on the other Person because people are responsible for their own Lives. If you say a “Yes” just to make the other person feel better, it will make the situation worse. Enabling these kind of behaviors is bad.
• Help the person understand his own patterns of behavior. Tell him that ‘feeling sorry for yourself will not solve your problems”; If you are not ready to discuss solutions, I cannot listen to you for more than 10 minutes”.
• When you set boundaries with the ‘ victim’, he/she will come up with blames like “you are not a good friend , daughter, son, or wife”. Be ready for this but do not succumb to it.
• If the ‘victim’ in your life is a co-worker, listen briefly and acknowledge his problems; But let him know that you have deadlines to meet and have to return to your work.

• Use body language to reduce the engagement time by breaking eye contact, crossing arms or turn your back. Engage as less as you can!
• If you are the “Victim”, remember that Self-Pity is an indulgence. If you did not have to survive genocide, Regular violence,extreme poverty,homelessness or hunger; there is no reason to feel imprisoned.
• Have empathy: It helps you see the other person’s perspective and be kind to them. Because,If you are empathetic you will understand the deeper meaning in people’s behaviors. If a close family member complains that “ you are being selfish”,his motive could be that he wants to spend more time with you.
• Do not categorize this person to be your enemy as it will be a spiritual U-turn.Therefore,Limit how much you  give-IN to their unhealthy patterns.

Learn more About Dr Prerna Kohli

If you always feel like a Victim,you could be having Anxiety or Depression. Take the tests!

Acting without thinking, getting fidgety, daydreaming is normal for kids. They may blurt out things randomly and may not follow instructions. But when such actions continue, it might be a matter of concern. Parents may even label their kid as notorious, lazy or troublemakers.

However, you must give it a thought that the child might have some hyperactivity issues.

ADHD: Meaning, Types, Symptoms

ADHD is a neurological disorder. Lacks of attention, impulsivity or hyperactivity are signs of ADHD.

It has three subcategories- Inattentive, Hyperactive-Impulsive and combination. A child with the disorder may show the following symptoms:

• Fleeting attention
• Absent-mindedness
• Not willing to sit in one place while eating, doing work or watching TV
• Easily distracted
• Forgets and loses things
• Interrupts while others talk
• Can’t wait for their turn
• Need repeated reminders
• Extremely verbal
• Unorganized
• Fidgety and restless

First, ADD or now called the Inattentive type ADHD, has symptoms where the child would be lack focus, forgetful and is unorganized. In turn, they make careless mistakes, are unable to complete tasks under given deadlines, would avoid tasks that involve excess mental efforts and are very easily distracted. Such kids, as they further grow, may face self-esteem issues.

Second, Hyperactive-Impulsive ADHD, has symptoms where the child is very fidgety. For this reason, he may not sit in one place, runs a lot, talks a lot. He may have problems waiting for his turn and may interrupt others while talking. There could be situations where he couldn’t even wait for a question to finish and just jabber the answer.

Third, Combination type ADHD has at least 6-7 symptoms of inattentive and 6-7 symptoms of a hyperactive-impulsive type of ADHD.

ADHD is a condition which is actually caused because of the wiring of the brain system and it cannot be cured. But there are treatment options available. Some of them are:

Medication

The medications are helpful in reducing the hyperactivity, impulsive behaviour and improve cognition. Furthermore, they also enable better motor coordination. For instance, the most common are the stimulants that help to produce dopamine and norepinephrine that help with attention and cognition. Apart from that, there are antihypertensive drugs or medicines to improve cognition.

Family Therapy

A support from the family always makes a great influence on the child. It is important for the family to accept the child for all what he got. A positive and understanding attitude from the parents and siblings can really reduce the levels of frustration and self-criticism the child develops over the time.

Behavioural Therapies

This is a kind of psychotherapy which helps the child to alter his behaviour. The child will be able to monitor his behaviour. And every time for the appropriate reaction instead of an impulsive one, the child gets a reward that further encourages him. The people around like family members or teachers should also praise them for every improvement. There are set rules and routines that the child follows.

Social Skills Training

The child is provided with social skills training. This helps him in improved friendships and interpersonal skills, helping them further to develop a healthy social life.

Psycho-educating Families

It is very important for the families to understand the functioning of brain and behaviour of the child. A proper professional explanation would give the family more insight to them about the child. This will help them understand and support their child better.

Quick Tips

Besides the above treatment options available, some quick tips to handle a hyperactive child:

• Monitor sugar intake
• Consult for a diet plan
• Make schedules to be followed
• Follow performance-reward technique
• Help them keep organized
• Make them note down tasks

Does your child have the symptoms of hyperactivity? Or is it just his tantrums? Do you need guidance?

Call us at +91-9069069069.

No matter how good the meeting went or how impressed the clients seem by your demo, but closing a deal can be stressful. And due to high competition in the market, at times, the probability of a guaranteed yes remains unmeasured.

People do not face many difficulties in getting the leads but the real struggle comes when the deals are supposed to be closed.

Here are some tips that would help you to step up your closing game:

Action Plan

You need to define a course of action to your client. This is helpful in keeping the deal and the work organized. A timeline is fixed for the whole process and other factors like investment, expenses, resource requirements, etc., are also predetermined.

Deadline

Deadlines are very important because they make the work more convenient. They are helpful in managing short-term as well as long-term goals. You can prioritize your work according to the need. When the work is divided in small chunks over the days, rather than creating huge goal months away, makes the situation more stressful. Achieving small victories keeps you motivated.

Identify the Decision Maker

One of the important point to keep in mind is you need to identify who is the top dog when it comes to taking the decisions. A lot of times, you are unable to convert a lead into the deal because you talk and invest time in the wrong person.

Focus on solution

It is important that you focus on the solution. Along with the same, you should also focus on discussing the benefits of the solution. This helps in convincing the client more.

Ask Questions

It is ideal to ask the opposite party questions while negotiating. This will give you a better clarity on their needs and expectations regarding your service. There might be client’s reasons that might halt the deal, which you are unaware of. It could be the expenses involved, timeline, etc. Enquiring a bit might provide you with the same and maybe you can work things out.

Discuss the next step

Discussing what’s next is always a good move. This helps you provide a direction, where the deal is heading towards. Depending on the same, you can plan the next move.

Flexibility

Flexibility here does not mean being an extrovert but adjusting to the situation. While dealing with a client it is important that you warm up with them, in turn engaging them and making them interested in your deal.

Follow-up

Follow up with your clients post the meeting. This creates a good impression of yours on them. And in turn, it helps to build up a good relationship with them. If your client trusts you, it will be easy for you to negotiate deals.

Keep in touch

Keep in touch with your clients. You can introduce them to your achievements and latest services. This will keep them aware of your progress and programs which may make them opt for your services again.

Food is amongst one of the three basic necessities of life. It is very important for kids to eat healthy and proper food for right growth and development. But the recent scenarios show an increase in the number of eating disorders amongst children. There is no set age for it to develop. It could be an adolescent as well as a kids as young as 6-7 years of age. They are concerned, in an unhealthy way, about what and how much they are eating.

The main types of eating disorders are:

Anorexia

The child has an irrational fear of becoming fat. Hence, would avoid eating an adequate amount of food. In extreme scenarios, some might vomit out food after eating. The child feels overweight, even when the reality is totally opposite.

A kid with this issue shows symptoms like sadness, anger, depression or excessive worry.

Bulimia

The child eats big chunks of food first and then tries to get rid of it either by vomiting or taking a laxative. They might even do an excessive workout, in private, to get rid of the calories. They have no control over their binging and find such ways to keep a control on their weight.

A kid with this issue loses weight despite excessive eating. He starts working out immediately after eating or uses medicines to make them either vomit or defecate or pee.

Binge Eating

The child rapidly eats big chunks of food, but does not make efforts to get rid of the same. This is more of a compulsive behaviour. The victim has loss of control in the situation. They, over the time, tend to gain weight.

A kid with the issue could be struggling with psychological issues like anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, the feeling of guilt and disgust, etc.

Improper eating habit leads to stunt development in kids. Some of the symptoms to watch out are:

1. Refusal to eat or over-eating
2. Reduction or increase in portion size
3. Hoarding or hiding food
4. Isolation
5. Growth and development issues
6. Weight loss or weight gain
7. Irregularities in the menstrual cycle in girls
8. Changes in personality

The disorder not only leads to change in eating habits but can turn out to be life-threatening as well.

There is no specific reason for the eating disorders, but a combination of various psychological, social, biological factors contributes to the problem. The culture phenomenon like being thin or underweight is healthy and makes you more acceptable also adds on. Psychological or psychiatric disorders could also be the reason.

Some of the steps parents or teachers can take on their parts to help the children with eating disorders:

1. Avoid food as a reward
2. Do not give too much value to physical appearance or criticize them for the same
3. Do not force the child to eat beyond the capacity
4. Provide awareness to your child regarding the same
5. Keep a check on their behaviour
6. You can encourage the child to get involved in sports and exercises
7. Encourage and be emotionally available for the child
8. Do not over pressurize the child with unrealistic goals
9. Introduce them to great idols of different shapes and sizes

It is important to seek professional help if the elders are unable to help the child cope up with their problems. The child might need a nutritionist, doctor or a psychiatrist or counsellor, depending on the need. Taking an action, as soon as possible, is important.

Do you feel your child could relate to the above symptoms? Do you want expert advice regarding the same?
Call us at +91-9069069069.

When we say the term ‘bullying’, we often picture a child at school getting picked on. But it could be a child in the kindergarten or in the college to a person working in an MNC or hospital, who is facing it, inflicting it or witnessing it. An adult may be able to handle the situation and come out of it, but when it is a child in the similar scenario, he might have a great psychological impact. This can further affect the development of his personality as an adult in turn affecting the parents and the community.

The popular Netflix series ’13 Reasons why”, the latest “Insatiable”, etc., and movies like ‘Mean Girls’, “A Girl Like Her’, “Hope Floats”, have one thing in common which is the concept of bullying. These show how popular or physically attractive kids torment other kids and get away with it most of the times.
Bullying impacts, not just the kid who gets bullied, but also the one who bullies and the others who see it happening. Let’s see how that happens.

THE VICTIM

Affects the ability to trust

Bullying creates a strong sense of distrust in the child. It might not come to notice initially, but as the child matures and socializes, this profoundly developed mistrust emerges strongly. It becomes one of the major reasons for failed relationships and friendships in the person’s life.

Affects the ability to learn

The child constantly worries about being bullied. He thinks that where, when, why and how he could be targeted next. This leads to lack of concentration and increased levels of stress, distracting him and negatively affecting his brain receptors.

Hatred towards School and Teachers

The child does not feel accepted in the school and feels unsafe. He might start showing great resistance to going to school. A lot of kids drop out of schools and colleges because of the issue. Or even if they continue, the school incidents affect their academic performances. They even tend to develop a strong disliking towards the teachers and the whole school system as they feel helpless and victimized.

Vengeful Behavior

The child feels like nobody cares enough for him. He reaches a point where his anger overtakes his sanity. The child might often act out. He may plan to take revenge from the people around whether they are responsible or not. We have come across many incidents in the news of school shooting and the attacker had a history of being bullied.

Mental Health Issues

Such situations could be emotionally taxing for the child. He constantly faces criticism for looks, clothes, any disability (if there), etc., leads to a low sense of self-worth and creates major self-esteem issues. The child is constantly stressed out. This, if prevails for long, further leads to anxiety issues, depression, PTSD, etc. The child could even become suicidal.

Few symptoms a child might show that indicate bullying at school:
• Change in eating patterns
• Remains aloof
• Change in sleeping patterns
• Avoids socializing
• Exhausted most of the times
• Ignores going to school
• Nightmares
• No play dates

THE ATTACKER

The attacker here would be the one who bullies others. They are likely to:

• Engage in violent behaviour
• Use drugs and alcohol
• Engage in sexual activities early or offensive of nature
• Engage in criminal activities
• Be abusive towards the partner or children
• Develop a sense of entitlement
• Involved in damaging public or private property

THE WITNESS

The kids around witnessing bullying also bear its effects. They are likely to:

• Develop a fear of the bullies
• Skip school
• Involves in drug and alcohol abuse
• Develop mental health problems

Even after making strict laws and rules, we often come across cases of suicides in colleges and schools due to this reason. Such incidents affect the lives of the people around and the families of the children involved. There is an increase in the number of suicide cases because of bullying. People discriminate the victim on the basis of colour, race, nationality, the type of clothes they wear, body structure, etc. And when nobody comes to their rescue, family or friends, it increases the issues they are already going through, affecting their mental well-being.

Do you happen to know a child in such situation? Do you think he needs help? Call us at +91-9069069069.

It’s the last day to submit the report, but you have so much left to do and your friends are waiting in the café for you to arrive.

You have your exam tomorrow, its night already and you have done just one chapter.

Can you relate to such a situation? Do you start doing an important task and get up in between to eat or drink. Sounds familiar? This habit is called procrastination. And you are not alone in this.

Majority of people procrastinate their tasks. You may enjoy the time you spend lazing around, but this habit really hinders your progress and achievement in all aspects of life.

Here are some tips that you could use to deal with procrastination:

Acknowledge

The very first thing that you could do is to accept and acknowledge that you procrastinate. Unless you do that, you cannot move forward. There could be a scenario where you are postponing a task for a genuine reason. But if you find yourself doing the same for every other task, this is a problem.

Make a schedule

You can make a constructive action plan for the day and assign yourself time for the tasks. Follow this schedule religiously and you can feel the change in your way of working.

Prioritizing the tasks

You need to be clear and quick about designating the tasks on the basis of their exigency. It is better to finish the more important tasks first so that you are left with less important tasks for later in the day.

Difficult tasks first

You should always do the difficult tasks first; so that you are left with the lighter work post that. This would reduce your stress level and make your work more qualitative.

Keep a to-do-list

You can either create a soft copy for a to-do-list or keep a diary where you can write down the schedule. As you progress with the completion of tasks, you can mark those that you complete. This will give you a visual input of how much work you have completed and how much is left. This way you can see how efficient you are at your work.

Reward system

To begin with, while trying to curb this habit, you can always keep a reward that you will give yourself, only after you complete an assigned task. This is a way to contrive motivation to perform. This practice will give you that push you require to develop a structured way of doing a task. Also, rewarding yourself will make you happy about yourself, providing further encouragement.

Take help

Ask a friend to keep a check on you so that you do not go out of track. This is how the self-help groups work. You can also plan it out with a fellow procrastinator so that you both can motivate each other to be better.

Avoid distractors

When you sit to do a task, turn off social media, emails, etc. Avoid sitting amongst people or anywhere near a television.

Just to keep an important point in mind, procrastination could be because the person is suffering from a mental health illness. It could be anxiety, depression, OCD. When you notice other symptoms apart from procrastination the problem could be serious. In such scenarios, you would require to seek professional help.

Social media has become an important part of our lives lately. It is surely a boon as it allows you to connect with your friends and family, provides you with useful information and lets you stay updated with latest happenings around the world and trends. It’s a source of income for a lot of social media influencers lately.

But there is a flip side to all this as well. A lot of the latest studies show that social media is becoming a reason for so many mental health illnesses, depression being one of them. Let’s have a look at how this is happening.

Absent from the present

If you look around, it could be at home, a get-together, or a couple out on a date, we all remain glued to our phones. We are more concerned about the activities on social media rather than being where we are. We are constantly thinking about what next to post instead of focusing on the person we are with or eating our lunch.

Loss of Human Connection

When we meet our friends, a lot of times, more than knowing what’s happening in each other’s lives, we are more concerned about clicking a perfect selfie and putting nice hashtags. We are more of friends with our blue light rectangular screen than the people we post pictures with. We would have an idea about their online personality, rather than their real-life personas. This has been one of the reasons for arguments amongst people, as we avoid the person sitting next to us for checking our phones.

Virtual Reality

Most people have an alter ego through their social media accounts. They make their life to appear picture perfect, making other’s envy them. From putting check-ins at expensive restaurants to posting a picture of the top brand clothes, they try every possible way to make their feed look trendy and attractive. It’s like hiding the real-life picture and living it with so many filters.

Self Esteem

People often accept others’ virtual life as their actual. More than concentrating on themselves, they keep updated with others’ trips and relationship status, ending up making comparisons with them. This makes them feel bad about their own life and hence affecting their self-esteem. They feel worthless and start doubting their abilities and approach towards life. We remain unhappy. We become obsessed with trying to post an aesthetically appealing picture just to have a validation that people like us. Our existence is so much hanging on the likes and dislikes on our posts.

Too much information

Kim Kardashian, Hollywood’s famous reality star’s Paris robbery is one of the best examples of this. We make several posts throughout our day, providing the outside world too much information about ourselves, which is not ideal in terms of our safety. The other person knows our location that exact minute.

Procrastination

The concept of Monday Blues has become a cultural belief lately. And most of the time people just mock the situation and laugh things off that are actually bothering them, hiding behind this phenomenon.

We spend more than one-third of a day at our workplace and hence, our outlook towards our job really holds a great deal of importance. If you are passionate about your work, working any day is an opportunity for you. But if that’s not the case, it becomes a burden to spend those 8-9 hours, each day.

By now, we all are aware our state of mind does affect our productivity. If you constantly go through these Monday Blues, it is going to hamper your work quality as well as your interpersonal relationships.

Let’s look at some reasons why people face these situations-

Attitude towards the job

A lot of us get the kind of work we like, but there are others who are unable to figure out our passion. They go for a job for earning a livelihood or for just the heck of doing something. This is also determined by the factor that what a person’s traits are. For example, a person who procrastinates things or is unpunctual would often feel burdened and inefficient in his work, hence developing a negative approach towards work.

Relationship with colleagues

At times, regardless of how much do you like your job role, the people around you often affect your emotions. When we remain surrounded by people who give negativity, for a long duration, this might take a toll on us.

Work-Life Balance

A lot of people often find it difficult to create an optimal balance between our personal and professional life. Neither we are able to impress our boss with our work, nor are we able to satiate our family. All through the week, we work so hard and on weekends lie like a corpse, always living in extremes.

Lack of organization

We have always heard the advice that we should always plan our day in order to manage things in a better way. But this mostly goes in one ear and out the other. Being unable to organize and handle the work efficiently stresses us and messes up our work further.

Social Media Influence

Weekends are often overrated. We all use one or the other social media applications. And lately, there have been a lot of filters where a sad/ disappointed bitmoji (personalized cartoon avatar of oneself) or GIF with the captions like “Monday Blues”. Then there are filters with captions like TGIF (Thank God It’s Friday). The people using these applications gradually develop a strong opinion which is influenced by such social media concepts.

Mental Health Issues

It might not be your job or your colleagues that are the reason you feel distressed at your workplace, but maybe your mental health. There could be situations where you are actually more productive and could be going through depression. You have lots of friends and you seem well adjusted to every situation, but there could be things going on at the back of your mind. You could be an organized person and be doing things well but feel hollow on the inside. These could be signs of depression. Feeling low sometimes on Mondays is alright, but the same story every Monday is not.

Following are some quick tips to deal with Monday Blues:

• Organize your weekend beforehand
• Keep Mondays little light
• Avoid checking your work mail during weekends
• Keep fixed and appropriate hours of sleep throughout the week
• Have a good night sleep on Sunday so that you can feel refreshed and energetic the next day
• Keep a relaxing time, maybe 20-30 minutes, for you for each day and not just on weekends
• Keep a post-work hang out for Mondays
• Dress well on a Monday
• Consult a professional if you show signs of any mental health disorder

Do you feel stressed at your workplace or unhappy with your work? Is your work life hampering your personal life? Call us and get 15 minutes free counselling session at +91-9069069069.