Christel Maritz Psychologist Archives

Anxiety Disorders

Occasional anxiety is a normal part of life. You might feel anxious when faced with a problem at work, before taking a test, or making an important decision. But anxiety disorders involve more than temporary worry or fear. For a person with an anxiety disorder, the anxiety does not go away and can get worse over time. The feelings can interfere with daily activities such as job performance, school work, and relationships. There are several different types of anxiety disorders. Examples include generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, and social anxiety disorder.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder

People with generalized anxiety disorder display excessive anxiety or worry for months and face several anxiety-related symptoms.

Generalized anxiety disorder symptoms include:

Restlessness or feeling wound-up or on edge
Being easily fatigued
Difficulty concentrating or having their minds go blank
Irritability
Muscle tension
Difficulty controlling the worry
Sleep problems (difficulty falling or staying asleep or restless, unsatisfying sleep)

If you feel that you may be suffering from some form of anxiety disorder may be something you struggling with, please contact me and together we can determine the origin of your anxiety, working towards re-establishing you well being..

https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/anxiety-disorders/index.shtml

Mental Illness

Mental illnesses are disorders of brain function. They have many causes and result from complex interactions between a person’s genes and their environment. Having a mental illness is not a choice or moral failing. Mental illnesses occur at similar rates around the world, in every culture and in all socio-economic groups. The statistics are staggering, 1 in 5 young people suffer from a mental illness, that’s 20 percent of our population but yet only about 4 percent of the total health care budget is spent on our mental health.

The impact is more than in statistics and factoids, it’s in feelings and emotions.

It’s in our families, with our friends and in our communities. Having a mental disorder should not be any different than experiencing a physical illness. And it doesn’t have to be; you can help make a difference.

Mental Health Practitioner Christel Maritz +27 72 242 5857

A mental illness makes the things you do in life hard, like: work, school and socializing with other people. If you think you (or someone you know) might have a mental disorder, it is best to consult a professional as soon as possible. Early identification and effective intervention is the key to successfully treating the disorder and preventing future disability. As a health care professional we can connect the symptoms and experiences the patient is having with recognized diagnostic criteria help formulate a diagnosis.

As a parent, there are few things more difficult than seeing your loved once suffer and not being able to fix it.

Watching your loved once deal with depression in particular can leave you feeling helpless and frustrated. But while mental illness might not be something you can make go away, there are things you can do to be supportive and help them get through it.

As a health care professional, I Christel Maritz – as a Psychologist – can connect the symptoms and experiences you are having and with recognized diagnostic criteria help formulate a diagnosis. If you feel Overwhelm you can contact me and together we can embark on finding your solutions. Don’t let a mental illness be the end of your world.

Resources:

http://teenmentalhealth.org/learn/mental-disorders/

https://www.buzzfeed.com/annaborges/parenting-and-depression?utm_term=.wvE7A9VpZ&utm_content=buffer7d24d&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer#.acVPlOBAG

BWRT – Rehearsal, Repetition and Practice

The old adage of “practice makes perfect” has a connection to a new therapy which is called Brain Working Recursive Therapy®.

When we try to learn something new we practice it over and over again until it becomes second-nature to us. An example of this can be learning to drive a car. When we first attempt to use the gas pedal, brake, clutch to change gear, steering wheel, indicators and mirrors it can all seem too much.

However through gradual rehearsal and repetition of what we need to master (eg. clutch control for a hill start) and many more lessons of practice, we get more competent at driving. Our body responds more appropriately to events (stimuli) around us as we drive the car. Our confidence grows and our successes inspire us. The end result is a new network of neural pathways that enable us to be competent drivers.

BWRT® uses the same idea of learning a new way of reacting and behaving via repetition, rehearsal and reflection on successes. In doing so the brain provides a new neural pathway network. The only difference is that rather than acquiring a new behaviour such as driving, it is about changing an undesired behaviour in favour of a better behaviour.

Source: www.bwrt.net

Wellbeing

Many of the challenges we face in the modern world are rooted in human behavior, so psychological knowledge can help us find solutions. As a Psychologists I work in many different areas and are concerned with practical problems. Below are only a few examples:

Helping people to overcome depression, stress, trauma or phobias
Easing the effects of parental divorce on children
Speeding up recovery from brain injury
Helping to stop or prevent bullying at school or in the workplace
Ensuring that school pupils and students are being taught in the most effective way
Making sure that people are happy at work and perform to the best of their abilities

My goal as a Psychologist is working in harmony with my patient to facilitate solutions and creating emotional wellbeing. If you suspect that you can benefit from my support and intervention, please contact me directly at cmaritz@webmail.co.za

well-be·ing | noun: well-being; noun: wellbeing | the state of being comfortable, healthy, or happy. “an improvement in the patient’s well-being”