However, although in particular it is a disease of the so called ‘developed countries’ where chemicals, pharmaceuticals, industries abound as does greed and material affluence, it is not entirely without other factors in its complex causes.

On the side of prevention, it is our duty to ourselves to be familiar with the known or suspected causes and avoid incorporating any of these factors or habits in our lifestyle. On the positive side, we must make every effort to build up our natural health and resistance by practising the well known rules for good health.

Once we are involved in a positive programme we should then be inwardly confident that we will avoid contracting such a disease – one born from the chaos of modern life.

It is so important to create simplicity and harmony and avoid the trend of greedily desiring something new and exciting . We should rather seek for a revival and return to apply the rules of Nature so we can rather look forward to a pleasurable old age and when we die it will be that we ‘wear out’ rather than die riddled with dreadful disease.

Remember the natural way of dying is to die quietly and peacefully in one’s sleep, when spiritually and physically exhausted and life has lost further attraction.

If we are wise, we seek information about psychology that will help us to moderate or adapt our habits, thoughts, emotions or behavior or look for professional guidance from a psychologist.  We can help ourselves or seek further guidance and assistance from the many avenues that are open to us in following natural methods of total health care.

But when any symptoms lead to a medical diagnosis of a particular or serious mental disease it becomes a serious matter for ourselves and for others and we what we decide will have more serious consequences. Is it a condition that a psychologist can relieve through the gentle art of education in self analysis or is it a matter offering a greater challenge for a therapist?

At what point does a despondent or unhappy person accept that it is severe enough to warrant becoming a patient who must consider taking prescribed medical drug doses and mind drugs?

What psychiatrist has the vision to foretell just how long a patient’s depression will last – or how severe a state it is – and if the sufferer has family and friends to give real psychological support?

Then it is generally a time to pause and for us to take stock of the information we have about ourselves and examine how we feel about our emotional and mental state and whether we are inwardly inclined to first follow the path of practicing usual self disciplinary measures indicated, or whether we wish to seek outside assistance and the drug medications that are standard practice in modern methods of mental treatment. We would all hope that professionals to whom we turn will first recommend a natural and simple solution rather than treatment that diminishes our independence, as occurs under chemical drugs.

Drugs are becoming a serious issue with much controversy about the risks in administering mind changing psychiatric chemicals. A psychiatrist who delves deeper and who elects to use the subtle rather than the invasive chemical method is more likely to offer us real and lasting assistance. There are many fine professionals with practical experience in these matters.

However, no matter what outside help we seek, we must always remember that our mind and consciousness is our very own.

Considered as one of the most common signs of Alzheimer’s, especially in the early stages, is forgetfulness which hardly needs description as most of us suffer mild memory lapses. However should minor signs such as forgetting names, dates or events, or mislaying articles begin to include major incidents, with potentially dangerous ramifications, these memory lapses become a more serious problem to the individual and to those around them.

When our sense of independence decreases or when our reliance upon other family members or friends increases markedly is not good, particularly if associated with our general state of reduced sense of personal responsibility or self esteem.

Tasks that involve planning or solving problems such as payment of bills can become challenges in those inclined towards Alzheimer’s disease.

Together with increasing age is a natural reduction in physical abilities and skills with subsequent tendency to a reduced sense of self worth.

Reluctance to take on new projects or interests is sometimes an indication of lack of mental health and vitality and can be taken as a symptom of Alzheimer’s in some cases.

Incompletion of tasks is regarded as a symptom.

Inability to master settings and functions of microwave, TV, or electronic equipment is regarded as a symptom of inadequate or abnormal faculties. Some people consciously choose to avoid their use.

Confusion with time or place. People with Alzheimer’s are known to lose track of dates, seasons and the passage of time. In some advanced conditions they may forget where they are or how they got there. Many patients are ‘wanderers’.

Severe development of distorted perceptions including visual and spatial relationships, or judging distance colours or contrasts, to some researchers confirms Alzheimer’s.

Difficulty in following conversations and an inclination to repeat themselves is obvious to others but a person developing Alzheimer’s often is unaware. Struggling with vocabulary to find the right word or remember a name is common.

Misplacing things and losing the ability to retrace steps. A person with Alzheimer’s disease may put things in unusual places.

Decreased or poor judgment and decision-making seems to focus a need for medical attention. A common example can be displayed with gambling or with addictions of all kinds.

One of the most embarrassing symptoms of advanced cases of Alzheimer’s we have all witnessed at some time with those who pay diminishing attention to personal hygiene and grooming.

A degree of withdrawal social activities or from work situations is normal but Alzheimer’s may cause a person to even cease hobbies, social contacts, work projects or sports and if this is the case, a patient’s welfare becomes a real concern.

Extreme changes in mood and personality are apt to display negative states and behaviour such as confusion, suspicion, depression, or unreasonable anxiety, often becoming irritable or anxious when a routine is disrupted.

Medical research into Alzheimer’s is considerable over the last several decades. Many drugs are being researched to counter the symptoms of the condition. Many scientists are seeking for causes as well as cures. There are no satisfactory answers as to a cure. But we must avoid drugs of all kinds as it is likely that even medical drugs may produce symptoms along with other side effects.

We must realize the limitations of human science and aim to return to Nature as the Intelligence that shows us the way not only to health in youth, but in our happy old age.

For instance, Iatrogenic diseases (those created by modern medical treatment) is the third most fatal disease in the U.S with conservatively 100,000 patients every year die or are injured by prescribed drugs, surgical procedures gone wrong, hospital neglect, wrong diagnoses and the prevalence of medical ‘mistakes’.

The reality is that in the U.S. the majority of people still die from heart disease, with cancer following in second place.  Most western countries will have similar data showing that cancer is still a major cause of death.

In Australia the Bureau of Statistics quotes highest figures for heart disease and strokes. Next is cancer with lung cancer as highest amongst cancer deaths.  Disturbingly these are followed by dementia. Deaths due to iatrogenic causes are assessed at 14,000 in public hospitals. No figure is given regarding private practice.

However, both heart disease and cancer can be avoided by long term preventative means that relate directly to nutrition, oxygen intake, chemical pollution, stress and choice of lifestyle. This illustrates that if we wish to remain healthy we must face our responsibility by acknowledging cause and effect as a law of nature.

If we build natural health and observe the health rules that nature has made, we will live for many of our years in good health in spite of the unavoidable negatives.

If we live a life choosing to enjoy all the factors that will actually contribute to or even cause these major diseases whilst neglecting or ignoring any personal effort to create good health, we will suffer the consequences.

When we face any situation we are less likely to fear it. So we must face the fact that we may personally swell the growing statistics related to cancer, unless we determine to do something about it.

We must choose to do everything in our power to live in such a way that results in positive health and wellbeing. This will allow no room to entertain a thought of dying from cancer or any other serious disease.

The increase in psychological problems is largely blamed upon social pressures.

Violent behaviour has erupted in several school incidents and created serious situations, injuries and fatalities with a recent one this year resulting in 7 children hacked to death before the perpetrator killed himself. The overall number of fatalities from this type of attack had risen to 20 by mid year. Estimates from senior health officials state that approximately 100 million Chinese people are suffering symptoms of mental illness such as depression, anxiety, drug addiction and obsessive-compulsive disorder. The problem now exceeds heart disease and cancer as the largest economic burden on the country’s health care system.

Although there is considerable research into mental illness incorporated in the current national health plan there is no department in the health care system at present to deal specifically with mental disorders. There are insufficient numbers of doctors trained to deal with mental health and only 400 professional psychiatrists in Chinese hospitals overall with little likelihood of immediate improvement.

In Beijing 150,000 people are said to be suffering mental illness. The people are uncomfortable with mental health issues and reluctant to seek treatment. This is understandable in a once communist country where psychiatry was outlawed. During the Cultural Revolution those who suffered mental  illness were sent to labour camps accused of ‘counter-revolutionary’ behaviour. The practice of using mental illness as an excuse to imprison dissidents is still strong in the memory of older citizens.

Education of the people regarding personal mental health care is a vital requirement that would play a part in reducing the national pressure to provide   psychiatric treatment . Action in prevention is preferable to seeking a cure.

Having studied the trends, many of these professionals are deeply concerned about the damage that has been done by some drugs – in particular those that are generally prescribed for depression, anxiety and more serious mental diseases.  In fact the evidence leads towards a ban upon many of the psychiatric drugs produced by pharmaceutical companies and still being widely distributed. The special danger to children is of extremely serious nature when psychiatric drugs have now been found to have long term side effects.

Doctors have been willing to take the chemical route in medicating for mental and physical diseases. Consequently most people have a bloodstream consisting of a cocktail of artificially introduced chemicals in addition to the nutrients found in our food.   This factor can add to the complexity of manufactured drugs by making the introduction of every new drug unpredictable.  We have come to a sad impasse if a medicinal drug cannot be trusted to deliver a consistent result. Medical records abound with examples where negative reactions were not anticipated.

Many iatrogenic deaths have occurred through administration of drugs for both physical and mental problems.  In the latter case there are serious reactions that have completely destroyed the quality of life of those who are now disabled in their brain and mental life.

To be aware of the negatives about modern drugs provides us with motivation to seek a better, safer way of health care and alternative methods of treating mental illness that is increasing at such an alarming rate in the community. There are many such avenues being explored by offering less invasive and gentler therapy.

It is reasonable to suppose that many children who have symptoms related to hyperactivity or learning problems have causes related to normal problems of domestic or school environment. Most families have to cope with children having behavioural problems of some kind. These children are in need of care and counseling rather than drugs – drugs that change the chemistry of their brains and can produce serious long term side effects that cannot be reversed.

The main drugs these children are given are stimulants such as dexamphetamine and methylphenidate or Ritalin.  Ritalin side effects are noted in 986,000 postings on Google. The dangers of psychiatric drugs is becoming a serious issue to concern the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) in the US seek to abolish antidepressants and psychiatric drugs for children altogether.

Some even believe that Ritalin and others such as Fidolin, Neurontin, Concerta, Lithium, and Statin are being used as a legal form of administering drugs that have a propensity for addiction and at worst affect the brain and behavior towards suicide and violence. This has been shown in the cases of violent outbursts and gun killings involving schoolchildren over recent years.

If your children display behavioural problems or give you concern as parents that you cannot cope with, then seek assistance through psychologist and counselors before allowing any drugs to be given as medicine to your children.

To quote psychiatrist, Harvard graduate Peter R. Breggin, M.D. Director, International Center for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology

“The drugging of children has gotten so out of hand that America is waking up to this. This is a national catastrophe. I’m seeing children who are normal who are on five psychiatric drugs.”

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Dementia is reaching epidemic proportions in Australia with more than 150,000 Australians already suffering moderate to severe symptoms and with 50 new cases being diagnosed each day.

For our mental health or mental fitness, we need to focus upon what are the normal expectations of a healthy brain and body. We also need to become aware of any mild symptoms of irregularity that alert us to the need to cultivate our emotions and thoughts that affect our behaviour and interfere with our mental health and welfare.

Some of the well acknowledged symptoms of dementia sometimes found in Alzheimer’s
demonstrate a lack of the important mental qualities we value and have considered as integral to our idea of mental fitness. Some of these include the following -

Chronic fatigue
Extreme shyness or introvert behaviour or avoidance of company
Anger and aggressive feelings
Loss of concentration
Poor memory
Confusion
Anxiety, stress and exaggerated fears
Lack of self-confidence
Depression or unhappiness

Many of these symptoms are common both in cases of depression as well as in senility problems such as dementia.

There are many different approaches to sufferers of both these diseases but rather than trying to  consider rectifying future problems through drugs, it is better to first apply self help methods of prevention. It is an interesting study and will strengthen the chances that your future picture of an eventual, natural decline into old age will occur rather than last days spent in the mental wilderness and loneliness of either dementia or depressed states of mind and spirit.

Sally Janssen’s wonderful book “Mental Fitness: A Simple Self-Help Guide”, offers simple and timely solutions.

Although we generally hear of minor ailments of the mind, the most serious mental diseases also deserve our attention. Diseases such as schizophrenia, mania, Alzheimer’s, memory loss and others affect an estimated one percent of the population in the U.S.A and possibly all other developed countries.

Neuroscientists, psychiatrists, nutritionists and scientists of many specialized therapies and modalities are beginning to communicate in an effort to co-ordinate and evaluate research material from different avenues of therapy employed in healing maladies of the mind.

It is timely to arrive at an all embracing investigation that also includes naturopathic therapies and those previously considered as fringe medicine with their drug free methods.

Until there is published an unbiased and comprehensive scientific report of this nature, we must apply our own research efforts as best we can in a search to get an overview of current social problem.

It is a problem that is accelerating to cause us to conclude that the need to heal mental conditions is just as important in the community as efforts to relieve physical ailments and research should be directed and funded appropriately.

It is easy to understand why our total picture tends to present an ailing society, both mentally and physically.

However a new perspective would seem to indicate a shifting of our human problems, whilst always remaining focused upon relief from physical disease is now understanding the deeper causes may yet be found in the subtler aspects of our psyche.

Then it will be possible in seeking for the cause of our ailments, to extend our search beyond environment and external factors and physical causes to the emotional and mental reasons for our functional disharmony, and further, into the core of our being, the soul.

Sally Janssen’s wonderful book Mental health and Fitness: TA simple Self-help Guide, offers simple and timely solutions.