A career counselor could be a helping hand, volunteer, guide and therapist, who will provide career information, career development tips, can interpret aptitude and abilities of the person. A wide variety of areas are there before a person while deciding on a career.  He might not be able to get or collect information on each and every area. That’ when counseling plays an important part. Counseling helps in assessing one’s ability, interests, skills, need and desires and provides them valuable information on the areas and according to their need.

In career counseling session, clinical psychologists use certain psychological assessment tests, IQ test and aptitude test to determine the interest, kind of personality and skills of a child. There are some common topics that a counselor may discuss during career counseling session can be:

• Skills and talent required for a career
• Potential earnings of various careers
• Working style of the individual.
• Educational requirement of the careers. How much efforts one has to put while going for a certain path.

The therapist or clinical psychologist helps identify resources, financial aid resources and ways to manage stress.

The fear, worry and discomfort of an individual in public, social function is a mental health disorder termed as Social Anxiety disorder. A person suffering from social anxiety disorder may feel embarrassment in social situations. He is fearful of being scrutinized by others while meeting them. This is also called as Social phobia.

The symptoms of Social anxiety disorder are many and can be differentiate into behavioral, physical and emotional.

Physical signs include:

Avoiding eye contact

Confused

Nervous

High Heart Beat

Shaking voice and trembling hands

Excessive sweating

Mental tension, walking disturbance, cold hands etc are physical symptoms.

Emotional Signs include:

Fear of talking and sitting with strangers

Extreme concerned about their looks when in society

Try to avoid those conditions where they can be center of attraction

Panic attacks when face hostile situations

Blank mind during communicating with others

Fear of going in a room which is full of people

The people suffering from social anxiety disorder are over sensitive, have low self esteem and generally talk negative about them. The causes of social anxiety can be many like genetic, physical and past experiences and are different in different individuals that can only be diagnosed rightly by the clinical psychologist or psychiatrist. Social anxiety disorder is a lifelong condition. Treatments like psychotherapy and medications can help people control their symptoms and gain confidence.

Reasons:

Behind the mental illness of children, three main reasons can be there: physical, mental and social. Physical factors include heredity and chances of other family members to have the same problem. Mental factors include what child thinks about him, or about a certain situation. Social factors are those factors and conditions in which child has grown.

The main reason for depression in children are- unnecessary expectations from parents, differences between parents and their separation, pressure to bring the maximum marks, change in schools due to job, abused by peer groups etc. There are many children who have lack of self confidence, they keep on thinking about their looks, weight, height and figure. Their friends keep joking on them for their poor performance and bad looks which make them depressed. They are unable to share the feeling with anyone and parent are not able to understand the condition, that’s why psychiatrists say that parent need to keep in mind that symptoms of depression can vary in small and young children. If parent are not cautious about their children’s behavior, they do not pay attention to their points and problems, then this can have serious consequences.

How counseling helps?

If parent came to know that his child is suffering from the depression, they should follow him for some days. They should look for the changes in him. For more information they can contact their friends and ask teachers for any notable change. It is also possible that children can’t talk to their parent freely on this topic, that’s why they should consult psychiatrist. According to Psychiatrists, counseling is not necessary only for the children, parent also require same level of session. Sometime, session can be taken with both child and parent together but prior to that permission should be taken from the child, if he is comfortable in front of them.

Clinical psychiatrists say that presence of parent is necessary during the treatment of the child as sometime parent are unaware of the problem.  The depression is dwelling in our children’s mind and thus it is necessary that parent should not be strict with them, don’t crush their ambitions, should pay attention on them, congratulate them on their victory, indulge them in important discussions, increase their confidence , don’t compare with them to others. If possible, take the help of counselors who deal in mental health issues.

Do they wash and clean their hands frequently?

Do they keep on checking their things?

If people in your family, friends and surroundings who have these kind of characterstics, they must be suffering from OCD. OCD (Obsessive-compulsive disorder) is a mental health issue charactersized by repetitive and compulsive physical and mental actions. Like keeping hands clean by washing again and again, keeping utensils in a particular manner, checking the rooms, taps and other things continuously and fear of getting contamination. According to a report of World Health Organization (WHO), OCD is the fourth most common mental health issue.

There can be many types of OCD but some common forms are:

Checking:  As the name indicates, checking is associated with obsession of preventing damage or any harm. The person with OCD keep on checking the doors, windows, knobs, locks, past memories, taps.

Contamination: Contamination is fear of getting dirty, thus people who are obsessed with avoiding the contact with public toilets, hospitals, crowd, money, clothes and keep on washing hands again and again.

Hoarding: Hoarding is the possessiveness or obsession of keeping useless and worn out things.

Rumination: it involves the deep thinking on intrusive thoughts. They focus on what is not real. Like what will happen after death and how is the heaven and hell look like. All these are the philosophical and unrealistic thoughts that occur in the person’ mind. This makes them aloof and solitary in nature.

Intrusive Thoughts: These are the thoughts which make a person violent and distress. The person gets obsessed of killing self or loved ones, and superstitions.

Symmetry: It means to keep the things in order. Person is obsessed of keeping utensils, books, shoes, and certain things in a particular manner to avoid any discomfort.

The causes of OCD can be genetic, neurological, biological, cognitive and environmental. The disorder is not a condition that can be resolved by its own. Thus, if we see any such symptoms in our loved ones, we should take them to the specialist and provide them the best therapy required as early as possible.

Depression is a disease that makes the person sad and weak from inside. Depression of mind is increasing in human society day by day. People do not treat it as a disease and do not get treatment and keep living a depressed life. They do not even know that treatment of this disease is possible. People need to get rid of this misconception, so that they can again laugh and lead a happier life.

Today, experts have proved this by research that treatment of this disease is possible just like any other disease. Our brain that controls all the body functions is composed of crore of cells called neurons. Each neuron communicates with other neuron through neurometer. Change in some neuron meter causes depression.

The symptoms are as follows:

The depressed person doesn’t take interest in any work. His mind gets bored from home, family, business, enjoyment, pleasure etc.  Sometimes situation become so worst that he feels to get suicide.

Depression is of two types: Reactive and Endogenous. There must be some reason for reactive depression to occur like death of a loved one, financial loss, fail in exam or love whereas endogenous depression can be because of changes in hormones. The problem arises due to imbalance in the secretion of glands. Depression affects the people of 25 to 45 years of age but it effect goes on increasing with age. In children, its symptoms are different like irritability, stubbornness, not interested in going to school and less concentration in studies. A depressed person surrounds himself from his personal problems so well that he get isolated from the outer world. This lead to monotonous and Despair life.

Preventive measures:  Some of the medical areas that proved beneficial in curing depression are psychotherapy, electronic therapy, meditation, yoga and acupressure. Medicines can also cure the condition but they have side effects too.

Psychotherapy is the therapy in which psychologist try to understand the patient’s mind through certain set of question. Psychologists try to provide solutions to them so that any fear or bad imagination don’t make home in patient’s mind. Depressed person should be encouraged to do meditation, yoga and acupressure sessions. Giving pressure on pituitary, nervous and adrenal glands points will help in balancing the hormonal level.