Mental Health

If you have anxiety, you’ve probably noticed at one point or another your heartbeat escalating, your thoughts racing, and feelings of nausea, fatigue, dizziness, etc. Anxiety is caused by worry, nervousness, or unease typically surrounding an event or something with an unpredictable outcome. Thankfully, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) has been shown to help many people with anxiety; in fact, it’s one of the most effective, widely-used therapies for this issue. If you’re ready to incorporate CBT into your daily life, begin taking control over your anxiety by following these steps: Step 1: Begin taking note of your thoughts, feelings, and sensations in a log. Get a journal and write down every instance that you feel anxiety. What are your thoughts at the time? What situation is this regarding? Did someone say or do something to make you feel this way? How would you describe your feelings? What physical sensations are you feeling (ex. sweaty palms, heart racing, etc.)? Lastly, how did your anxiety influence the situation/interaction? For example – did it cause you to leave an event early? Not go at all? Taking inventory of these can help you become an investigator of your own reactions. Step 2: Recognize patterns that are coming from these notes. Is there a certain time of day you experience anxiety the most? What about a specific person or place that tends to lead you to a lot of anxiety? Highlight commonalities between your experiences – with assorted colors if that makes it easier for you. Step 3: Do a cost-benefit analysis. As you review the notes you’ve taken so far, write another list that weights out the benefits and the consequences to having this anxiety. For example, how has having anxiety helped you? In what situations has it caused more pain or discomfort, when it didn’t really need to? This is your change to get an understanding for how anxiety is affecting your life. Step 4: Create alternative ways to react. What can you think to yourself that will make you more at ease, more confident, and less worried? For example, if you’re nervous about going to a work gathering, write the following thought: “The gathering will go well, and I’m excited to get to know other people.” Even if you don’t necessarily feel that way, stick with these positive thoughts. Step 5: Practice daily, no matter how you’re feeling. This is a great start to CBT – towards changing your thought processes towards something more positive and productive. Practice this every day, no matter how you’re feeling.

There are times when we see changes in our loved ones – changes they may not directly be able to see. When it comes to mental illness, stigma often causes people to either fear to have one or to fear others who have one. If your loved one does not believe they have a mental illness, but you are certain there are obvious signs of this, they may be in denial. This can be particularly challenging, especially if you want your loved one to seek help. A 2015 study titled “Assessing and Improving Clinical Insight Among Patients in ‘Denial’”, emphasized the difference between denial and lack of insight – does your loved one reject the notion that they have a mental illness or have symptoms of one, or have they simply not recognized the connection between their thoughts, feelings, and experiences and how they relate to mental illness? Denial is often considered a psychological defense mechanism, while lack of insight could be due to symptoms being perceived as a sign of something else, having neurocognitive deficits that make it challenging to form connections between instances such as these, or having a unique way of thinking about symptoms, mental illness, etc. If your loved one has been open to talking about mental illness with you, you may want to consider having them speak to a therapist. Motivational interviewing is a technique that helps those with apprehension come to their own realizations about their mental health and recovery options. Rather than push the client towards choosing recovery, the therapist may gently probe them with questions and will remain supportive and neutral during the entire process. Some people with a lack of insight into their mental illness don’t seek treatment because they don’t know they need to – this could be a wonderful time to help them gain insight into their experiences. If your loved one doesn’t believe they show signs of a mental illness, but you can see it’s potential for significantly reducing their quality of life, you may want to speak with a professional about staging a family mental health intervention. Untreated mental illnesses often get worse over time and could lead to the development of either another mental illness or an addiction, as a person tries to self-medicate to cope with their symptoms. Getting several friends or family members together with clear examples could help your loved one understand the truth.

Losing a loved one at any age can be devastating. Grief and loss is a part of the human experience; with every beginning comes an end. The 5 stages of grief and loss, proposed by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross in 1969, have become quite universal: 1) denial and isolation, 2) anger, 3) bargaining, 4) depression, and 5) acceptance. These stages may ebb and flow, and a person may move on to one stage and may then take a few steps back on difficult days. Self-medication is defined as the use of substances in order to cope with any physical or psychological ailments. Someone may abuse substances as a way to cope with unwanted feelings, such as depression, anger, shame, guilt, etc. A 2015 study titled “Dulling the Edges” sought to address this phenomenon by conducting semi-structured interviews on 35 men aged 19 to 25 years old, and 22 men aged 26 to 35 years old. These male participants identified as grieving the accidental death of a male friend; the researchers wanted to focus on ways participants used alcohol in the grieving process. The study identified three themes amongst the participants: Using Alcohol to Dull the Pain – One participant described using alcohol to ease the pain of losing a friend who had such a positive influence on his life. Another participant expressed the pressure of what “being a man” means by staying strong and stoic amidst grief and getting through it one one’s own; several people mentioned that with limited coping mechanisms for dealing with strong emotions, alcohol seemed to be the only option. Using Alcohol to Purge Sadness – Several participants mentioned the fact that being drunk would allow them to express their sadness without fear of being judged because the alcohol influenced their behavior. As a vehicle for free expression, alcohol was used to “let loose feelings of despair and sadness”. Troubled Drinking – Many participants noted that while alcohol helped them all to connect in the face of their friend’s death, their drinking eventually became problematic. Heavy drinking became a normal activity for many, as one or two drinks no longer seemed to make them feel better. There are other ways of coping with the death of a loved one. Surround yourself with those you love. Allow yourself to feel the pain and hurt. Seek out therapy. If you’ve developed a drinking problem, speak to someone from a reputable treatment center today. Recovery is possible.

Willie Nelson once said, “Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you’ll start having positive results.” There’s no question that mental health recovery can be a scary journey – after all, it involves change, growth, and transformation – all of which most of us are nearly terrified of. However, our perception is what guides us through life, and having a positive perception of your recovery can give you the motivation that you need to succeed. When it comes to mental health, a reputable treatment program can provide you with essential tools to help you better manage your symptoms. While you’re working hard in your program by attending individual and group therapy sessions and activities, you want to ensure you’re taking major strides on your own as well. Positive psychology is a great foundation to motivate, inspire, and uplift your spirits during this time of change. As explained by a 2014 study published in the Eastern Asian Archives of Psychiatry, positive psychology is an umbrella term used to describe positive emotions and aspects of being such as creativity, optimism, resiliency, empathy, compassion, humor, life satisfaction, and more. How can you incorporate positive psychology into your recovery? The following are a few excellent exercises:

They both sound similar – codependency and dependent personality disorder (DPD) – but are they the same? What level of dependency constitutes as having a mental disorder versus an unhealthy view of relationships? Whether you’ve recently been diagnosed or are concerned about a loved one, there are some distinct differences between the two. Both can be very distressing and there are ways to treat each – but DPD is classified as a mental disorder whereas codependency is not. The following is a brief breakdown of what each means:

Approximately 1.5 million people are diagnosed with schizophrenia each year; schizophrenia is a long-term mental disorder experienced with symptoms of hallucinations, delusions, difficulty with thinking and concentration, lack of motivation, and more. The onset of this disorder can be hard to tell, but signs often including a sudden change of friends, a drop in school grades, sleeping problems, and irritability. There is much stigma that surrounds mental illness, but unfortunately, those with schizophrenia receive much stereotyping due to media and societal misunderstanding. As a 2015 study published in Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology confirmed, realistic opinions regarding schizophrenia and other mental disorders are associated with lower prejudicial attitudes and social rejection.

Goal-setting has been used in a variety of instances as an effective way of monitoring progress. People with mental illness often have trouble meeting their goals, as serious mental illnesses can involve symptoms that can be challenging to overcome. With the right treatment program, a person can develop tools to help them better manage their symptoms while strengthening their grasp on recovery. Personal goal-setting is an excellent way to identify specific milestones that you want to surpass. A 2017 study published in the journal Issues in Mental Health Nursing involved the assessment of 27 individuals who were invited to set goals they wish to have achieved by the end of a week-long Recovery Camp dedicated to those with serious mental illness. The researchers identified four collective goal-setting themes from participants: Connectedness – many people in recovery soon discover that they are not alone. Goals for recovery may involve reaching out to others for support, speaking with someone from group therapy or a group activity, or participating and interacting in more recovery-related activities. Developing Healthy Habits – this could include eating more nutritiously, practicing better self-care, thinking more positively, treating oneself with more kindness on bad days, getting better sleep, exercising more, etc. Challenging Oneself – in order to boost your progress in recovery, you could set goals to challenge yourself; examples of this may include partaking in an activity or doing something that’s good for you that you wouldn’t have tried before, practicing forgiveness of yourself and/or others, being assertive and telling others the truth even if it’s challenging, and more. Recovery – goals that are recovery-based may involve meeting with a therapist once a week and reviewing progress, making the decision to speak up more in group therapy, practicing the tools you’ve learned in therapy once a day, etc. Goals can serve as excellent reminders of how far you’ve come, where you’re at, and where you’d like to be in the future. You can track your goals by taking notes, writing them down on a calendar, keeping a diary, creating a progress chart, planning out the steps, selecting a timeframe, and more. Share your thoughts with your therapist so that you have another person to help keep you accountable.

Depression can be debilitating at times; feelings of hopelessness, extreme fatigue, and lack of motivation can negatively affect everyday life. If you’ve been struggling with depression, you may find it difficult to even get out of bed every morning. In turn, you may believe that staying inside, missing out on events you used to enjoy, and withdrawing to yourself is what’s best for you. Despite your beliefs, the opposite is true – when it comes to depression, you really need to surround yourself with people who love and support you as well as engage in activities to get you involved in life. One of the best ways to do this is through exercise. A 2014 piece published in the interdisciplinary journal “Disability and Rehabilitation” emphasized that exercise can provide several benefits, including:

Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) involves an over-inflated sense of self, a lack of empathy for other people, and a general sense of self-importance. There are two branches that have been accepted with NPD: grandiose and vulnerable. Grandiose NPD is the most commonly known type and involves having a very high sense of self-esteem with a demand for respect and adoration. Many people with NPD are viewed as being “cold”, with a barrier placed around them from others. One less known type of NPD, vulnerable NPD, is a little less known, but is still as important. Vulnerable NPD often goes undiscussed because it is the more “quiet” of the two; people with this disorder are unlike their grandiose counterparts as they may come off as shyer or more reserved. Individuals with vulnerable NPD are often highly sensitive to others’ criticisms and emotional reactions but may be burdened by persistent feelings of loneliness. If you have vulnerable NPD, you may tend to act disinterested, bored, condescending, or judgmental around others to get them to engage with you without you having to speak with them directly. While you may have an inflated sense of self-importance, this high self-esteem can easily come crashing down in moments where you experience the loss of a job, a poor performance evaluation at work, etc. Social media is often a big platform for those with this type of disorder, as they display their lives through tools such as Facebook or Instagram. Those with vulnerable NPD often behave as though they’re underappreciated or underrated, despite their achievements and recognition. In addition, passive aggressiveness is common in those with vulnerable NPD, as they may ignore a person as a form of punishment for not doing what they wanted that person to do. If you’ve been diagnosed with vulnerable NPD, you may blame others’ shortcomings, justify your actions even if others view them as disconcerting, and distance yourself from others based on the belief that they are not good enough. Treatment for vulnerable NPD is available, and may include medication and psychotherapy, also known as “talk therapy”. If you relate to the above symptoms, speak with a licensed professional today to potentially obtain a diagnosis.

Mental illness is a serious topic that, while more open for discussion now, is still negatively perceived by many due to perpetuated stigmas. With stigma comes a sense of distance, a sense of separation – labels of “the other” emerge and it becomes easy to feel hatred, disgust, or hostility towards those with mental illness because terrifyingly, people no longer feel connected as a human race. Storytelling has been shown to be a direct link to connection, as the expression of stories are something that everyone can connect with. The emotions underlying stories – sadness, happiness, sense of loss, hopelessness, joy, and more – serve as a thread that binds through each human being. If you’re considering sharing your own story of mental illness with others, there are many benefits to doing this:

Bipolar disorder (BD) is often recognized by intense mood swings of either mania or depression; approximately 5.7 million Americans experience BD each year. Although mania and depression can be a part of BD, the disorder is much more complex than that, and can involve a variety of other symptoms that may not easily be recognized. If symptoms of the disorder go missed, treatment may not be sought – which can cause further distress in a person’s life. BD can affect nearly every aspect of daily living, including work, school, family, and social functions. By noticing some subtle signs of BD, you or a loved one can get diagnosed early, making symptoms much more manageable. See if you can recognize the following signs:

Painting. Singing. Drawing. Writing. Decorating. Composing. Playing. Dancing. Designing. No matter which form of creativity you’re interested in, all of these activities and more can have a profound, positive influence on your mental illness recovery. How so? Being creative means that you get to express yourself in a whole new dimension – there are no right or wrongs, no criticisms, no limits, and no audiences (if you don’t want there to be). Even if you don’t consider yourself a creativity person, engaging in creativity can help you spark more ideas, thus leading you to further insights and solutions to issues you may not even have considered. If creative activities (such as acting) are done in a group setting, this could also be a great way for you to connect with others and build your social support network. A study published in the American Journal of Public Health emphasized a few (but not all) benefits of various creative activities: