Mental Health

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental health issue that arises after someone has experienced a traumatic event. Symptoms of PTSD often include nightmares, flashbacks, emotional numbness, hyperarousal such as difficulty sleeping, feeling jumpy, and more. War veterans often experience PTSD, and many are deeply affected by it for the rest of their lives. Unfortunately, many people take their own lives because PTSD can be so debilitating. It affects every aspect of their lives – from their work, to family life, and often trouble connecting with their significant other. In the past, there have been several drug forms created to aid in the effects of PTSD, but many involved patients taking several forms of medication along with psychotherapy, and even the combined therapy didn’t aid in full recovery of the symptoms. Researchers have been exploring more advanced treatment options for PTSD, and many of them hold much hope in aiding the negative symptoms of PTSD, or even eliminating them altogether. Here are a few recent developments regarding treatment for PTSD:

In a study conducted by the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, between the years 2002-2012, approximately 18 million Americans practiced meditation. Mindfulness and meditation are common practices used to ground us and gain perspective on our lives. When we practice mindfulness, we practice being aware of our present moment. Through meditation, we learn to develop a more heightened sense of sight, smell, touch, taste, and sound, leading us to appreciate each moment. We tune in to others and feel more compassion - ultimately for ourselves, others, and then the world. These forms of practice bring into light a very important term, “present-awareness”. Present-awareness is the notion of being fully alive and aware at any given moment, because at that moment, that is all that we have. Staying present helps us to appreciate our experiences and explore our senses more in-depth. Here are some ways in which you can practice present-awareness:

“Normal is an illusion. What is normal for the spider is chaos for the fly.”

Paula had her first panic attack 5 months ago. She was at school preparing for a health science presentation and suddenly felt a wave of fear come over her. The entire room started spinning and she felt like vomiting. Paula felt dizzy, breathless, hot, and felt like she was going crazy. She called her partner to help relax her, but the event shook her pretty bad. Paula had another intense panic attack about 2 weeks later, and she feels like they have been getting worse each time. She is afraid of having another panic attack, so she has been refraining from any of the extracurricular activities that she used to participate in. Paula is also scared to speak to her boss at work because she is afraid of having another panic attack. A person who suffers from surprising panic attacks and is afraid of having them is considered as having a panic disorder.  According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, approximately 2-3% of Americans suffer from a panic disorder, and it most often occurs in women. Panic disorders are a form of anxiety disorder and can significantly impact daily life – from neglecting work responsibilities, to several doctor visits, to avoiding situations where the person may fear they will have a panic attack. Panic disorder may occur with depression, anxiety disorders, irritable bowel syndrome, asthma, or substance abuse. This can be very challenging for someone, especially if they have not been diagnosed yet. When someone has a panic attack, their heart pounds, they feel like they can’t breathe, and the person may even feel like they are dying or going crazy. Panic attacks are so intense because they are often unexpected and leave the person feeling debilitated. A person has a panic disorder if they experience frequent panic attacks for no apparent reason, if they worry a lot about having another panic attack, and if they are behaving differently because of the panic attacks – such as missing out on fun activities. Many people are afraid of seeking help for their panic attacks because they are afraid of stigma or being told that nothing is wrong. However, there are so many tools to help someone who suffers from this. Psychotherapy is a fantastic way to learn relaxation and imagery techniques. Discussing your irrational fears with your therapist could help you learn more about yourself and what you can do to possibly prevent panic attacks. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is another excellent tool used to treat panic disorders. This method will help you restructure your thinking to more positive, realistic thought scripts. If you suffer from a panic disorder, know that help is available to you. Speak with a doctor today to learn more about your options.

We all find ourselves afraid of something – heights, snakes, planes, etc. But many of us experience a deeper side of fear – phobias. A phobia is defined as an irrational fear, an anxiety disorder in which the individual has relentless dread of a situation, living creature, place, or thing. Individuals who have a phobia go to great lengths to avoid the very thing they are most afraid of, which often detracts from enjoying everyday life experiences. A recent study believes they have found a way to cure phobias. A study in A Journal of Psychiatric Neuroscience and Therapeutics examined three groups of people who suffer from arachnophobia, a fear of spiders, with 45 subjects total. One group was shown a tarantula in a glass jar for two minutes, and then given a beta-blocker call propranolol that is typically used by patients for performance anxiety. Another group was shown the same thing but was given a placebo, and the third group was given propranolol by itself without being shown the spider, just to make sure that the drug itself could not decrease the effects of their phobia. Soeter and Kindt examined all three groups the same day, three months later, and then a year later after the initial experiment happened. They found that the groups that received the placebo and only the drug by itself did not see any decrease in their feelings of anxiety. However, the group that was shown the spider and took the medication saw significant differences. Many could hold the tarantula that same day, and their fear of spiders did not return even a year later when the researchers check on them. The reason this could work is because norepinephrine, a chemical and neurotransmitter within the brain that enhances our learning, is blocked when a person consumes the propranolol. In blocking this, memory is disrupted in the brain, a process known as reconsolidation. A person with a phobia has an emotional association to it, and the anxiety they experience reactivates their fear and causes them to panic. Taking the propranolol helps them to create new associations with the phobia, thus reducing their anxiety about it altogether. Research is still being conducted on this medication and to see if it continues to show positive effects on individuals with phobias. If you experience a phobia, speak with your doctor to learn more about ways of reducing your anxiety so that you can continue to a happier, healthier way of living.

“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” – Albert Einstein Problems surround us every day – from small problems, such as managing an angry customer at work, to larger issues, such as managing a family dispute or dealing with a debilitating mental illness. No matter the size, problems are unavoidable and the best way to get through them, is to break them down. Here, we provide several techniques for solving your problems:

Cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT, is a technique used in therapy to help people change negative habits of thinking into more positive, productive ones. Beck Institute for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy states that the way individuals perceive a situation is more closely connected to their reaction than to the situation itself. CBT has been used for many issues, including anxiety, depression, addiction, and other mental illnesses. Individuals who practice CBT can learn alternative ways of thinking and reacting to stressful and unwanted situations. Dr. Alice Boyes, researcher and writer for Psychology Today offers several practices that you can do at home to begin working on CBT:

There are so many important aspects to recovery. Whether you are recovering from addiction or mental illness, the best way to optimize your recovery is to focus on all aspects of being, because essentially addiction and mental illness effect every aspect of our lives. It can make us feel broken, lost, and hopeless. The following is a breakdown of how each of these components can be impacted: Mind: Addiction and mental illness can change the way we perceive everything. According to Negative thoughts can become more abundant. Richard Zwolinski, author of Therapy Revolution: Find Help, Get Better, and Move On Without Wasting Time or Money stated earlier this year for Psych Central that addiction causes dysfunction in the brain circuits, leading the person to pathologically pursue reward and/or relief by addictive behaviors. The Treatment Center in Florida notes that dual diagnosis, or having an addiction and a mental disorder at the same time, can also both be treated at a holistic, integrative facility. Body: Detoxification is the first step towards healing the body. After that, treatment, nutrition, and exercise all lend itself towards rejuvenating the damage caused by addiction or self-harm, abuse, injury, etc. The body portion of recovery is most known because it’s what people physically can see. Medicine can be used to help people gain more clarity in their thinking or to help ease difficult withdrawal symptoms from addiction. Spirit: Recovery.org states that connecting with nature, reading spiritual literature, and attending spiritual groups can all be helpful to renew the spirit. Many people mistake spirituality for religion, however, and there are key differences. Spirituality focuses on who you are as a person, what your purpose is, what fulfills you, etc. Religion is centered are a God or gods, and typically has a place of worship with rituals. Spirituality is important during recovery because it connects you with yourself again. Mind, body, and spirit are all affected by both addiction and mental health issues, so all three components of our being should be addressed during recovery. If we want to make the most of our time there and transform into a better version of ourselves, focusing on these three are so important. By taking part in a holistic, integrative treatment program we are ensuring our whole self is taken care of.

For those of us who have taken the courageous route to overcoming our problems and obtaining skills to help us better manage our lives, therapy is likely a plausible component to our success. Many of us seek therapy in hopes that we can at least resolve our most distressing issues – once we have found a therapist that we feel we can truly trust, the recovery process becomes much easier to manage. In our sessions, our therapists may use a variety of techniques. This is mostly since we are all different in our perceptions and ways of learning skills, as well as our tactics for coping. Many therapists are specialized in a certain “area of expertise” – but most can implement a variety of techniques to see which ones “stick” with us and which ones don’t. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) - the goal of this technique is to help the client recognize negative thought and behavior patterns, and to help them construct more positive, productive thoughts in its place. Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) – like CBT, dialectical behavioral therapy aims to help individuals with negative thought and behavioral patterns, but integrates the use of mindfulness. With this, the client can become more present in the moment and can learn to better cope with stress and other negative emotions. Sand Tray Therapy – with this technique, clients (children through adult years) select small objects or figures to create their own little world on the sand tray. This allows the client to visualize their world and explore their problems and feelings more effectively. This also enables the client to explore potential solutions on the sand tray. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) – this technique is often used to help people who suffer from addiction, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, panic attacks, and more. By recalling a triggering, negative memory, clients relearn healthier ways to respond through sets of eye movements that their therapist guides them through. These are only a few of the many successful techniques that your therapist may use. What’s most important is not the technique used, but the effect that it has on you and your ability to overcome obstacles. If you feel that a certain technique isn’t working well for you, express those concerns to your therapist. Open communication and trust are crucial elements to success in therapy and could greatly improve your chances of recovery.

“Friends with benefits: on the positive consequences of pet ownership” published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology posits that pet owners fare better on self-esteem, exercise, greater conscientiousness, less fear, and feel less isolated. For someone who suffers from a mental illness, having a pet can greatly increase their chances of happiness and improve their overall well-being. Another study conducted by the Human Animal Bond Research Institute (HABRI) found that animal-assistance intervention (AAI), has even been shown to help people who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). If you’re considering getting a pet, there are several reasons why having a pet is beneficial for your mental health:

Dr. Lisa Firestone, Dr. Robert Firestone and Joyce Catlett, authors of The Self under Seige state: There is an important difference between introspection and rumination. Time spent alone in thought can be positive – a rich environment for personal growth and creativity, but it can also be dangerous when we are negatively turned against ourselves. Introspection can be a process of healthy self-reflection, examination, and exploration, which is good for your well-being and your brain. Introspection allows us to learn from our past, understand who we are, and develop a closer sense of self. If we can look into ourselves for exploration and clarification, we can become wiser and more self-aware. According to Elite Daily in 2015, introspection can help us to notice negative patterns in our lives, keep us focused on the bigger picture, prevent us from worry about things outside of our control, face our fears, define happiness in our own terms, make decisions based on our conscious, and make changes that will finally lead us to the results that we want.   The Right Way(s) To Do Introspection has some great insight that can be used. Here are some investigative strategies that you can use to get the most out of introspection:

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), approximately 350 million people worldwide suffer from depression, and the National Institute for Mental Health (NIMH) estimates that approximately 16 million people have suffered from a depressive episode within the United States alone. Depression can be very debilitating, and those who suffer from it may feel isolated, hopeless, and exhausted. Anyone can experience depression, no matter their age, gender, health situation, or any other circumstance. Dr. Twenge, an author for Psychology Today, suggests the following reasons for this major concern: