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A powerful sedative typically used to help people with insomnia, Ambien, generically called Zolpidem, is prescribed for no more than 6 weeks and is generally recommended to be taken for shorter periods of time. If a person takes larger doses of Ambien or takes the drug for longer than originally intended, they may develop dependence and, later on, addiction. If you’ve been struggling with Ambien addiction, treatment is necessary to help you gain back control over your life. Ambien targets receptor cells in the brain that respond to gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), a neurotransmitter that affects sleep cycles. This drug was designed to work similar to Valium by also affecting emotional responses and levels of consciousness. When a person is going through withdrawal, they may experience the following:

Author Cathy Malchiodi, experienced professional of art therapy, expressive therapy, and counseling, stated in her book titled, “Expressive Therapies”, “Expressive therapies offer unique ways to enhance communication as well as fresh directions for therapeutic work for both the client and therapist…they have several specific characteristics not always found in strictly verbal therapies, including, but not limited to: 1) self-expression, 2) active participation, 3) imagination, and 4) mind-body connections.” If you’ve ever created something by painting, drawing, playing an instrument or something similar, you’ve taken part in a component of expressive therapy. However, expressive therapy is not simply doing one of these activities – it involves engaging in a creative activity to express oneself and learn more about oneself and others, typically through the direction of a therapist. Expressive therapies didn’t become popular until the 1930s and 1940s, when psychotherapists and artists learned that these modalities could help those with mental illness. According to the California Institute of Integral Studies, psychologists utilize expressive therapy to help promote clients with their self-awareness, emotional well-being, healing, and self-esteem. In therapy, you need not worry about the end result of your creative project. In fact, you most often will be asked to draw or create something that represents what you are going through. Your therapist will not be judging your artwork, and you will be able to engage in conversation about what your project means to you and how you view the situations that are occurring in your life. Consider expressive therapy as an extension of your feelings and thoughts. You may not know what you will create until you are the process of creating; expressive therapy has been shown to help people who have difficulty talking about the way they feel. A 2010 review published in Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Therapy Association identified numerous studies that assessed expressive therapy and their correlated benefits for participants in each study. The results of these studies further confirmed that expressive therapy has been reported to help reduce stress, reduce cognitive distortions, enhance coping mechanisms, provide a safe place to explore feelings and grief, show positive change and growth, improve behavioral functioning and mood, and more. Speak with a representative at a reputable treatment center today to learn more about how expressive therapy could be of benefit to your recovery.

In any treatment center or organization for social welfare and advocacy, optimal treatment for all people should be the focus. Although the Sanctuary Model could benefit many other types of organizations, these organizations in particular utilize this model because their core focus is to help people better themselves through use of medication, therapy, activities, case management and more. Developed by Dr. Sandra L. Bloom, a board-certified psychiatrist and graduate of Temple University’s School of Medicine, the Sanctuary Model is an evidence-based, trauma-informed, complete system of organizational change process. There are four main pillars that the model is based on: 1) shared knowledge, 2) shared values, 3) shared language, and 4) shared practice. Through the use of shared meaning, organizational members can work towards building a future that supports everyone involved, in every way possible. By establishing a shared system, team members and clients can be prepared for future events and can easily navigate daily challenges by referring to the system’s core values and commitments. The Sanctuary Model implements commitments to nonviolence, emotional intelligence, social learning, open communication, democracy, social responsibility, growth, and change. In organizations that deal with mental illness and/or addiction, unforeseen circumstances may arise and, if not prepared for, could be detrimental to the people involved. All organizational members must feel confident in their capabilities to handle emergency situations just as they should feel confident handling daily interactions with clients. This knowledge base and confidence builds trust between employees and clients alike –  ultimately strengthening a lending-learning environment. There are a variety of ways in which the Sanctuary Model focuses on the future:

As the World Health Organization (WHO) notes, nearly 450 million people are currently experiencing a mental illness around the world; this equates to one in four people. Despite the high numbers of people who experience mental illness, there are many stigmas surrounding the topic, preventing people from finding support and seeking help to work through their obstacles. Actress Glenn Close, who played the role of a woman scorned by others after having an affair in the psychological thriller “Fatal Attraction”, has been working diligently to change the minds of many who fear mental illness or believe that those with mental illness are less than. For Ms. Close, de-stigmatization is important because of her experience with mental illness in her own family. Glenn’s nephew Calen has schizophrenia, and her sister Jessie has bipolar disorder. As noted on CBS News, Glenn emphasized that awareness became even more important to her once she realized exactly how many people experience mental illness. She stated, “When I became an advocate, I realized that is a family affair for one in four of us. One in four of us is touched in some way by mental illness. So, it became obvious to me that we have to talk about it.” Glenn Close brings to light an important subject – why don’t people talk about mental illness? There are a number of reasons:

Perhaps you’ve been feeling a lot of anxiety, guilt, and general hopelessness lately. One day it may have seemed like you suddenly lost interest in everything you used to enjoy – you no longer want to go out with friends, you stopped attending a special interest group and you have difficulty finding the motivation to even get out of bed every morning. These are all symptoms of depression; there is a lot that goes into depression, and it can truly cause a lot of distress in your daily life. No matter what you’re going through, it’s important for you to seek help. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), nearly 350 million people worldwide experience some form of depression. The symptoms of depression vary and may be chronic or short-lived, induced by specific events or something as simple as a change in the weather season. The following are the most common disorders associated with depression:

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is an evidence-based, time-sensitive, structured, present-oriented psychotherapy that assists clients in solving problems and developing skills to help modify dysfunctional ways of thinking and doing. CBT has been shown to treat a variety of disorders, including anxiety disorders, depression, addiction, sleep problems, chronic pain and fatigue, and more. If you’re considering seeking therapy, your therapist may choose to use CBT with you. Here are some facts that you may not have known about this popular, effective treatment method:

A mood is defined as a temporary state of mind or feeling. As an emotional state, a mood may be expressed as one of the following, for example: serious, humorous, amused, angry, playful, cheerful, gloomy, and more. Put simply, moods summarize what’s favorable or unfavorable to us, based on external and internal information. Some psychologists believe that our mood is based somewhat on a stress threshold – researcher Roy Baumeister, for example, believes that when we’ve used up all our willpower to avoid a temptation – such as eating fast food when we’re on a diet, for example – we become irritable because we’ve drained up all our cognitive resources. Consequently, a bad mood causes us to have tunnel vision, making it more difficult to see things more openly and creatively. On the opposite side, a good mood can open our minds to a world of possibilities. We all love being in a good mood, but what happens when we are in a bad mood? Can we easily change this? If there is no mood disorder present, there are a few things that we can do to help improve our mood:

Narcissism lies on a spectrum, with increased severity taking on the role of narcissistic personality disorder (NPD). A person diagnosed with this disorder will often exhibit a grandiose image of self-importance, a preoccupation with fantasies of unlimited success, power and more, a belief that he or she is uniquely “gifted” and can only be understood by high-status people, a sense of entitlement, a need for excessive admiration, and much more. An individual with NPD will often regard others as either high status (perfect, entitled) or low status (unworthy, defective). This can make friendships and romantic relationships difficult to maintain, because they often lack empathy and are very self-centered. If you have NPD, you may recognize some of the traits that you exhibit, but you fear discussing them with others because you do not want it to tarnish your image or status. Elinor Greenberg, PhD and internationally renowned Gestalt therapy trainer, has noted 5 things many of her clients with NPD have admitted to themselves, but not others:

Personality disorders are defined as a deeply ingrained and maladaptive pattern of behavior that is typically manifested by the time one reaches adolescence; they often cause long-term difficulties in relationships and other aspects of daily life. An estimated 9% of adults in the United States have a personality disorder. There are 10 specific types of personality disorders, and are identified based on the following:

Anxiety and panic attacks can affect anyone, including famous sports players. NBA star Kevin Love has recently opened about his own experiences with anxiety and panic attacks; on November 5th right after halftime, Love had his first panic attack. On The Player’s Tribune he stated that he physically couldn’t bring himself to finish the game because his heart was racing, his mouth felt “chalky”, and everything was spinning. It wasn’t until this incident that Love decided he needed to share his experience with others, because he realized just how important mental health discussions truly are. There’s no doubt that American society makes it more difficult for males to open about their mental health. Just last year, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) announced that men take up 76.92% of all deaths by suicide – this is the equivalent to almost four out of every five suicides. Many males are taught at an early age that they shouldn’t talk about their problems – that they should keep it in and get over their issues in silence. Kevin Love certainly lived his life by this mentality, and he believes it is what led him to the panic attack he experienced in that game against the Hawks. Previous research has shown that rather than men expressing their concerns through talking, signs of increased fatigue, irritability, anger, loss of interest in work or hobbies, and sleep disturbances may occur. Love expressed that after speaking with a therapist, he was able to dig deeper into the concerns that really bothered him – such as the fact that when his grandmother passed away, he couldn’t properly say goodbye and that sincerely bothered him. He went on to explain that he’s trying to better cope with life by addressing everything that comes with it to himself – sometimes our anxieties and fear creep in when we are no longer aware of how we feel. He stated, “I’m just starting to do the hard work of knowing myself. For 29 years, I avoided that…I’m trying to face the uncomfortable stuff in life while also enjoying, and being grateful for, the good stuff. I’m trying to embrace it all, the good, the bad, and the ugly.” We can’t escape pain in life. It will always occur in one way or another. What we can do is take control over how we manage that pain through seeking help, talking about it, and relying on people who love and support us. Don’t wait any longer to seek the help you need today.

According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), 15.1 million adults aged 18 or older had alcohol use disorder (AUD) in 2015. About 6.7% of these individuals sought treatment, leaving an extremely wide gap.  Alcoholism is known as a disease that causes cravings to drink, loss of control over drinking, physical dependence, and tolerance by needing to drink more to achieve the initial effect. People with alcoholism or alcohol use disorder experience significant distress in their daily lives, as their drinking has affected their work, home, and/or social life as well as potential health and finances. Many people who drink heavily believe they can “cut down” or “lessen” their drinking whenever they want – is this true? Essentially, it all leads down to dependence. A study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that most Americans who drink more than one or two drinks a day do not have alcoholism because their bodies would show signs of dependence. Physical dependence occurs when the body experiences withdrawal symptoms – such as anxiety, shaky hands, headaches, nausea, vomiting, sweating, and insomnia – that are very unpleasant. Other signs of dependence include worrying about when the next drink will be, planning events around alcohol, finding it difficult to stop drinking once you start, and feeling the need to drink in the morning. In other words, if a person does not have alcoholism, they may be able to have enough control to slow down. However, many people with alcoholism will say they can “quit anytime” as an excuse to continue drinking – this is due to changes in the brain that the addiction has caused. If you have not yet developed alcoholism but have been abusing alcohol, consider keeping a journal and tracker of your drinking habits, setting a goal of when, where, and how much you will allow yourself to drink without going overboard, getting rid of any alcohol in the house, drinking very slowly when you do drink, being mindful of peer pressure, guarding yourself against temptations to drink, and more. If you or a loved one has alcoholism, treatment is the only option to ensure the right measures are being taken to move towards sobriety.

Nearly 350 million people worldwide experience depression. If you have been struggling with this, it may feel as though your world is caving in – being in a relationship can make this even more challenging, as your significant other may not be aware of what to say or do to help you feel better. A study conducted by researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne interviewed 135 couples of which either one or both partners had a history of depression. The ages of couples ranged from 20 to 83 years old, with couples’ history in length from 6 months to 49 years total. The couples shared the hardships their relationship has endured with depression involved. Here are some themes from what they said: