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A growing amount of research is suggesting that mood and happiness could be linked to your stomach. Your gut produces bacteria to break down food. Bacteria can either be good or bad. Nobody is in a good mood when their stomach is upset. The science is similar. When the gut microbiome is upset because of trying to process unhealthy foods, it puts the brain in a bad mood. Good bacteria, on the other hand, which makes the tummy happy, makes the brain happy as well. Foods rich in probiotics are often fermented foods like kimchi and sauerkraut. Probiotics can also be found in yogurt or food that has had probiotics put into it.

Honesty is being free of insincerity and deceit. Sometimes, when we think we are really being honest with others, we are not being sincere with ourselves. Other times, when we think we are being clear with ourselves, we are deceiving others. What we consider to be honesty might be an exaggeration, elaboration, or total evasion of the truth. We want to give others the honest truth but we don’t want to be honest with ourselves. Before we can be honest with others in order to stick up for ourselves, set a boundary, or define our needs and wants, we have to be honest with ourselves. Where are we coming from? What are we triggered by? What do we honestly need? Are we honestly aware of what we need or what we want? We have to first get a gauge on what is going on within us before we can start responding to what is going on outside of us.

Mental health disorders can be considered fatal. For example, anorexia nervosa is considered the “deadliest” mental health disorder. Substance use disorders are also considered deadly as they are relapsing and remitting diseases which include the use of chemical substances which can cause overdose death. Treatment for mental health disorders has to be effective in order to save lives. The question is not so much why is art therapy used by why isn’t it used more often? Any kind of therapy type that can reduce stress, provide release, offer a break from traditional therapy, and make the recovery/treatment process more enjoyable is a critical therapy to include in treatment programming. Art therapy is used in treatment because it is proven to have a positive effect on the mental well being of clients in a treatment program. Through the use of various media, meaning supplies, and structured activities, art therapy can help clients unlock what is beneath the surface and hidden away from words. Creating images, using colors, and navigating meditative art processes helps the brain release new information without having to verbally confront what might be difficult thoughts to process. In a different position than a primary therapist, an art therapist has a unique opportunity to guide the psyche of a client through the creative process of expression. Art therapy often lends primary therapists insight into what is coming up for the client, giving them more structure as to where to take their treatment. Art therapy is also a welcome break in the traditional therapy cycle. Group therapy and individual therapy sessions often include a lot of verbal talking, listening, and processing. Art therapy is a time to get quiet and engage in the creative process, often a much anticipated relief. During art therapy, the brain gets used in a different way, which doesn’t include so much processing and analyzing. Free to express through creativity, clients avoid developing ‘burnout’ on treatment, which can become detrimental to the treatment process as a whole.

When you have an entire world between your ears, constantly buzzing around, it is hard to find some silence. Silence is daunting. Stillness is frightening. Silent and still, you have to confront all of that noise swirling around your head. It makes you uncomfortable, but you’ve learned to live with it because that is the way that you are, that is the way that your brain is. As a result, you’re busy. You’re busy in the brain and you’re busy in the body. You keep yourself busy to keep yourself away from the silence. At some point, you aren’t sure which would be more insufferable, the silence or the business of your life. You aren’t alone in this struggle. Modern life is busy and most people are struggling to find time to sit still, in silence, because of both their busy lives and their busy minds. In times of being busy, they’re wishing they could sit still. In times of sitting still, they’re thinking about busy things. Silence and stillness are precious commodities. An increasing amount of research is indicating that you need time for silent stillness and still silence in order to fully thrive in life. Stress is a leading cause of disease and illness physically. Mentally, stress which is caused by unrelenting busy-ness can trigger mental illness symptoms causing them to become more severe. For example, in drug and alcohol use disorders, chronic stress without any pause for manageability, can cause cravings.

Cognitive behavioral therapy is rapidly becoming the “wonder therapy” of the treatment world. Mental disorders, physical disorders, even social disorders are being helped by regular cognitive behavioral therapy. The therapy method is so effective that programmers have “taught” AI “bots” to teach CBT to people through their Facebook messengers. Teletherapy programs have adopted CBT methods. Studies ranging from depression and anxiety to chronic pain, irritable bowel syndrome, and other medical conditions have focused on the efficacy of cognitive behavioral therapy. In studies across the board, cognitive behavioral therapy is proven to be effective and efficient in helping people find relief as well as wellness in their lives. Only one other therapy method has been proven to be as effective as cognitive behavioral therapy. A recent study found that group mindfulness practices might be as effective as individual therapy. However, the one study’s findings pale in comparison to the countless studies which have been done on cognitive behavioral therapy.

Discussions of anxiety and depression often go hand in hand. For example, symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder can include depression and anxiety. Bipolar disorder is characterized by alternating moods of depression, a bipolar-specific depression, and mania, which can include anxiety. Withdrawal from drugs and alcohol can include symptoms of both depression and anxiety. Signs and symptoms of any mental health disorder usually includes talks of either depression or anxiety, or both. Even more complicated is the fact that anxiety can be a symptom of depression and however closely related or closely discussed anxiety and depression might be, they are two completely different mental health disorders, symptomatic experiences, and diagnoses.

It can be difficult to understand addictions outside of the scope of chemical addictions. Chemical addictions are easier to understand in some ways. Though chemical addictions don’t always make sense, they can at least be attributed to a specific chemical as opposed to something that might make less sense, like shopping. Is it really possible to get addicted to something that isn’t a chemical substance? Currently, the only process addiction listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual V is gambling disorder. However, that doesn’t delegitimize the very real experience that people have in their other process addictions, like sex addiction, love addiction, and even shopping addiction. Addiction is a word that helps put these disordered behaviors into an order we can understand. As a term, addiction can be defined as the “compulsive need for and use of a habit-forming substance...characterized by tolerance and by well-defined physiological symptoms upon withdrawal.” Addiction is also defined as a “persistent compulsive use of a substance known by the user to be harmful.” Should shopping addiction be considered harmful or something that could present physiological symptoms? People who develop process addictions, do experience physiological symptoms of withdrawal. They might experience insomnia, an inability to sleep, because their thoughts are racing with obsessions about shopping, for example. When they are near a shopping opportunity at a favorite store they might feel a racing heartbeat, shaking, sweating, or even feelings of nausea- all attempts on the part of the brain to get the body so uncomfortable, it has to act on the shopping urges. This is what makes shopping addiction compulsive, which identifies with the definition of addiction. Shopping addiction can be harmful. Will it cause an overdose or potentially injure someone else? Not physically. The sentiment “shop till you drop” is not exactly the reality for shopping addicts. Someone who compulsively shops beyond eating and sleeping would be the most extreme form of the addiction- spending waking hours in stores and sleeping hours online shopping, without eating or sleeping. Most often, the known harmful threat of shopping addiction takes place in the bank. Creditors mount, credit cards max, loans max out, and there’s looming financial insecurity deepening with every purchase. Despite the financial trouble, someone addicted to shopping continues to shop and spend, unable to help themselves.

So much of mental illness in all of its forms relies on self-hatred and self-loathing. The brain is hardwired to notice and cling to negativity first, over positivity, which is why it takes so much mental training to practice positivity. Shame, guilt, trauma, self-deprecation, and self-harm are ways that everyone gets down on themselves, holding themselves in contempt for being a flawed human being. Those who are living with mental health disorders and substance use disorders often take this eroding behavior to the extreme. When confronted with the question of how they think of themselves, they are often surprised by the answer: not very highly. Low self-esteem and self-worth are the foundation upon which we build a foundation of ourselves in acceptance and and self-love. Acceptance is the way we receive ourselves fully, allowing for ourselves to be who are we are in every way that we are- mental illness included. Once we start moving into self-acceptance we are recognizing that who we are as we are is correct. There is nothing wrong or mistaken about us. We are unique, just as everyone is unique and we are accepted, just as we are learning to accept everyone. We accept rather than except. We stop telling ourselves we are an exception to the rule of acceptance. These are 3 signs that you are starting to accept yourself:

Addiction and alcoholism aren’t always the fully developed experience of chemical dependency. There are different stages of addiction in all of its forms. Most often, people ask whether an addiction is really an eating disorder because they don’t want to admit that they have any kind of problem. Unfortunately, this is how many fully developed addictions fully develop-denial and comparison. Someone denies that they have a problem and compares themselves to what they believe to be the real definition of addiction. Since they don’t meet the level of addiction they believe to be truly problematic, they don’t consider their problem to be truly problematic. Any kind of compulsive problem is a problem and can quickly develop into a bigger problem. For example, with gambling. Gambling addiction can be considered in three different levels: compulsive, binge, and problem gambling. Each phase of gambling addiction poses a unique threat to the person experiencing it. It is easy to move up in the ranks of gambling addiction but almost impossible to move back down without abstaining from gambling entirely and entering recovery.

For most people who go to treatment for alcohol use disorder, their drinking wasn’t restricted to the weekend anymore. Still, when the weekend rolls around, there can be triggers for drinking as millions of other people do so. Weekends can still be fun, safe, and healthy. Here are three ideas:

Food addiction recovery is hard to understand. Someone is out of control, completely unable to manage and regulate their consumption of food. When someone is addicted to drugs and alcohol, there is talk of abstinence in their recovery. An addict or alcoholic has a unique inability to manage and control their drinking or drug use after the first drink or use of the drug. For their recovery it is suggested they abstain from drugs and alcohol in order to avoid that first drink or drug. What about food addiction? Food addicts cannot abstain from food. Food is vital for survival, physically and psychologically. For food addicts, their temptations don’t lie only in special places or obscure street corners. Food is everywhere. Restaurants, grocery stores, gas stations- the temptations to eat and overeat and abuse the body with food is everywhere. It isn’t so black and white. Alcoholics don’t avoid everything to be drank. After all, water is necessary to survive and it's arguable that humans are addicted to water. However, alcoholics have to choose not to drink alcohol or any beverage that would trigger their cravings for alcohol. Likewise, food addicts don’t avoid all food at the risk of relapse because that would be irrational. According to Food Addicts Anonymous, abstinence is defined through a series of dietary choices and behaviors. For example the FA program includes weighing and measuring portions in a specific way which is explained in their dietary guidelines. Like most healthy eating programs, FA suggest square meals a day, though no food in between. Most importantly, the FA guidelines suggest avoiding trigger foods like flours, sugars, and binge foods. Sugar is highly addicting and most simple carbohydrates that include flours include a lot of sugar- but carbohydrates are sugars. Binge foods are different for everyone, but can often include things that munch and crunch, snacks in bags, and food that food addicts find it difficult to stop eating. Recognizing that their addiction to food can be likened to drugs and alcohol, people in recovery from food addiction adopt a recovery lifestyle which includes abstinence, treatment, therapy, and often 12 step participation. In time, they learn about what triggers their food addiction, relapse prevention techniques, and healthy living lifestyles for long term recovery.

Social media has created a culture of voyeurism where we spend hours of our time examining the online lives of other people, wondering about their real lives on the other side of the screen. In the meantime, you are spending your real life on the other side of the screen, looking at the screen.