Is Your Brain Tired? You May Be Mentally Fatigued
It seems like everyone I talk to lately is tired, and not because they’re suddenly more active or more productive than usual. In fact, most of them can’t tell you exactly why they’re so tired, they just are. This isn’t to say people aren’t busy, they are — just in new and taxing ways. But these new kinds of busyness and the “new normal” brought on by the coronavirus is causing many of us to feel mentally fatigued.
Mental fatigue is something that occurs when your brain goes into overdrive. You can’t stop thinking, worrying, anticipating, planning, etc., and this constant parade of changing thoughts c...
Source: World of Psychology - August 28, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Kurt Smith, Psy.D., LMFT, LPCC, AFC Tags: Anxiety and Panic Self-Help Sleep brain fog Coping Skills coronavirus Mental Exhaustion Mental Fatigue Prolonged Stress Rumination Worry Source Type: blogs
Learning from Your Regrets
Is there anybody in this world who has not regretted a decision they’ve made or a path they’ve taken? I doubt it. Yet, how people respond to their regrets varies considerably.
Some people easily shrug off their regrets; no problem!
Others review their regrets, seek to make amends, resolve to do better next time.
Still others are riddled with regret, ruminating over and over again about what they should have done differently.
What do you do most often?
As you may have guessed, the best way to deal with regrets is to acknowledge what you did wrong or didn’t do well, then learn from the experience. This is bes...
Source: World of Psychology - August 27, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Linda Sapadin, Ph.D Tags: Self-Help regret Source Type: blogs
Parenting the Highly Sensitive Child
A friend of mine was telling me about how she discovered she may be a Highly Sensitive Person. Through our discussion of what this means, she pointed out that my oldest child may be highly sensitive, which changes the ever evolving lens through which I parent him.
Parents are inundated with messages about the best way to raise their children. What I have found to be true in real life is that what works one day may not the next day. Children are growing through many different stages at a staggering pace and so the best advice I can give parents is just to get to know their child, maintain an open and affectionate bond, a...
Source: World of Psychology - August 27, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Bonnie McClure Tags: Children and Teens Parenting Emotional Regulation Highly sensitive kids Highly Sensitive Person Source Type: blogs
Podcast: Does Law Enforcement Need Mental Health Care?
Today’s show takes a good hard look at police culture as a whole. What type of personality is drawn to a career in law enforcement? What are officers taught in the academy? Why do they receive so little mental health care when they face so much trauma on the job? These are just a few of the areas that our guest, mental health advocate Gabriel Nathan, lays bare.
Join us as we discuss the basic foundations of law enforcement and how Gabriel believes the profession needs to evolve to keep up with the times.
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Source: World of Psychology - August 27, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: The Psych Central Podcast Tags: General Interview Mental Health and Wellness Podcast Policy and Advocacy The Psych Central Show Source Type: blogs
The Fallacy of Positive and Negative Emotions
For too long, Western psychology has explored psychopathology without much inclusion of the positive aspects of being human, which may leave us with a bleak or stern view of psychology. Fortunately, being interested in wellness, personal growth, and positive psychology is a growing trend.
In an attempt to explain things simply, there is often a distinction made between positive and negative emotions. Positive emotions are considered to be pleasant feelings such as joy, pleasure, love, gratitude, or contentment. Negative emotions may include anxiety, anger, sadness, loneliness, fear, or other uncomfortable or undesirable fe...
Source: World of Psychology - August 26, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: John Amodeo, PhD Tags: General Happiness Mindfulness Psychology Self-Help Positive Psychology Source Type: blogs
How Can You Be Right and Wrong at the Same Time?
This has been a very divisive year for the United States. From how to handle the pandemic and political agendas to racial injustice and redefining our institutional principles, almost every topic that comes across your social media newsfeed or passes in conversation has two sides and you better know which one you are on.
More than the important and controversial issues our society faces, what I have been most disturbed by is the criticism and judgment passed from either side of any discussion. It seems an “Us versus Them” mentality has surfaced in the universal mind and we get quite busy looking for evidence that supp...
Source: World of Psychology - August 26, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Bonnie McClure Tags: Anger Books Communication coronavirus divisiveness Politics Source Type: blogs
5 Ways to Cope with Parenting Stress
The uncertainty in the world may be getting on your nerves, and the problem is that you are not the only one you need to worry about. Your children can also feel your stress and that can create stressed kids. If you and your children were struggling with anxiety before the pandemic, it has now probably heightened. Summer may have provided some respite, but new worries may be cropping up. What’s a parent to do when there are so many issues to worry about and no chance of knowing with certainty that your feared outcomes won’t come true?
Here are a few questions to help you gauge your current stress level:
Have you fou...
Source: World of Psychology - August 26, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Annabella Hagen, LCSW, RPT-S Tags: Agitation Parenting Self-Help Stress anxiety coronavirus Relaxation self-compassion stress reduction Worry Source Type: blogs
How My Husband ’s Chronic Depression Forever Changed Our Family — for the Better
I promise to choose you, in good times and in bad. Till death do us part. I was in my early twenties when I pledged those words to my husband. Like many young brides, I promised these things without having experienced a lot of life. Difficult times did come: a miscarriage, health scares, layoffs, losing two parents to long illnesses, and more. But we plowed through and came out on the other side stronger, proudly wearing our scars; living proof that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. It felt like there was nothing we couldn’t handle. We are bullet proof, he always says. Then, something happened that we could ...
Source: World of Psychology - August 25, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Christine Uniacke Tags: Depression Personal Source Type: blogs
What I Wish I Had Said about Mental Health and Suicide
Thirty years ago, the atmosphere surrounding mental health and suicide was very different than it is today, especially in some areas. Even today, where you live could affect the information, help, and reactions you receive. Since that time, I’ve learned a better way to respond when a loved one struggles.
If someone you care about changes in some way, something may be wrong. The difficulties go beyond available support. According to statistics, most people who ultimately end their lives are dealing with a mental illness or behavior disorder — whether they realize it or not — though this is not always true. Exc...
Source: World of Psychology - August 25, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Jan McDaniel Tags: Depression Personal Suicide Source Type: blogs
Podcast: Is Police (CIT) Crises Training Needed?
A mentally ill man is standing in your yard yelling at the mailbox. What do you do? You call the police, right? Not so fast, according to today’s guest, mental health advocate Gabriel Nathan. There is a better way to do things. Gabriel believes that rather than training police officers to de-escalate people in mental health crises, the police shouldn’t be called at all in these situations.
Our host Gabe has a different take on things, as he is an advocate for training police officers in crisis intervention practices. Join us for an enlightening and nuanced conversation regarding the role of the police when it comes to...
Source: World of Psychology - August 25, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Not Crazy Podcast Tags: General Interview Not Crazy Podcast Policy and Advocacy Source Type: blogs
Back to School and Cognitive Dissonance
The term cognitive dissonance means to have conflicting feelings, beliefs, or behaviors that cause internal discomfort. It can also describe the feeling of disappointment one feels when things do not go as anticipated. With schools across the country returning to their own personal version of a new academic year this month, students, teachers, staff, and parents collectively face the potential for repeatedly experiencing different forms of cognitive dissonance.
The rural Georgia county I reside in is fortunate to have a low number of local cases and our school system has returned in person, with the option to go online. ...
Source: World of Psychology - August 24, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Bonnie McClure Tags: Children and Teens College Parenting Students Back To School Cognitive Dissonance coronavirus COVID-19 online education virtual learning Source Type: blogs
Are There Potentially Positive Outcomes from COVID-19?
In dealing with COVID on a daily basis and continually bemoaning its effects on us as individuals and a society, we wistfully anticipate a return to “normal,” though arguably a normal that will be noticeably different than our past. What we miss is that it may be worth considering the potential positive impact of COVID.
One of the largest impacts may be felt in the mental health field. We know that COVID has increased the incidence and intensity of anxiety and depression.1 Clearly that burdens the current mental health care system. However, it also means that many more people are becoming aware of the realities of ment...
Source: World of Psychology - August 24, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Colleen Donnelly Tags: Anxiety and Panic Depression Stigma coronavirus COVID-19 social distancing teletherapy Source Type: blogs
5 Mindful Recovery Steps for Self-Observation
In early recovery, there is value in filling your space and time with meetings and various distractions to fill in the space that was once consumed with substances and addictive behaviors. There is also value, at some point, to create unfilled space for your presence and attention. Creating space to be present for your presence is a key to sustainable long-term recovery.
Creating Space vs Filling Space
The practice of mindfulness; being there, being present, paying attention, and learning to be there for yourself starts with the process of letting go. Letting go of substances and addictive behaviors is a great start. T...
Source: World of Psychology - August 23, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Laura C Meyer Tags: Addiction Mindfulness Recovery Alcoholism Substance Abuse Source Type: blogs
After the Fight — Repairing Your Relationship
Emotions run high during a fight. Yet sometime later, we may have forgotten what triggered our rage in the first place. We recall fighting, but what was it about anyway?
Lauren later remembered the details about a fight with her husband because she’d written about it in her journal. “Though I don’t like the word ‘fight,'” she said, “because we don’t hit or anything like that. But I was so furious it felt like a fight.”
The Fight
Lauren had told Jim a number of times not to interrupt her while she was praying. Praying was a sacred time for her, like meditation. Whatever he w...
Source: World of Psychology - August 23, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Marcia Naomi Berger, MSW, LCSW Tags: Relationships arguments Conflict Resolution Dating Source Type: blogs
How Mindfulness Can Reframe Body Image
Please note that this post discusses eating disorders.
Weight — the loss of it, the gain of it, the way our bodies fill out our clothes or take up space in public — is a concept that can completely occupy our thoughts. For some of us, obsessing about weight is a daily reality. The perfect size seems ever out of reach, and I don’t think there’s anyone out there who truly feels their body is the perfect size and shape.
I struggled with an eating disorder when I was in my teens. I never felt thin enough—even when my BMI was in the flashing-red-lights-get-this-girl-a-sandwich-before-she-passes-out range. As ...
Source: World of Psychology - August 22, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Psych Central Guest Author Tags: Eating Disorders Mindfulness Publishers Spirituality & Health Body Image Weight Source Type: blogs
