Depressed and Worried About Finances? How to Become More Financially Savvy
No one starts off in life wanting to worry about money. In fact, most of us dream of achieving wonderful things, including the ability to buy what we want, when we want it. It’s only after a series of disappointments — some call them hard knocks — that we come to the realization that money only goes so far. If we fail to learn the lessons of budgeting and saving, we’re destined to keep running into financial problems. This can lead to many a sleepless night, accompanied by worry and depression about finances. Finding a path from what I’ll call financial illiteracy to being more financially savvy may not b...
Source: Psych Central - December 16, 2017 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Suzanne Kane Tags: Anxiety Depression Money and Financial finances Financial Burdens money problems spending Source Type: news
I ’m OK (sort of): The Unpredictability of OCD
When people ask me how I’m doing, I say that I’m doing ok. And sometimes I really am. The problem is that when you’re someone like me, someone who lives with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), you’re basically ok until suddenly you’re not.
Let me explain.
OCD is unpredictable. It’s that schoolyard bully that sneaks up behind you to pull your pigtails just when you found a spot in the shade to sit and read your book peacefully. It’s the unpredictable storm, the one that you think has passed, only to be followed by scattered thunderstorms an hour later. It’s the questions of what if, and maybe, and how do ...
Source: Psych Central - December 14, 2017 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Rebecca Cushman Tags: Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Personal Stories Psychology Students Treatment college coping obsessions. compulsions Ocd support worry Source Type: news
How NOT to Argue with Your Kids About Marijuana
Excerpted from A Parent’s Guide to Teen Addiction: Professional Advice on Signs, Symptoms, What to Say, and How to Help (Skyhorse Publishing) by Laurence M. Westreich, M.D.
Marijuana, the illegal drug most commonly used by teenagers, is widely accepted as harmless, but is it? Its effects range from the trivial — silliness, bloodshot eyes, etc. — all the way to catastrophic — paranoia, depression, and more. Many teenagers and parents don’t realize that although not as potent, it’s a hallucinogen similar to LSD and Ecstasy. Marijuana and the other hallucinogens can cause serious problems for teena...
Source: Psych Central - December 11, 2017 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Laurence M. Westreich, M.D. Tags: Addictions Children and Teens Parenting Substance Abuse cannabis Communication Marijuana marijuana abuse recovery Teen Addiction Teen Substance Abuse Source Type: news
ADHD and Adults: How to Use Your Strengths to Succeed
ADHD coach Aaron D. Smith regularly works with clients who believe something is inherently wrong with them. After all, for years, they’ve been criticized, ridiculed and reprimanded—maybe by their parents or teachers or other authority figures, he said. For years, clinicians and doctors have hyper-focused on the problems of ADHD. They viewed ADHD from a deficit-based model, versus seeing positive traits or strengths.
People with ADHD feel like ‘they are the problem’ not their behaviors.” They feel inadequate. They feel shame and self-doubt. This is especially true for people who were diagnosed as adults, Smith sai...
Source: Psych Central - December 10, 2017 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Margarita Tartakovsky, M.S. Tags: Attention Deficit Disorder Creativity Disorders General Motivation and Inspiration Self-Esteem Self-Help Stress Students Work Issues Adhd ADHD and success harnessing strengths School Source Type: news
Book Review: The Conscious Caregiver
Caregiving has received increased attention in recent years, and with good reason. With a reported 10,000 people turning 65 each day, there are more seniors who are living longer, often with frailties and illness.
While the number of assisted, nursing, and independent living facilities may be increasing to meet the demand, many seniors prefer to and are able to stay longer in their homes or other residences. But this often eventually requires some level of caregiving and can place increased stress on the caregivers.
Not everyone is so fortunate to have a family member, neighbor, or friend who can commit to serving in a car...
Source: Psych Central - December 7, 2017 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Dave Schultz Tags: Aging Alzheimer's Book Reviews Caregivers Family Mindfulness Parkinson's Self-Help Seniors caregiver stress caregiving help coping as a caregiver volunteer caregiving Source Type: news
Book Review: The Ethics of Caring
Caring is a universal force that compels healers all of kinds, from therapists to bodyworkers. Yet, as much as we are all drawn to the desire to help, really helping someone depends not just on desire, but on truly understanding the ethics of caring.
In her new book, The Ethics of Caring: Finding Professional Right Relationship with Clients for Practicing Professionals, Students, Teachers & Mentors, Kylea Taylor illuminates just what is necessary to offer an authentic relationship where genuine transformation can occur, and to utilize the tremendous power of shared energy — felt in transference and counter-transf...
Source: Psych Central - December 5, 2017 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Claire Nana Tags: Book Reviews Professional Psychology Psychotherapy PTSD Trauma Treatment ethical principles ethics of caring mentor relationship practicing ethics Therapeutic Relationship Source Type: news
Book Review: Another Kind of Madness
“There are times that I wish I had cancer.”
It is difficult to imagine that anyone would wish for cancer. But through the eyes of someone diagnosed with a mental illness, this statement may make more sense. The cultural perception that cancer is a “real” illness and mental health challenges are weaknesses or character flaws is just one example of why efforts to reduce stigma are needed.
In Another Kind of Madness, Stephen Hinshaw shares his story of growing up with the unexplained absences of his father. It wasn’t until his father shared information about his bipolar diagnosis while Hinshaw was in college that he...
Source: Psych Central - November 30, 2017 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Tina Arnoldi Tags: Book Reviews Disorders Family General Personal Stories another kind of madness Memoir Mental Illness Stigma Source Type: news
Book Review: Tough-To-Treat Anxiety
Anxiety is one of the most common problems people face today, and yet, it is often complicated with other co-existing conditions, such as obsessive compulsive disorder, autism, and depression. Comorbidity can make treatment challenging, even for clinicians who specialize in anxiety.
In her new book, Tough-To-Treat Anxiety: Hidden Problems & Effective Solutions For Your Clients, licensed clinical psychologist Margaret Wehrenberg breaks down anxiety into its most common presentations, offering a host of treatment methods that work in the moment, and resist remission for years to come.
“Unremitting anxiety may be one th...
Source: Psych Central - November 30, 2017 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Claire Nana Tags: Anxiety Book Reviews Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Treatment anxiety treatment difficult anxiety overwhelming anxiety tough to treat anxiety Source Type: news
10 Ways to Survive (and Thrive) as a Military Spouse with Anxiety
This article will help you wrangle this beast and start to tame it.
1. Make connections early.
Try to find friends in the area. This can be in person with people in your spouse’s unit or in the Family-Readiness Group (FRG) as well as online. There are many online groups that are for spouses all over the world and specific to certain bases. Join a few and see who you meet. I’ve seen a lot of posts that basically say, “Hey I just moved to Fort such-and-such and I’m looking to find some new friends. Here’s a little about me…” After being a spouse for a while, the concept of having to start over and meet new peop...
Source: Psych Central - November 29, 2017 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Stephanie L. Taylor Tags: Anxiety Family Self-Help Stress Women's Issues Military Families moving often new in town Perfectionism Source Type: news
An Open Letter to Any Child Who Lost a Parent to Suicide
You will spend countless hours, days, and years asking why. Why you weren’t enough of a reason for them to stay and fight. Why they were able to end things knowing it would so badly hurt their children and family. Why they chose to abandon their pain… and drop it square into your hands. Why your love wasn’t able to tether them in their storm. Why they didn’t do something, anything, else to save them from their demons. There will be times that you feel you will drown in all of the unanswered questions.
You will face judgment. Your loss will be trivialized by people who make cruel, blanket statements about those who ...
Source: Psych Central - November 28, 2017 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Jessie Monreal, CADC Tags: Depression Editorials Essays Family Motivation and Inspiration Parenting Psychology Suicide Coping With Grief Death Of A Parent grieving loss Orphans Source Type: news
C-PTSD and Interpersonal Relationships
As I have discussed in other articles, Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD) is a unique condition that is the result of suffering a series of traumatic incidents over a long period of time at the hands of someone the victim has a dependent relationship with, usually a parent or other primary caregiver. C-PTSD shares many features of the better known PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) which is the result of a small number of impersonal traumas, such as car accidents. However, it also has many unique features, which give it a dual nature, in some ways more similar to some personality disorders, or other disorde...
Source: Psych Central - November 26, 2017 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Fabiana Franco, Ph.D. Tags: Abuse Anxiety Depression Dissociation Personality Psychology Psychotherapy PTSD Relationships & Love C-PTSD complex post-traumatic stress disorder complex trauma Dating Intimacy Marriage Traumatic Experience Source Type: news
6 Questions You MUST Ask Before Checking into Rehab: An Interview with VH1 Addiction Counselor Bob Forrest
The gentleman on the other end of the telephone line has seen the best and worst of humanity and has soared and stumbled, struggled and survived. He emerged from the throes of addiction to claim a new identity; Rehab Bob.
According to his website, “Bob Forrest lived a drug-fueled life in the L.A. indie rock scene of the ’80s and ’90s as the frontman for Thelonious Monster. He was known as one of the worst junkies in Hollywood at the time. But after 24 stints in rehab, he finally got sober in 1996. Since then he has dedicated his life to becoming a drug counselor who specializes in reaching the unreachable. He...
Source: Psych Central - November 24, 2017 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Edie Weinstein, MSW, LSW Tags: Addictions Interview Substance Abuse Treatment Addiction Recovery Alcoholism Celebrity Rehab Drug rehabilitation opiate addiction opioid crisis Source Type: news
5 Pieces of Damaging Advice for Treating Depression
There’s plenty of advice on treating depression. There are thousands of books, blog posts and magazine articles. Everyone seems to have an opinion. Try this herb or vitamin. Avoid sugar. Be grateful. Be more grateful. You just need some fresh air. Go to therapy. Don’t go to therapy—it’s a waste of time and money.
Of course, some advice is sincerely spot-on. Some advice seems helpful, but misses the mark for people struggling with clinical depression. And some of it is just plain bad. Which is why we asked psychologists who specialize in depression to share the damaging advice they’ve come across—which you’ll...
Source: Psych Central - November 23, 2017 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Margarita Tartakovsky, M.S. Tags: Depression Disorders Family General Psychotherapy Relationships & Love Self-Help behavioral activation therapy Clinical Depression depression advice Depression Treatment giving advice Intensive short-term dynamic psychotherapy lo Source Type: news
Navigating Graduate School with a Mental Illness
Psychologist Deborah Serani, Psy.D, was working with a young man who was struggling with a severe bout of social anxiety and chronic depression during his first trimester of grad school. Interacting with his classmates and giving presentations were excruciating. He considered dropping out.
This is understandable. Grad school is hard enough. When you have a mental illness, it can feel impossible.
Thankfully, it’s not.
Below, three psychologists shared their suggestions for success.
Learn about your mental illness. Working with a therapist can help you better understand your condition and yourself. What’s also helpful is...
Source: Psych Central - November 16, 2017 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Margarita Tartakovsky, M.S. Tags: Disorders General Self-Help Stress Students grad students Graduate School Graduate Students Mental Health Mental Illness Self Care self-compassion success Source Type: news
The Controversy in Treating Partners of Sex Addicts
In “From Victimhood to Victorhood” (published in the May/June 2015 issue of The Therapist), Alex Katehakis writes that a “major shift has occurred in treating partners of sex addicts”. The shift she describes is towards the Relational Trauma (RT) Model, in which practitioners emphasize that partners’ relational bonds are damaged by betrayal, as precipitated by the discovery of sexual acting out — not a historical and ongoing pattern of destructive or self-defeating behavior by non-acting out partners, as implied by the so-called co-addict model, previously espoused by writers like Stephanie Carnes and Claud...
Source: Psych Central - November 15, 2017 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Graeme Daniels, MFT Tags: Addictions Psychotherapy PTSD Relationships & Love Sexuality Substance Abuse Trauma Addiction Recovery co-addict model co-addiction Codependency Enabling Hypervigilance Impulsive Behavior Infidelity love addiction lying r Source Type: news
