According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), an estimated 40% to 50% of people experience adversity during childhood, which can increase the risk for physical and emotional challenges when they grow up. Studies show that parents who faced difficult situations in their childhood may pass on some of those risks to their children.… Continue reading Maternal Mental Health And Its Effect on Children
Tag: anxiety
Easier Ways to Get Mental Health Help
Taking good care of your mental health is an important health priority, especially during stressful times such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The National Institutes of Health has resources on their website that may help, including fact sheets on stress, depression, and anxiety. You can also find helpful brochures and fact sheets on the National Institute… Continue reading Easier Ways to Get Mental Health Help
Do You Need A Therapist During These Troubling Times?
COVID, recession, unemployment, race riots, and an upcoming election — 2020 has set out to stress even the most stable minded among us. Even those full of optimism cannot help but become depressed or anxious during one or more of these circumstances and need help beyond what a trusted friend or loved one can provide.… Continue reading Do You Need A Therapist During These Troubling Times?
Stuck in the Anxiety and Fear of Coronavirus? 4 Things to Help You Snap Out of It
If you’re feeling anxiety and fear about the coronavirus, you’re not alone. The crisis has shifted our lives and pulled the rug out from under our feet in all sorts of ways. Anxiety and fear are natural reactions to sudden disruption, isolation and the immense uncertainty that all of us are facing now. It’s understandable… Continue reading Stuck in the Anxiety and Fear of Coronavirus? 4 Things to Help You Snap Out of It
Six Tips for Dealing with Panic Attacks
A panic attack is a sudden, intense episode of fear or dread accompanied by physical symptoms such as pounding heart, sweating, trembling or shaking, lightheadedness, feeling faint, shortness of breath, choking sensations, nausea, abdominal distress, chest pain, cold and hot chills, numbness and tingling, feelings of being detached or things seeming unreal. Individuals with panic… Continue reading Six Tips for Dealing with Panic Attacks
Coronavirus: How Adults Can Help Children Navigate the Anxiety
As Americans adapt almost minute-by-minute to keep up with evolving information regarding the coronavirus, we must pay careful attention to our families. To keep children as anxiety-free as possible, adults must practice and demonstrate self-management and self-awareness of their own anxiousness and be conscious of how this may be unintentionally transferred to children. Daily self-reflection… Continue reading Coronavirus: How Adults Can Help Children Navigate the Anxiety
Some Medicines and Driving Don’t Mix
If you’re taking a medication, is it safe to drive? Most likely, yes. Still, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advises you to make sure before operating any type of vehicle, whether a car, bus, train, plane, or boat. Although most medications won’t affect your ability to drive, some prescription and nonprescription medicines can… Continue reading Some Medicines and Driving Don’t Mix
Three Steps to Act with Purpose in the Midst of Struggle
We all struggle. It doesn’t matter who you are, how much money you have, or how good you look to the outside world. Life is hard—even painful sometimes. As a clinical psychologist in private practice, much of my work is helping people address internal struggles: anxiety, chronic worrying, depressed moods, and destructive patterns of behavior.… Continue reading Three Steps to Act with Purpose in the Midst of Struggle
7 Ways to Dial Back Stress for a Fresh Start in 2019
Stress is linked to disorders and diseases including anxiety, depression, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease. A major cause is unresolved “trapped” emotions such as sadness, anger, and grief from difficult and traumatic experiences. Most of the time we don’t recognize the connection that current experiences have with old traumas. But if you’ve ever found yourself emotionally… Continue reading 7 Ways to Dial Back Stress for a Fresh Start in 2019
What You Need to Know About Caffeine
How much caffeine are you consuming? Some of us have just one wake-up cup of coffee per day. Others follow their morning cup with a cola or two and some more coffee throughout the day. What’s safe? The word from the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA): Caffeine can be part of a healthy diet… Continue reading What You Need to Know About Caffeine
Confronting The Side Effects of A Common Anti-Cancer Treatment
A new treatment approach is needed to deal with the side effects of aromatase inhibitors, drugs that are commonly given to men and women to stop the recurrence of estrogen-positive breast cancer, researchers say. The therapy, though effective, has been linked with hot flashes, memory lapses, anxiety and depression. Sometimes the effects have been so… Continue reading Confronting The Side Effects of A Common Anti-Cancer Treatment
Looking on the Bright Side May Reduce Anxiety, Especially When Money Is Tight
Editor’s note: As Monty Python taught us in Spamalot, “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life“. Trying to find something good in a bad situation appears to be particularly effective in reducing anxiety the less money a person makes, possibly because people with low incomes have less control over their environment, according to research… Continue reading Looking on the Bright Side May Reduce Anxiety, Especially When Money Is Tight
How Our Brains and Personalities Protect Against Emotional Distress
Researchers at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois recently examined a sample of 85 healthy college students to see how a number of personality traits can protect an individual’s brain against symptoms of emotional distress, namely depression and anxiety. A release from the institute quotes Matt Moore, a… Continue reading How Our Brains and Personalities Protect Against Emotional Distress
Anxiety, Depression May Increase Heart Attack and Stroke Risk in People Over 45
Adults ages 45 or older who experience psychological distress such as depression and anxiety may have an increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease, according to new research in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, an American Heart Association journal. In a study of 221,677 participants from Australia, researchers found that: among women, high/very high psychological distress… Continue reading Anxiety, Depression May Increase Heart Attack and Stroke Risk in People Over 45
Peace of Mind = Sweet Dreams
What do dreams have to do with our state of mind? According to a news release from the University of Turku in Finland, it has “long been assumed that the content of dreams can tell us something about the person’s well-being.” But, the investigators said, so far “dream researchers” have paid more attention to the… Continue reading Peace of Mind = Sweet Dreams
The Heritability of Anxiety
Individual differences in the connectivity between regions of the brain involved in fear and anxiety are heritable, according to a large study of hundreds of related monkeys published in July 2018 n JNeurosci. The research provides new insights into the risk and development of anxiety disorders. A release from the Society of Neuroscience explains that… Continue reading The Heritability of Anxiety
A New Way to Deal with The Body Image Blues
Researchers know a lot about what makes a woman’s body image worse, but there are few proven methods of changing that attitude. Now, though, researchers have come up with a method that appears to work better than verbal affirmations: giving women writing exercises to address their own body. The issue of negative body image is… Continue reading A New Way to Deal with The Body Image Blues
Tips to Get Through a Panic Attack
Suddenly overcome by fear, trembling, sweating, head pounding; heart racing? Don’t panic! Relax – and breathe. A focus on slow, deep breathing can help you get through a panic attack. My comments follow research reported in the April 2018 edition of Psychophysiology by Trinity College Dublin, demonstrating a direct, neurophysiological link between respiration and the brain. The… Continue reading Tips to Get Through a Panic Attack