Have you ever known a friend or family member to struggle with sadness they couldn’t seem to shake? Maybe you’ve struggled that way and wondered if what you were feeling was just sadness or if you were wrestling with depression symptoms. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, depression affected nearly 5% of the US adult population in …
Addiction to drugs or alcohol often starts with recreational use that becomes more and more frequent until users don’t want to be without their drug of choice. Watching a loved one sink into addiction is a painful process, and the emotions that accompany the journey can feel like a roller coaster ride. A loved one’s addiction is not something you …
Mental illness is getting a lot more media coverage as of late. A quick online search brings up stories about a Colorado representative fighting against the stigma of mental illness, a New Jersey school providing more mental health therapy resources for its students, and the latest Centers for Disease Control (CDC) report on the state of teenagers’ mental health in …
Jacob and Hannah’s first son looked as healthy as any baby boy, but when he started growing, the new parents noticed he didn’t respond every time they called him. And he played with the sit-to-stand walker for hours…ignoring them when it was time for dinner or bed. They decided to have him evaluated, and when the diagnosis came back, it …
Car accidents. Hurricanes. Tornadoes. Things that are out of our control take us by surprise, leaving us shell-shocked for days, weeks, or longer. These traumatic events and others like them cause significant stress and stir up feelings of helplessness, fear, and prolonged anxiety. In the early 1990s, experts labeled those reactions “acute stress disorder” and put a time frame on …
Mindfulness seems to have sprung out of nowhere to become hugely popular overnight. But it’s been around since the late 1970s, and people have been practicing it in some form for thousands of years. Its beneficial effects on mind and body have been noted all over the world. So, what is the magic of mindfulness? How can it help you? …
To be human is to experience loss. At some point in your life, you will lose someone you love, or something that means a great deal to you. And you will experience grief. How long or how intensely you grieve depends on a number of factors. Everyone’s journey is unique. But when grief goes on too long, preventing you from …
The pandemic. Social unrest, natural disasters, war. You don’t have to look very far to see traumatic events that affect large numbers of people. More personal crises include divorce, death, abuse, violence, sexual assault and accidents. A traumatic event is any experience frightening, shocking or dangerous enough to affect someone physically and emotionally, whether they are part of the event …
You head to the airport, and as you get in line to check your luggage, you wonder if you turned off the stove. This happens to everyone at times. But for people with obsessive-compulsive disorder, or OCD, it can happen every time they leave the house. They may double back to check stoves and light switches again and again, even …
You’re scheduled to speak in front of a group, and you get increasingly tense before the big day. Are you just nervous, or do you have anxiety disorder? You’ve been feeling down for a solid week—do you have true depression, or are you simply feeling blue? We all encounter challenges that affect our moods. Sometimes it’s difficult to tell when …
