Be Optimistic!

By Jill MacDonald, MA, LPC

Dare to allow yourself to think the best. Hope for the best. See the best in yourself and others. Dream. Care. Love. Believe. This type of thinking is good for everyone. Of course, you might challenge me and say: I will hurt so much more if I am optimistic and “it” does not happen...

Remarkable Resiliency Skills for the Uncertain Times: Part 3

By Jack N. Singer, Ph.D.

Events in your life do not directly cause stress, or any other emotion, attitude or mood, for that matter. The emotion or attitude that results from an event is strictly caused by what you say to yourself about that event--your internal dialogue.

Procrastination

By Stanley E. Hibbs, Ph.D.

Imagine how good your life would be if you did everything you needed to do in a timely and efficient manner. You would have a lot less stress. You would enjoy better health. You might even make more money. Unfortunately, most of us find it much too easy to put things off.

Chill Out or Burn Out

By Sherry Persky, CSW

Many of my clients complain about the great difficulty of managing their careers, parenting, and family responsibilities simultaneously. The daily juggling act of “multi-tasking” is easier said that done. One of the most common mistakes people make is trying to accomplish too many things in one day.

Living With Intention: Lessons From Nature

By Meghan Vivo

The alarm goes off, and another day begins. You hop out of bed, get ready for work or school, fulfill your daily responsibilities, eat dinner, complete your nightly ritual, and go to bed. But did you once stop to listen to your breathing, to truly hear what another person was saying, or to take in the scenery?

Remarkable Resiliency Skills for the Uncertain Times: Adding Life to Your Years and Years to Your Life--Part 4

By Jack N. Singer, Ph.D.

When you view unfortunate events in your life as temporary, you can continually ward off the stress of life events. More importantly, an optimistic interpretation of events has been shown to lead to remission of disease and the generation of T-cells, which are critical components of our immune systems.

Remarkable Resiliency Skills for the Uncertain Times: Part 1

By Jack N. Singer, Ph.D.

"Stress" is such an overused term, yet in our competitive and impatient culture, examples of stress are with us constantly. Hundreds of billions of dollars are spent annually for stress-related medical insurance claims, workers compensation benefits, reduced productivity, poor product quality, spillover into marital and family problems, and even drug and alcohol abuse, which is often a desperate attempt at coping with stress.

Turning to the Use (and Abuse) of Drugs, Alcohol and/or Tobacco in Times of Stress...

Stressful events can have a direct affect on the use of alcohol or other drugs. Stress is a major contributor to the initiation and continuation of addiction to alcohol or other drugs, as well as to relapse or a return to drug use after periods of abstinence.

Stress and Depression

When it comes to stress, some people experience prolonged emotional, behavioral, and hormonal responses that eventually lead to depression. A form of counseling called cognitive therapy, in which an individual learns to temper their very personal responses to stress, can provide significant help.

Emotional Eating Can Sabotage Even Your Best Dieting Efforts

Typically triggered by stress and anxiety, "emotional eating" leads to overeating accompanied by clouded judgment, all of which results in making poor food choices. A key influence on emotional eating, however, is not just the presence of stressful or anxiety-riddled circumstances, but rather how we respond when life seems trying and difficult.

Feeling Stressed Out?

By Judy Martin, MFT

During those times when we truly can’t change our external circumstances, we do, however, possess healing resources that, like a raft, can float us over life’s stress-provoking white-water rapids. Touch, breath, and speaking our true feelings help us create such a life raft.

Dealing With Stress Caused By a Disaster

A major disaster--e.g., flood, tornado, hurricane, earthquake, fire--threatens to not only leave a trail of lives lost, physical injuries, and property destruction in its wake, but can also result in its victims suffering from a severely damaged sense of emotional balance.

Manage Stress -- Before Stress Manages You

By Edward H. Fuller, M.S.W.

While we tend to associate stress with negative events or unwanted changes in our lives, stress can also result from added responsibility and pressure that comes along with attending to very welcome and quite positive experiences. Whatever the source(es) of your stress, learning techniques and strategies for managing it well can help ensure stress doesn't end up managing you!

Stress: Brain Yields Clues About Why Some Succumb While Others Prevail

Stress can play a major role in the development of several mental disorders, including post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. A key question in mental health research is: Why are some people resilient to stress, while others are not?

Exercise Away Your Worries

By Randi Rotwein, MA, MFT, CPT

Research has shown for years that there are definite health benefits associated with regular physical activity and exercise (reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, hypertension, stroke, and general overall strength gains in lean muscle mass). However, not until recently has research confirmed that physical activity/exercise is also associated with lowering levels of depression, anxiety and stress, as well as assisting to increase one’s self-esteem.

Yoga Can Enhance Therapy

By Mary Lansing, Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist

Yoga is about healing the splits inside us, the places of separation and dislocation. Coupled with psychotherapy, it can become a pathway toward self-study that flows into an individual's everyday activities, allowing her to focus on her body rather than disturbing thoughts that keep her rooted in old complexes.

A New Groove

By Michael Radkowsky, Psy.D.

If you are feeling stuck, but don’t know how to change or don’t seem able to, you need not give up. A skilled therapist will be able to help you develop the vision, strategies, support, and dedicated focus that you need to shift your life into a new groove.

The Therapeutic Benefits of Journaling

Journaling can help individuals detangle their thoughts and feelings, increase focus, know themselves better, build self-esteem, manage stress, solve problems more effectively, let go of the past, and resolve disagreements or conflicts with others. Experts believe that by understanding yourself better, you are better able to make decisions that are in line with your values and goals.

Anger and Change

By Denise O'Doherty, LPC, MSN, LMFT, LCDC

We live in a changing world where everyone doesn’t always think like us, nor do they honor our values and beliefs. Anger, therefore, can become a part of life. Everyone gets angry sometimes, but healthy people choose to seek out solutions so that their anger doesn’t control them.

Effectively Coping with Anger

By Grant Kono, LCSW

You may think that your anger tends to come out of the blue, that you're generally a calm, rational person. What's more often the case is that you learn to live with a certain amount of suppressed anger and that every once in awhile the amount of anger that you normally feel and are normally capable of managing becomes agitated by an event, causing you to need to vent the extra anger that you now cannot manage, much like a pressure cooker venting steam.

Remarkable Resiliency Skills for the Uncertain Times: Part 2

By Jack N. Singer, Ph.D.

Negative programming can keep us from taking risks, trusting our abilities, or thinking "outside of the box." "Safety" for most of us lies in repeating old, self-defeating habits, rather than "risking" changes in our habits. This is why approximately 77% of our self-talk is negative and why we develop fears of change and taking risks.

Relieving Stress

By Birgit Wolz, Ph.D., MFT

Do you feel overwhelmed by too many things to do? Have you noticed lately that you wake up early or in the middle of the night and can't get back to sleep because your mind is racing? Or have you been feeling more irritable about minor things at work, or at home with your spouse or children? You could be the victim of too much stress.

MoneyMasks™

By Judith Gruber, LCSW, CCET

The mask is one part of the personality that we artificially identify with and show the world on an unconscious level. The mask is who we think we should be or wish we could be, how we want others to perceive us, and is based on our idealized self-image. Your MoneyMask™ can manifest in your personality as power and control, denial, superiority, even love.

Mental Disorders Persist Among Hurricane Katrina Survivors

More residents affected by Hurricane Katrina are enduring mental disorders than was initially determined a few months after the storm, according to a study published online January 8, 2008, in the journal Molecular Psychiatry. The trend runs counter to the typical pattern of recovery after a natural disaster.

Behavioral Program May Stabilize Stress Hormone Patterns in Foster Children

An newly-released study's results provide evidence of a distinct biological response to a behavioral intervention. “If improved caregiving follows early childhood neglect, disruptions in a child’s HPA axis functioning may be reversed or even prevented, giving the child a better chance at overcoming early-life challenges.”

"Power Nap" Prevents Burnout--and Morning Sleep Helps Perfect a Skill

Evidence is mounting that sleep--even a nap--appears to enhance information processing and learning. New experiments by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and Harvard University show that a midday snooze reverses information overload and that a 20% overnight improvement in learning a motor skill is largely traceable to a late stage of sleep that some early risers might be missing.

Chronic Aches and Pain Can Be Responses To Excessive Stress

While a certain amount of stress in your life is unavoidable, you shouldn't get so used to it that you overlook or deny when it’s reached unhealthy proportions. Chronic stress can eventually wear down the body's natural defenses--which then manifests in an array of physical "warning sign" symptoms.

One of the Reasons Why Women Tend To Live Longer Than Men…

When the body is stressed it triggers a hormone called oxytocin. This fast hormone flush rather predictably causes the "fight or flight" response in men. However, in women, high estrogen levels can dull the hormone’s effects and instead produce a different reaction, something that can be thought of as a "tend or befriend" response.

Even Low-Level Noise at Work Can Lead To Stress

A new study finds that even workplaces that seem relatively quiet--no heavy equipment rumbling back and forth, no constant cacophony of shouting filling the air--can have a noise level that insidiously contributes to unhealthy levels of stress.

Research Shows How Chronic Stress May be Linked to Physical and Mental Ailments

Chronic stress can lead to chronically elevated levels of glucocorticoids, which in turn may reduce cell functioning, via the interaction between GR/Bcl-2 and mitochondria. The decrease in proper cell function may be at the root of certain physical and mental illnesses.

A Night’s Sleep Gives Emotional Memories Their Staying Power

Problems with sleep and emotional memories figure prominently in mood and anxiety disorders, and the consequences of inadequate sleep loom for the third of Americans whose sleep-deprived lifestyles interfere with work and social functioning at least a few days each month.

Behavioral Intervention Normalizes Stress-Related Hormone in High-Risk Kids

Family intervention that improves behavior and social skills can also help normalize cortisol patterns. Cortisol is a hormone that regulates response to stress. Imbalances in stress regulation are thought to contribute to the development of some mental disorders, such as anxiety disorders and depression.

Stress Reduction Can Help Diabetics

Experiencing stress is associated with the release of hormones that lead to energy mobilization, commonly known as the "fight or flight" response. Key to this energy mobilization is the transport of glucose into the bloodstream, resulting in elevated glucose levels, which is a health threat for people with diabetes.

Love Handles or Indications of Stress?

In this day of cell phones, voice mail and e-mail, it's almost impossible for anyone who tries to keep up to not feel constantly "on call" and pressured a lot of the time. A new study shows that stress can actually change your nervous system and hormones in ways that encourage fat accumulation--especially around the waist.

What Can I Do About Caregiver Stress?

"Caregiver stress" is extremely common. The seemingly endless round-the-clock physical and emotional demands of caregiving can end up taking a big toll on both your body and your mind. Read on to learn some of the most typically-experienced feelings specifically associated with caregiving that can lead to chronic stress, the 10 early warning signs that stress is becoming a serious problem, and, most importantly, how to get help.

Coping With Stress

A certain amount of stress is a natural and even useful part of being human as we all cope with the daily grind--as well as life's inevitable trying experiences. However, there are times when stress threatens to grow to out-of-control proportions and wreak havoc with both our emotional and physical health.

Busting Some Myths About Anger Management

By Mitchell Milch, CSW

Having worked as a social worker in a criminal court in Connecticut, I know from experience that the jails and prisons in this country are populated by folks who have used anger as a weapon, as well as those who sincerely believe they were victims of such aggression and felt they were acting in justified self defense. This article busts some of the myths responsible for the irresponsible management of anger and other emotions that can light the fuse on verbally and physically abusive behaviors.

Intermittent Explosive Disorder (IED) Affects up to 16 Million Americans

A little-known mental disorder marked by episodes of unwarranted anger is more common than previously thought. Evidence suggests that IED might predispose toward depression, anxiety, alcohol and drug abuse disorders by increasing stressful life experiences, such as financial difficulties and divorce.

Tell Me Anything--But Don’t Tell Me To Stop Training

By Mitchell Milch, CSW

If you are a "workaholic" on or off the athletic field it may be time to consider that a little less pain and suffering will result in better performances, greater enjoyment and more time to nurture multiple sources of self-esteem.

Gene More Than Doubles Risk of Depression Following Life Stresses

Among people who suffered multiple stressful life events over 5 years, 43 percent with one version of a gene developed depression, compared to only 17 percent with another version of the gene, say researchers.

Practicing Safe Stress

By David Walton Earle, MFT

Those who serve as boss or supervisor have a difficult job that is predictably very stressful. This article is dedicated to the women and men who are on the front lines of corporate profit and loss statements and, as a result, are at increased risk of work-related stress.