Articles
Breathing for Anxiety: Learning How to Breathe When You’re Anxious
Many people suffer from some degree of anxiety, and while the level may differ, most of the symptoms are the same. Finding relief from the effects of anxiety can be difficult, and not everyone wants to turn directly to medication. Learning some techniques related to breathing for anxiety can help your body overcome anxious symptoms. Once you learn to breathe when you experience anxiety, it can reduce the length of time that you go through the episode. The best way to benefit from breathing for anxiety is to practice these techniques daily, just like you would practice any new skill. This [...]
Stress and the Mind
This article will be going over how our mind responds to stress and how it relates to mental health. I will be discussing the Limbic System and how it contributes to the fight, flight, or freeze response and how this process may affect those with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or Generalized Anxiety Disorder. I will then discuss the different treatment modalities that can help. The anatomy of stress. Every minute, our body receives sensory input from the outside world through our five senses: touch, taste, sight, hearing, and smell. This information is converted from a manual input to an electrical signal by [...]
Anger Management Therapy from a Christian Perspective
Does anger feel like it’s taking over your life? Do you feel trapped by your own anger and resentment toward others? Have you tried to manage it yourself, but you feel like you could use some outside anger management therapy?Anger is a very common emotion, and it’s a normal one. God created us with the capacity for many types of emotions. It’s what we do with our anger that matters.In the face of evil, anger can be righteous. Certain physical states can also make you more prone to irritability or rage. Our flesh is weak and there are many situations that can make [...]
How to Know if You Suffer from Passive-Aggressive Anger Problems
Passive-aggressive anger problems include avoidance, abdication, silence, and lateness. If you are tempted to use these as behavior techniques, then knowing more about anger problems will be especially useful to you. Anger problems damage relationships. If not resolved in a constructive manner, they make communication difficult. Showing overt aggression is the opposite of passive-aggression, but both are anger disorders and neither healthier than the other. Regular anger vs. Passive-aggressive anger. Where they differ is that instead of someone losing their temper and filling the air rage-fueled threats and expletives, someone who is passive aggressive demonstrates this by being late, avoiding asserting [...]
How Do You Define OCD?
How does a person define OCD? You are probably already aware that this is an acronym that stands for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. Experts estimate that one in forty adults, and one out of every hundred children, have OCD in the United States. In this article, we will set out to explain OCD. To define OCD, you can look at the information that therapists use to make a diagnosis. People with OCD have recurrent and uncontrolled thoughts and behaviors in addition to strong urges to repeat them. At times, many people need to check items off a list or double-check that a door [...]
Between Mountains and Miracles: Finding Hope for Loneliness and Depression
Believers in Christ don’t have to wait for the next big miracle to experience the Presence of God. In the ordinary and the unexpected, His peace and power beckon us into a life where it’s possible to experience joy and wonder in the milestones and the mundane. The same Holy Spirit who rains fire from heaven also speaks in gentle whispers. This is especially significant for those suffering from loneliness and depression. The Old Testament prophet, Elijah, can attest to the fact that God can do grand showdowns, as he defeated the prophets of Baal at Mount Carmel. A few chapters [...]
Are You Having an Anxiety Attack? Tips for Managing Stress
The symptoms may frighten you if you have never experienced an anxiety attack (sometimes called a panic attack). Even during an episode, your first thought may be that you are dying. Trying to gain control over anxiety attack symptoms takes practice and patience. The panic can overwhelm you, but once you know what to expect from anxiety attack symptoms, you can create a game plan to help stop them when they hit. Common anxiety attack symptoms. Anxiety attack symptoms (panic attack symptoms) can mimic the signs of a heart attack. If you experience an anxiety attack for the first time, consult [...]
Commitment Phobia: What it is and How to Overcome it
Phobias are a common type of anxiety disorder characterized by an extreme, persistent, irrational fear about a situation or thing that isn’t actually harmful, and that you consequently go to great lengths to avoid. Commitment phobia is the fear of making a long-term commitment. Typically it is associated with fear of committing to a lifelong personal relationship such as marriage, but it can also refer to life decisions such as signing a lease, purchasing a home, choosing a college to attend, or making a career or job choice. If you wait to make a commitment when you are free of doubts, [...]
What Constitutes Trauma?
In this article, I am going to define trauma from a clinical perspective, but also give insight into how discernment is needed when it comes to discussing experiences of trauma, as people understand and process experiences differently. This can result in some confusion for those who have experienced trauma and try to relate it to others, or those who may have experienced trauma and perhaps not realized it because their fundamental understanding of trauma didn’t allow them to recognize it. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is known as a mental health condition in which one is plagued by an experience from their [...]