Articles
Simple Ways to Love Someone During Seasons of Trauma
People we know who have been traumatized need to be loved. There are simple ways to love someone during seasons of trauma, when they need our support more than ever. If you are looking to support someone who is going through a season of trauma, you can try these suggestions. Also, don’t hesitate to reach out for help from a qualified Christian counselor. What seasons of trauma may look like. Here are examples of situations in which trauma occurs, but you may not know what to do. When you find out someone close to you was sexually assaulted, you may not [...]
16 Practical Tips for Recovering from Codependency
Codependency is a learned behavior that can be unlearned. It is characterized by a pattern of neglecting your own needs and well-being in favor of catering to those of others. You have a need to feel needed that drives you to try and manage their lives and fix their problems to boost your sense of self-worth. The only person you can now or ever change is yourself. The only person that it is your business to control is yourself. – Melody Beattie Typically rooted in early childhood, codependency develops as an adaptive coping mechanism. This was formed in response to dysfunctional [...]
10 Tips for Handling Social Anxiety
Social anxiety is a type of anxiety disorder that involves fear and discomfort in social situations. People with social anxiety tend to worry excessively about being judged or evaluated by others, and as a result, they may avoid social situations or experience significant distress in them. Symptoms of social anxiety can include rapid heartbeat, sweating, blushing, trembling, and difficulty talking. In severe cases, social anxiety can interfere with a person’s ability to work or go to school, and it can cause significant distress in relationships and other areas of life. Causes of social anxiety. The exact cause of social anxiety is [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]