Articles
Engaging Your Senses to Help When You are Overwhelmed by ADHD
Those with ADHD and other people on the neurodiversity spectrum tend to feel bored, overwhelmed, or overstimulated pretty regularly. When this happens, most of us have unique methods of self-soothing, colloquially known as “stimming,” short for stimulating. This might involve us repeating certain vocalizations, fidgeting with something, speaking in a foreign accent for fun, or making facial gestures. Stimming helps soothe our agitated brains by siphoning nervous kinetic energy into a repetitive behavior. Although most stimming is done on a subconscious level, we might find even more comfort if we intentionally engage our senses to help when overwhelmed by ADHD. Stigmatized [...]
Healthy Eating and Mental Wellness: The Importance of Treating Our Bodies Like a Temple
Treating our Bodies like a Temple Our mental health is serious, and we should be actively taking care of it. It can be easy to split our lives into three separate areas: physical wellness, spiritual wellness, and mental wellness, but I am here to argue that they are all connected. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 says, “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price, so glorify God in your body.” (ESV). With life often being stressful and [...]
Dealing Proactively with Trauma Triggers
Regardless of how much work we have put into dealing with past trauma, there will come a time when we suddenly feel overwhelmed by emotions and memories connected to that experience. Our reaction might have resulted from a physical stimulus, like a song or a smell, or it might have stemmed from an emotional situation, such as being in an argument with a loved one. This is known as a trigger, and almost everyone who has been through trauma will experience them at some point. It’s not always easy to know how to deal with trauma triggers, but the first step [...]
The Challenges and Blessings of Being a Single Father
There are many different challenges that a person can take up in life, but one of the most rewarding journeys a person can undertake is to be a parent. Being a single dad has its challenges, but it certainly has its joys, too. When you’re in the thick of it, it can be hard to pause long enough to appreciate what you have, and it can also be easy to get overwhelmed. Taking stock of the challenges and blessings of being a single father can help you direct your energies better, celebrate your wins better, and face tomorrow with a greater [...]
5 Effective Tips for Anger Management
What do you do to defend yourself when the person you need to defend yourself against is you? This is one of the hardest questions to face, and it’s raised when you find yourself struggling with emotions like anger. When you’re angry, that anger can take you to many places, some of which you don’t want to go. Uncontrolled anger can seriously harm you and damage your relationships. This is why anger management is so important. The thing to do with anger is to learn to control or manage it. Anger has its place in our lives, and it can be [...]
Protecting Identity: Dissociative Identity Disorder
Once referred to as Multiple Personality Disorder, the rare mental health condition Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) is diagnosed in less than 200,000 cases per year in the United States. A person who has experienced extreme and traumatic events may develop the condition as a way for the mind to protect (dissociate) memories and identity. What Exactly is Dissociative Identity Disorder? Dissociative Identity Disorder creates a splintered effect, dissociating the person’s mind and memories from traumatic memories or a series of events. This dissociation causes two or more personalities to emerge. These personalities are fully formed with memories, backstories, motivations, and goals. They [...]
Children’s Mental Health: Three Things to Consider
Mental health has become a term used for many different purposes in our culture. We often hear the term “mental health issues” on the news as the reason behind people committing crimes. Social-emotional learning has become a part of most academic curriculums in the school system and through which students are taught about mental health. Many workplaces now offer paid time off for mental health days. Tune into any radio program or turn on any given podcast and the term is likely to be used several times throughout. The term “mental health” is now deeply embedded in our culture. While most [...]
Why Premarital Counseling is for Every Engaged Couple
Premarital counseling is for every engaged couple. That is a simple, but all-encompassing statement. There are many reasons why couples don’t sign up for premarital counseling. Some couples say that they don’t need counseling because they have been together for years, have lived together, or have already talked about all their issues. However, a therapist who has counseled many engaged and married couples, would tell you from experience that premarital counseling, even for those who have been in a long-term relationship, is invaluable. Why Premarital Counseling is Important When a couple gets engaged, they spend a lot of time preparing for [...]
Finding Support for Mourning the Loss of a Parent
In the Lord of the Rings movies, the actor Bernard Hill delivered one of the more poignant lines in the film. When he was in Glasgow, Scotland, a woman had come up to him, telling him how one of her children had died recently, and then she said to him that parents shouldn’t have to bury their children. Hill, who plays a character named Theoden, was so moved by that conversation that he asked for that line to be added to a scene in the movie. The words, “No parent should have to bury their child” align with much of what [...]