Articles
Honoring Your Window of Tolerance
The last couple of years have been plagued with never-ending trauma and bad news. While this isn’t the first time in history people have faced so much collective trauma, it won’t be the last. But because of the seemingly endless trauma, people are finding they are struggling a bit more to function on a daily basis, and this affects each person's window of tolerance. How Trauma Affects It Many people are less productive, having difficulty concentrating, and seeking counseling or medication for the first time in their lives. They are dealing with more symptoms of depression, anxiety, PTSD, and other mental [...]
Common Kids’ Mental Health Concerns
Watching a child grow up can be beautiful, nerve-wracking, frustrating, and wonderful all at the same time. As they progress along their developmental journeys, kids will often go through phases of behavior that make parents ask, “When will they outgrow this?” But what should parents do when a particularly difficult behavioral or emotional stage doesn’t go away? At what point should parents be concerned about their kids’ psychological health? While most concerning behaviors don’t call for a major intervention, there are times when a child’s problem behavior surpasses what is normal for their developmental stage, or their altered emotional state lasts [...]
Ways PTSD Can Manifest in Our Bodies, Minds, and Lives, and Spiritual Practices that Can Help
PTSD is a whole-body tragedy, an integral human event of enormous proportions with massive repercussions. – Susan Pease Banitt Individuals who suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) live with invisible suffering every single day. They look just like anyone else, act like anyone else, and are expected to function in the world like anyone else. Yet they are carrying heavy trauma and deep sorrow. Our hearts go out to those dealing with PTSD. You find yourself in a world that expects everything to be “okay” and doesn’t know what to do with people for whom life is not ok. Our culture [...]
How to Recognize Codependent Behavior
Everyone desires connection. Everyone wants to be valued and loved and made to feel useful. So, it isn’t any great wonder that all healthy relationships have an aspect of give and take, of sacrifice and gain, and of care and receipt of care. When you love another person, you naturally want to meet their needs and have yours met in return. But what happens when this healthy idea of interdependence with others gets distorted? At what point does a relationship turn from healthy mutual reliance to unhealthy codependent behavior? While there isn’t an exact answer to the questions above, there are [...]
Infidelity in Marriage: Understanding the Betrayed Spouse
Infidelity in marriage has been described by those who have experienced it as devastating, due to the emotional hurt and distress it causes. Discovering that one’s spouse has been unfaithful creates a wave of destruction that can take years to recover from. It has been noted that about fifty percent of all married couples will experience infidelity of some form in their lifetime. Though it is common, the experience is personal, painful, and lonely. Understanding what a betrayed spouse goes through after discovering their partner’s infidelity is crucial to healing those going through it and informative for those who might be [...]
Overcoming Comparison and Finding Your Joy Again
Are you currently in a season of feeling like you are falling behind? Failing? Missing something? Do you frequently struggle with comparison? Do you find yourself saying any of these statements? “Their house looks gargantuan and is decorated farmhouse picturesque while mine is covered in toys and toddler crumbs before 6:30 a.m.” “They can take expensive vacations and we are barely making ends meet.” “They have four children that are all involved in extracurricular activities/sports while we have two children and feel like we are running around like chickens with our heads cut off.” “Their toddlers are always so well-behaved and [...]
Why am I Angry, and How Do I Make it Stop?
If you are someone who struggles with anger, you may wake up each day with the best intentions to remain calm and kind. But soon the stressors start, and you find your resolve crumbling as the familiar signs of irritability set in. Anger manifests itself uniquely for everyone, but some common signs of a rising temper may include an elevated heart rate, tunnel vision, feeling overheated or trapped in your clothes or environment, and the desire to express your feelings in a verbal or physically forceful manner. While some individuals may have problems with their expressions of anger, many who acknowledge [...]
Living with PTSD
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a type of anxiety disorder that can occur when you have been traumatized by witnessing or experiencing an event so frightening that the shock of it creates changes in the structure of your brain. This triggers your body’s threat response, which in turn floods your brain with stress hormones, causing the memory of the event to be stored differently than a normal memory. Trauma memories feel as if they are still happening right now in the present, and your brain gets locked in a cycle of trying to defend itself from future assaults. PTSD was first [...]
4 Ways Teens Deal with Grief and What Parents Can Do to Help
Dealing with grief can be difficult, and it presents challenges specific to adolescents. While teens may experience the same stages of grief as adults, they experience unique difficulties related to their age at the time of their beloved one’s death. Other important factors will likely have implications on how teens deal with grief as well. For instance, during the process of a chronic illness that results in a loss, family members may have already begun grieving while the beloved one that was lost was still alive. In contrast, if the loss was sudden and unexpected, this type of loss may be [...]