Stress Awareness Month has been recognized every April since 1992, and this year it seems particularly relevant to highlight.
The term stress is used to describe many different emotional and physical responses including agitation, anger, anxiety, worry, fear and depression. Understanding stress, its impact, and developing ways to cope is a pivotal part of the work psychologists do in therapy with their patients.
Self-harm is defined as the infliction of pain onto oneself and can be seen as a symptom of several different mental health disorders, especially in adolescents. Self-harm behaviors typically include restrictive and binge eating, cutting, hitting, scratching, burning, and picking. There are a variety of reasons why people may self-harm and research suggests that these are the most common:
When parents think about signs of depression, they might first look to symptoms that friends or family have had. We typically think of someone who is depressed as being sad or down all the time.
There are some less common signs that might serve as clues that a child is depressed and these include: irritability, academic decline, changes in weight, and self-harm behaviors.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is a type of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) that was developed in the late 1990s by Dr. Marsha Linehan with the goal of treating Borderline Personality Disorder (BDP). Since that time, DBT has been found to successfully treat many different mental health problems, especially those that involve a difficulty regulating emotions such as ADHD, Bipolar Disorder, Eating Disorders, Major Depression, and Generalized Anxiety Disorder.
The main goals of DBT are to teach people how to live in the moment, regulate their emotions, develop and maintain healthy relationships, and cope with distress. Because the goals are universally valuable, DBT skills have been well-established in the therapy community as a set of useful tools to develop no matter what brings a patient into treatment.
Almost two years ago, not many people would have predicted that we would still be in the midst of a pandemic. We have all been coping with extremely uncertain times and many people have lost control over important things in their life such as childcare, job security, finances and certainty about education and healthcare. The reality is that life is filled with uncertainty, and this pandemic has highlighted that worldwide.
Study of human behavior shows that humans crave security. People have an innate desire to feel safe and have a reasonable sense of predictability when it comes to the things that are important to them. Fear and uncertainty have been shown to lead to stress, anxiety, and helplessness. If as 2022 begins, you feel overwhelmed by uncertainty and worry, it is important to know that you are not alone; many people are feeling the same way. It’s also helpful to understand that there are tools you can use to better deal with uncertainty.