Mental Health Treatment

One thing that we all know is that we live in an ever-changing world that is filled with stress. There is no way that we can escape it no matter what we do or where we go, there are pressures in life that we all must learn to deal with. These things can raise your blood pressure, increase your heart rate and cause you to lose your cool. Stress will affect you in one way or another, but it doesn’t have to conquer you and take a toll on your health.

Recent studies that have been conducted by scientists have shown that stress is the root cause of most of the deadly diseases that are killing men and women. The good news is that even though stress is unavoidable, there are steps that you can take to put it at a level that will not affect your health in a negative way. There are some unusual ways that you can use to control stress so you can carry on with your everyday life.

One of the main causes of stress is lack of sleep. When you do not get a good night’s sleep, you wake up cranky and grumpy and that is because while you are sleeping, your body is repairing itself. If you cheat yourself on sleep there is a good chance that your bodily organs will not function properly and your head will become clouded and you will lose your focus and you will easily get stressed. You can easily avoid this by getting to bed early. It is a proven fact that the best times for your body to repair damaged tissues and cells is between the hours of 10pm and 6am. Make a habit of being in bed by 10pm so your body will get enough sleep and rest. Continue Reading

The term “eating disorders,” like so many diagnostic labels, describes a spectrum of experiences and dynamics; while two people might both overeat and purge, the psychological reasons why they do so can be very different. I’d like to discuss one of my clients who suffered from bulimia, along with the emotional factors involved, because her story sheds light on a much larger issue: how we may cope with unbearable emotions and feelings by trying to get rid of them.

When I began working with this client (I’ll call her Sharon), I had little experience with eating disorders. I understood that there might be a connection between childhood sexual abuse and bulimia; I was aware that low self-esteem and perfectionism likely played a role. The first time we met, Sharon told me she’d been sexually molested by her step-father during her early teens; while she didn’t strike me as having particularly low self-esteem, she did seem quite perfectionistic and self-critical. In our early sessions, however, what struck me most was how little she could tolerate her emotions and feelings.

A pattern began to emerge: whenever an experience threatened to stir up emotion (it could be an intensely pleasurable feeling just as well as an anxious or painful one) the powerful urge to overeat would arise. Eventually she would give in, binge eat and force herself to vomit afterward; an enormous sense of relief always followed. We came to understand that what she wanted was to feel empty, void of emotion. Her bulimia, in a very literal sense, was a process of emotional evacuation. By throwing up, Sharon felt she’d gotten rid of the unbearable emotions and feelings along with the food she’d eaten. Continue Reading

Have you ever noticed how depression and anger are physically draining? Maybe you’ve never suffered from clinical depression, but you certainly know what it feels like to carry the burden of anger, fear, anxiety, and sadness on a smaller scale. These are all human emotions and they are completely natural, but indulging these feelings for longer than necessary is physically harmful to both mental and physical well-being. Now take a moment and remember the feeling of pure happiness. When happiness is pure, it takes little effort and energy to promote it. Being happy might seem like a cliché thing to promote, but there are many mental health benefits of this necessary emotion.

Let’s take a closer look at the many positive emotional payoffs of happiness:

1- Successful relationships:

Studies have shown that happier and more stable individuals often possess relationships that are healthy. Relationships can include anyone from parents, friends, coworkers, and intimate partners. Regardless of the individuals we communicate with, our balanced mental state promotes a more rational state of mind. This state of mind allows for greater thresholds of anger and sadness, which in turn, provides more insightful, rational, and healthy communication. Studies have also shown that individuals with rich social lives exude healthier mental well-being and are regarded by their friends as more enjoyable individuals.

2- Longer Life:

A study conducted by the Mayo Clinic articulated that individuals who were primarily optimistic in life were shown to live longer. In contrast, those who identified as pessimistic, or were regarded as such by friends, were shown to live increasingly shorter lives. Continue Reading