What Coping Mechanisms Will I Learn From My Mental Health Therapist?
Mental health therapy is intended to help you cope with some of life’s biggest challenges. Learning to mitigate powerful thoughts and feelings, govern emotions and pursue concrete, positive life goals are some of the first few steps toward successfully managing every aspect of your mental health. Many people don’t know what a coping mechanism is. Essentially, a healthy way to adapt to the environment around you is a coping mechanism; it means investing deliberate effort into life’s issues in an attempt to manage and master challenges that come your way. When you take the time to visit with your mental [...]
How to Handle Trauma
From family conflict to personal tragedy, the death of a loved one to the loss of a pet, trauma will affect us all. These events leave lasting impacts on mental and physical health and are often accompanied by feelings of grief and loss. The impact of trauma Anyone who has experienced a traumatic event understands that the effects of trauma don’t disappear overnight. You might be prone to encountering flashbacks or intrusive memories of the traumatic event or series of events. You also might have nightmares, involuntary anxiety and/or depression as a result of everything you’ve experienced. Many of these [...]
Tips to Help Your Children Prioritize Mental Health from a Young Age
Children and youth have a lot on their minds. Between free time and family time, schoolwork and building new friendships, their schedules can sometimes rival ours. And as any child will tell you today, it’s not easy being a kid! They often deal with peer influence, competition and identity issues as they mature, all of which can play a role in shaping who they will become. How to prioritize your child's mental health From a young age, it’s important that we instill in children and youths an understanding of and respect for mental health. This will teach them to not [...]
Tips to Manage Mental Health While Working from Home
More than ever, employees around the world are getting more and more accustomed to working from home. And whether it’s finding a place to work in the home where you won’t be interrupted, or balancing family priorities with work tasks, there’s definitely a learning curve to the process. How work affects mental health One aspect of the work-from-home environment that’s discussed less often is its effect on overall mental health. Traditionally, working from an office or place of business allowed employees to mentally separate work from home. Now that living and working are commonly taking place in the same location, [...]
What is Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder? Tip of the Day
Dr. Nedson Campbell, Medical Director of Onward Behavioral Health in eastern Pennsylvania, discusses different causes of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD. PTSD symptoms include extreme anxiety, uncomfortable or threatening feelings, and even flashbacks and nightmares. PTSD can result from an event that happened months ago or many years ago. These symptoms can have an adverse effect on your life, so it's important to address the problem head-on and seek help.
Getting a Good Night’s Rest: Tip of the Day
Dr. Nedson Campbell, Medical Director of Onward Behavioral Health in eastern Pennsylvania, shares some helpful hints for getting the recommended eight hours of sleep a night. Learn how caffeine, your diet, your environment, and the presence of electronic devices can have an impact on your quality and amount of sleep.
How to Cope Following a Pandemic
With the coronavirus outbreak in 2020, many people started experiencing increased anxiety and stress. Whether anxiety was already present before COVID-19 and escalated, or the pandemic was the catalyst for struggles with anxiety, you're not alone if you've felt increased fear or worry in the past few years. Anytime a terrifying local or world event takes place, it's natural to feel distressed. However, when the distress lingers, feels unmanageable or grows out of proportion, it can negatively impact both your physical and mental health. The pandemic and mental health has become a hot topic as we see the effects play [...]
5 Ideas for Mental Health During the Holidays
The most wonderful time of the year is right around the corner, with Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanza, New Year's Eve and other festive cultural and religious traditions happening in the next few months. Families gather and gifts are shared, the celebrations are plentiful. While the holidays are surely a time of cheer for many people, they also bring a unique set of stressors. During this time you may feel overwhelming social anxiety with pressure to attend events, a high-stress job if you work in retail or another market affected by the seasonal boom or financial difficulty from the added expense [...]
Beat Winter Depression With A Change In Routine
With the change of seasons, usually from fall to winter, many individuals struggle with a depressed mood, formally called seasonal depressive disorder, and informally referred to as a seasonal depression. This can occur due to less sunshine, more time spent inside and even a lack of newness. Routines are great for creating order and consistency in our lives. Overall, people respond well to maintaining a set schedule. However, routines can become mundane and a routine without any excitement can lead to feelings of depression. One way to help deal with winter depression is by freshening up your routine to breathe [...]
How Rigid Expectations Impact Mental Health
We all have expectations of ourselves and others. Some are prominent, such as an expectation to graduate, while other may not be so obvious. Healthy expectations can be motivating and provide us something to work towards, but the problem comes when our expectations become too rigid. When this happens, we turn these expectations into rules that may govern our lives and what we want from others. We think that we must, should or ought to act a certain way and others must, should or ought to act a certain way towards us. When these rules aren’t upheld, we become angry, [...]
How Insecurities Impact Mental Health
Reviewed by Jodi Jaspan, MS, LPC Working as a therapist for the past five years, I’ve learned how insecurities negatively impact a person’s mental health. Insecurities feed mental health issues like depression, low self-esteem, and anxiety. They are also often a contributing factor to eating disorders and substance use disorders. What Causes Insecurities? Insecurities are related to standards set by the people we interact with, such as our family, friends, and peers, and societal expectations that may be legitimate or perceived. Insecurities develop when we compare ourselves to others and feel less than. They occur when we experience a consequence [...]
Stop Having Nightmares: Tips to Get Better Sleep
It's not uncommon for someone to struggle with sleep and for sleep struggles to take a massive toll on a person's life. After all, sleep generally occupies a third of our day, so it's no wonder the repercussions of bad sleep are serious. Poor sleep quality can affect mood, attention, decision-making, memory, and a person's physical and mental health. If your sleep is being interrupted by nightmares, it's time to discover the root of nighttime distress and focus on building a sleep plan that makes you feel safe, peaceful and well-rested. How to stop having nightmares If you're experiencing regular [...]
