Self-injurious behavior, such as cutting, is generally more than an attempt to get attention. Teens who cut themselves often report that they do it to stop or escape from intense, unpleasant emotions, such as anxiety or depression. For these teens, the pain of the moment provides a distraction to the overwhelming myriad of confusing thoughts …Read More
Teen Behavior: Emotional Problems or Just Hormones?
Dec 1, 2009
The changes that teens experience as they enter puberty affect them in many ways, including hormonal changes that can impact their mood and behavior. Increases in testosterone levels in boys can result in greater irritability and expressions of anger. Hormone changes in girls can have similar effects. However, when your teen’s emotional or behavior disruption …Read More
Coping With Distressing Thoughts – Part 2
Jun 11, 2009
Dr. William Glasser is a psychiatrist who has had a substantial impact on the field of psychotherapy. Interestingly, he never prescribed medication in his career as a psychiatrist and instead focused on what he called “reality therapy” and “choice theory” to help people work through psychological pain. I’m not going to give the overview of …Read More
The Importance of Play
Apr 18, 2009
The importance of play is underrated. Kids and adults both need it, as detailed in the Feb/Mar 2009 cover story in Scientific American Mind. The kind of play I’m talking about here is unstructured, creative play. Yes, board, card, and video games have their place as well, but free play is too often getting squeezed …Read More
Easy Strategy to Create Happiness
Mar 14, 2009
I recently was trying to work out a ticket problem with a Southwest Airlines customer service representative. The representative was patient and kind and treated me like…well, a person. I know, he should do this anyway but oftentimes that doesn’t seem to be the case. I told the representative how much I appreciated his help …Read More
Countering Depression & Anxiety
Dec 7, 2008
We all experience feelings of depression and anxiety from time-to-time. Periodically, these feelings become almost overwhelming and interfere with our daily functioning in areas such as school, work, and social relationships. There are many things we can do to counteract feelings of depression and anxiety (as well as ongoing stress). Oftentimes it can be beneficial …Read More
Power of Words & Self-Talk
Jul 31, 2008
Words can be tremendously powerful. Very subtle changes in choice of words, voice inflection, etc. can totally change the impact our words have on others. Importantly, our words cannot control others, only influence them. Other people could choose to ignore what we say altogether. However, to a great extent, the words we choose can have …Read More
Relief from Anger
Jun 30, 2008
Our anger can be kept alive indefinitely. An incident in which we felt wronged from 20 years ago can send us spiraling into a heated rage within just seconds of thinking about it. Thus, our anger is just a thought away. We’ve all experienced this before. And the more that we recall particular incidents that …Read More
Self-Liberation Through Thoughts
Apr 24, 2008
So, changing our behavior is one way of improving our sense of well-being. I’m referring to this as a form of self-liberation because we do not have to be shackled to our feelings. We can rise above these in a number of ways. Another way of gaining self-liberation is through changing our thoughts. According to …Read More
More on "Spinning"
Apr 14, 2008
As I said in my last post, it’s easy for thoughts that are just in our imagination to create strong, visceral responses. The exact type of physiological and emotional responses depend upon the content of our thoughts (e.g., lustful thoughts can create sexual arousal, thoughts of being wronged can create feelings of hurt or anger). …Read More