Is it a headache or an aneurysm? Chest tightness or a heart attack? A stomachache or stomach cancer? Our bodies do the darndest things. Our bodies are the switchboard for our emotions;…
Keys to Calming Anxiety from Adverse Childhood Experiences
This post is part of a series on adverse childhood experiences. Read the other posts here. Anxiety, including panic attacks, is now the most common psychiatric condition in the U.S., affecting nearly…
Unrealistic Hopes Are a Devil’s Bargain
“I married many men, a ton of thembecause I was untrue to none of them,because I bumped off every one of themto keep my love alive.” In this song from the musical…
How to Improve Your Emotional Regulation Skills
Life often resembles a rollercoaster of calm moments and intense emotions, especially for those with relational trauma backgrounds. For those with such a background, self-regulation, a vital skill, may be challenging due…
How Social Media Distorts Our Body Image
It’s the year 2023, and Dr. Nicole Hawkins, the CEO of the Center for Change, a respected eating disorder facility, faces a new and concerning challenge: an extensive waitlist of patients in…
Anxiety and Friendships: New School Year, Fresh Start
The start of the school year can breed anxiety for parents of anxious children, teens, and young adults. Although your child may want and seek and desire friendships, this may be an…
The Post-Pandemic Mid-Life Crisis |
Life was very different when Erik Erickson defined mid-life (ages 40-65 years) as a type of crossroads between generativity and stagnation in his psychosocial stages model in 1950. Life expectancy was only…
How To Set Emotional Boundaries
Source: realworkhard/Pixabay You and your best friend are “joined at the hip,” hanging together all the time, even able to finish each other’s sentences. Your brother is struggling with a breakup, and…
Aging Men and the Male Freakout
Source: Jens Otte/Shutterstock A colleague recently said to me, on observing the rise of authoritarian regimes throughout the world, that the human race is in the grips of a “male freakout.” His…
Being Fit May Lower the Need to Buy Anti-Anxiety Medication
Dirima/Shutterstock In 2019, an international team of researchers led by Linds Ernstsen of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology published a study that identified a correlation between higher levels of cardiorespiratory…