Anxiety is a universal human experience, as common as feeling joy or sadness.

It’s entirely normal to have those fleeting moments of nervousness before an important event, like a job interview or a significant presentation.

However, when anxiety starts to color every aspect of your daily life and becomes a constant presence, it can be overwhelmingly disruptive.

Medical professionals often prescribe Benzodiazepines, which include familiar medications like Valium, Xanax, and Klonopin, to manage anxiety.

While these are effective, they may have side effects that some individuals wish to avoid.

Additionally, many…

Stigma remains alive and well when it comes to borderline personality disorder, even within the healthcare community:

“A study assessing mental health staff attitudes towards consumers with BPD found that over 80% of staff viewed this population as difficult to work with, and indeed, more difficult to treat than consumers with other mental illnesses.”

In a recent post I described feeling as though I was experiencing high-functioning depression and feeling overwhelmed. I contacted a new provider and we set up a phone consultation. I described my current situation, and she was empathetic. She asked me if I’d had therapy before, and I believe in being transparent, so I told her about my history of anorexia and BPD, but I assured her they were both under control and those were not the reasons I was seeking treatment now. I emphasized that the reason I was seeking treatment was to avoid my depression becoming worse and to not feel so overwhelmed.

She told me she had no experience with eating disorders or DBT — and I repeated that my eating disorder and BPD were in remission. We got into a discussion about my inability to set clear boundaries with some people in my life. She said she thought what I needed was a refresher of my DBT skills. She wasn’t going to work with me.

After she hung up, it took a couple of minutes to sink in: She wasn’t going to work with me. And then the possibilities of why began…

Couples seek relationship counseling for numerous reasons.  No matter what issues they present to therapy with, it often can be boiled down to a problem with the emotional safety in their relationship.  The most hostile, distant or disengaged couples are not the only ones who can be challenged with a lack of emotional safety.  Those who minimize their feelings or are conflict avoidant can often ultimately be the most at risk.  Often the presenting problems that couples go to therapy for, are actually symptoms of a lack of emotional safety in their relationship.

“Emotional safety” encompass important elements.  It exists when both partners feel:

• respected 
• they can trust each other
• prioritized
• heard
• understood
• validated
• empathized with
• loved

If you’ve been struggling to communicate, are easily brought to conflict, have disconnected and are sweeping feelings under the rug, it’s important to do a deeper level check on the status of your relationship.  These are all often signs of distress. 

Do a quick mini assessment on your own relationship by asking yourself how you feel, on a scale of 1-10, in each of the following areas.

Respect: How respected do you feel by each other? People who report low levels of respect often experience criticism, judgment or neglect.  Perhaps your partner makes important decisions without you.

Trust:  Are you clear your partner will not betray you?  Betrayal can include physical and emotional…

Generative AI has managed to permeate every nook and corner of our lives, ingraining itself across sectors, businesses, and professions.

One such niche where AI shows a lot of promise, with just as many drawbacks and concerns, is mental health counseling and therapy.

What was once thought to be the last to get disrupted by AI, is already witnessing an unprecedented onslaught by AI-enabled chatbots in recent months.

This might sound great, or absolutely dystopian, depending on how you perceive it, but it certainly cannot be ignored.

In this article, we take a deep dive into this trend and the various promises, challenges, and threats that it poses to mental health treatment.

The Rise of Chatbots In Mental Health

Integrating AI chatbots in mental health care results from the increasing demand for accessible and scalable mental health services.

Traditional therapy often suffers from long waiting lists, high costs, and the stigma of seeking help.

AI chatbots address these challenges by providing immediate support, being available 24/7, and offering an anonymous and non-judgmental platform for users to express their…

I’ve been suffering from insomnia for a couple of years. I can fall asleep but have trouble staying asleep. I typically wake up around 2 AM and cannot get back to sleep. I’ve tolerated it this long because the sleep deprivation has not had a negative effect on my life.

However, since starting my new job this past January as a clinical supervisor, I’ve been working longer hours than ever. I start at 8 AM and go through to seeing clients in the early evenings and then I need to write notes. It’s a long day and I start to feel the effects of not having slept the night before.

It’s a vicious cycle because when I finally get off work, I’m exhausted. Having usually eaten at my desk, I take my dog, Shelby, for her last walk of the night, check my personal emails to see if there is anything pressing and despite myself, sometimes nod off.

I wrote in a recent post about feeling as though I’ve been dealing with a high-functioning depression since the beginning of the year. There is an established link between depression and sleep deprivation. One study from 2015 states, “There is a strong bi-directional relationship between sleep deprivation/disturbance and depression. Although disturbed sleep is associated with psychiatric disorders and is traditionally considered to be a symptom of depression, research suggests that the relationship between sleep changes and mood disorders may work in the other…

Having a healthy, loving and connected relationship is one of the most rewarding experiences.  Couples often start out in a good place and can’t imagine things going awry.  The biologically necessary attachment bonding chemical process (the “honeymoon” phase) that connects people can also shield each other from what might become cracks in the relationship later.  Ideally, when you settle in together and these vulnerabilities start to show themselves, it’s manageable because you can communicate well about the issues.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work this way as it’s a bit more complicated. Why? 

Many couples get stuck in tough spots, neither of them having the needed relationship tools to dig themselves out.  There are different ways people deal with these types of challenges based on their prior experiences.  These coping mechanisms can come crashing together in ways that propel their negative cycles.  This can look like intense outbursts or total retreat and conflict avoidance.  Yes, even sweeping issues under the rug and not talking about them actually creates a high level of conflict in the potential for total disconnection if not addressed.

The relationship attachment dynamics, the ways in which each person has learned to instinctively react when under relationship duress, are really important to understand.  In order to heal and move forward, the cycles need to be interrupted as emotional safety is…

According to the American Institute of Stress stats, around 77% people experience stress that not just impacts their mental health but also their physical wellbeing.

It can cause sleeplessness, impact your daily activities, and might even be disturbing to those around you.

So in case you’ve been feeling stressed out lately, know that you are not alone.

There are ways to deal with your situation, and alongside seeing a therapist, why not investigate the surprising health and stress-relieving benefits of laughter?

You can just laugh heartily while chatting with a friend or by watching a comedy film or television show to relieve some of your stress.

Still not convinced?

Read on to learn more about the health benefits of laughter and how it can help you relieve stress.

The Science Behind Laughter

There’s an old adage that says laughter is the best medicine, and there’s some truth to it.

But what exactly is laughter?

Simply put, laughing is an auditory expression of a variety of positive emotional states such as joy, happiness, or relief.

It is a part of human language that everyone understands, whether it is a small…

In the last 10 years or so, I’ve come to loathe the idea of making New Year’s resolutions. Resolutions have the stigma of being unrealistic and being broken by the second week of January. This year, I want to focus on a select few ways I can enhance my life, rise out of my high-functioning depression (and avoid slipping into a severe depressive episode), and simply feel better.

The first is to be an active participant in my therapy. I started therapy last week with a provider I believe will be a good fit. When I told her about my history of BPD, she didn’t flinch. She is also a writer, so we have that in common. I need to come to sessions with a concrete plan of what I want to talk about and put what we discuss into action.

According to the American Psychological Association, “One big shift in psychotherapy in recent years is toward greater mutuality—the notion that psychotherapy is a two-way relationship in which the therapist and client are equal partners in the therapy process. Therapists make this stance apparent in an ongoing way by, for example, disclosing their feelings when appropriate and actively inviting feedback from patients about how therapy is going.”

I want to read more. Reading is essential for a writer; I know that. My attention span has gone to pot, though. In “On Becoming a Thoughtful Reader: Learning to Read Like a Writer” (1984), P. David Pearson and Robert Tierney wrote…

Information has always been the backbone of any development in society.

Until the mid-1500s, literacy was reserved only for those who could read Hebrew or Latin, namely the Clergy, and that exclusivity of education would remain in the hands of the institution until Martin Luther and others forced the Reformation.

After this, the Bible was translated into the communal vernacular and distributed among the populace.

Literacy boomed.

Education formed.

Ideas thrived.

The Renaissance happened.

Nowadays, most sovereign states have 24/7 access to any information we could want, and with the conversation around mental health having become vastly more open and accepting, people find themselves…