As toddlers and young children, we quickly and naturally form strong emotional bonds with our parents or caretakers. As a result, being apart from them at an early age is often accompanied by a level of anxiety. These feelings of distress are a normal stage of childhood development—but sometimes, our…
Coping with a mental health condition is often anything but easy—and it seems as though gender plays a major role in an individual’s battle with mental health. For women, their perceptions of themselves may influence how they choose to deal with mental health concerns. They may find themselves conflicted when…
Anxiety can take your emotions from stable to elevated and nearly out of control very quickly. This can mean anything from feeling disproportionate worry to having panic attacks. That’s why it’s important to have solid coping and grounding techniques to help yourself either avoid these situations or bring your emotions…
A self-harm relapse occurs when someone engages in self-harming behavior after a period of approximately 3-4 weeks of abstaining. A self-harm relapse can happen via the same mechanism of self-harm or a different behavior. During a relapse period and the hours or days afterward, the individual may face additional temptation…
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a condition which can make trusting other people and establishing lasting relationships extremely difficult. This can make coping with BPD in relationships frustrating for the person carrying the diagnosis, as well as for a loved one who is often trying to understand and be supportive….
Living with ADHD isn’t always easy. This condition, which may feel like a superpower at certain points, may also feel like a burden on other days. For adult men with ADHD, their hyperactivity or inattentiveness may be expressed in specific and unique ways compared with women. Men are often expected…
Most of us know by now the somersaults our stomachs can turn, and the cold sweat that may bead our forehead when we start to get anxious. But when that uncomfortable tension builds, anxiety nausea—nausea caused by our physical reaction to feeling anxious—may develop. Even though anxiety arises in our…
Coping strategies (referred to interchangeably as coping mechanisms or coping skills) are behaviors that are designed to help us reduce the negative emotions associated with difficult events, situations, relationships, and more. Coping mechanisms may be learned both consciously or unconsciously. Learning and implementing healthy coping strategies is a routine part…
Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is the current diagnosis for what may also be called chronic alcoholism, alcohol addiction, alcohol abuse, dipsomania, and alcohol dependence. We can define unhealthy drinking behaviors in a variety of ways, but problems are the common denominator. That is, our friend/enemy/frenemy alcohol (technically ethanol) is a…
Q: This is probably more common than I realize, but some of my family members have different political views from me. The fact that we disagree isn’t so much of an issue for me, but if at any point I share my beliefs and viewpoints, it feels like I’m instantly…
In 1969, Swiss-American Psychiatrist Elizabeth Kubler-Ross theorized that there are five universal stages of grief: denial and seclusion, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. These stages have since been used to describe how we respond to a heartbreaking loss. But here’s the thing: Coping with a devastating loss is an incredibly…
Q: I have a neighbor that I struggle to get along with—we’ll call her Heather. I met Heather when we first moved into our neighborhood a few months ago. She and her husband live across the street and came to say hi while my girlfriend and I were carrying boxes…
