After experiencing a traumatic or emotionally scarring event, the fear, pain, and helplessness felt in that moment can linger and affect someone’s life in the weeks and months after it happens. This reaction is completely understandable, as events like those are extremely harmful and can certainly change the life of…
Just picture this: You’re in the middle of a fantastic first date. After a great evening at dinner, you’ve both found yourselves lost in conversation, discovering more about each other, and enjoying the evening as time flies by. Diving deeper, you feel brave enough to share a close personal experience…
There may come a time when someone with a mental illness — like depression, anxiety, or PTSD — needs your help. While mental health conditions require proper treatment from a mental health professional like a counselor or psychiatrist, you can provide help in the form of comfort, reassurance, and support. Are…
Have you ever wondered what your dreams mean? The contents of our dreams can be quite perplexing — especially when they’re violent and scary. Take, for example, a recurring dream I used to have when I was a kid: It’s my birthday, and I’m wandering around my backyard. My friends…
Do you maintain a go bag where you keep critical documents, petty cash, a flashlight, water, a can opener, family heirlooms…? Is that theoretical survival kit starting to feel a little heavy right now? Can you imagine lugging it for miles if the roads are impassable by car? Maybe you…
An abusive relationship can absolutely lead to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). To understand why this is, it is first important to understand what trauma does to the brain and how it can impact one’s mental and physical wellbeing. Understanding Relationship PTSD and Its Impact Trauma can be defined as…
New research finds that people with PTSD who do not receive treatment have a higher risk of developing dementia later in life. This research also finds that veterans diagnosed with PTSD (who are more likely to receive treatment for PTSD compared with the general population) have a reduced risk of…
As September 11 approaches, many Americans brace for impact. After 20 years, we have come to expect the grief, the sadness, the fear, the anger. Or, even an overwhelm of all of these emotions at once. For some—especially those who lost loved ones on this fateful day—it never gets easier;…
According to a new study “Distinct neural mechanisms for the prosocial and rewarding properties of MDMA,” published in Science Translational Medicine, MDMA (ecstasy) could improve trust between patient and therapist, thereby enhancing treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder. Researchers from Stanford University School of Medicine differentiated two molecular pathways, one responsible…
The unfortunate reality is that mental illnesses do go undiagnosed, for years or even lifetimes. There are multiple layers to why this occurs, including the individual’s failure to recognize that something is wrong or that the problem requires mental health treatment—additionally, many are hesitant to seek treatment out of fear…
We all cope differently with our struggles, but an effective, lesser-known method is humor. Humor can help us be more resilient when life doesn’t go our way; it enables us to make light of our situation and in the process even moderate the severity of a mental health condition. For…
College students face severe mental health challenges, which threaten to wreak havoc on their studies as well as their overall wellbeing. It’s important to keep a watchful eye on the college goers in your life, specifically if they exhibit harmful symptoms of a mental illness like anxiety or depression. In…