Trauma bonding is an intense emotional connection that is formed between an abused individual and their abuser. Abuse in a traumatic bond can be either physical or emotional. While traumatic bonding can occur in all types of relationships (friends and family included) the strongest are typically romantic. Traumatic bonds are…
In 2020, reported losses from romance scams totaled $304 million. Heartbroken victims reported losing not only their money, but also their dignity and the futures they’d envisioned with their loved ones. You can take practical steps to protect yourself from romance scammers, like learning to identify the psychological biases these…
Brainwashing is an outdated psychological concept, but narcissistic cult leaders can still exercise extreme influence over smart, sane, “regular” people. You can protect yourself from cultic mind control techniques by learning the warning signs and asking the right questions. Destructive cults use love-bombing, isolation, and phobia indoctrination to overwhelm cognition. …
In this post-covid era, mental health professionals are seeing a new type of anxiety disorder, post-covid stress disorder (PCSD), appear. While the social stigmas surrounding mental health topics are steadily losing steam, the covid-19 pandemic reminded us that we often put our mental wellbeing on the backburner. While the world…
This year, “Hot Girl Summer” has a different meaning — in a post-pandemic world, it’s about self-assurance and self-compassion as we face what we’ve been through and acknowledge the mental challenges ahead. There are (at least) five mental obstacles that we have to navigate during our reemergence, one being anxiety:…
Since the spring of 2020, the way we socialize has been turned on its head. Social distancing has drastically cut down our interactions with each other, and there has been great discussion about how the pandemic may be affecting our mental health. But there’s one group of people no one…
A new study suggests that social isolation in childhood has a harmful impact on an area of the brain that regulates social behavior in adulthood. Researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai experimented with male mice to observe the effects of social isolation. They found that isolation…
Click here to schedule online counseling at Thriveworks. Hi, my name’s Mandy Donnelley. I’m a Licensed Clinician at the Thriveworks Virginia Beach (Great Neck) location. I actually just moved to Virginia Beach. So I am new with Thriveworks and I’m new to Virginia Beach. I was asked to answer, “How…
Due to COVID-19, many of us are forced to stay at home for the foreseeable future either alone or with a couple friends or family members. In either case, we’re struggling with social distancing as we adjust to a new normal; feelings like anxiety and loneliness overwhelm us. Many of…
Imagine it’s your first week at a new university. Up until this point you were living off of excitement to embark on this new journey and see where it takes you. But it’s no longer in the distant future, it’s now—and you’re overtaken by a new range of emotions: anxiety,…