The idea of brainwashing had a viral moment in the 1950s when the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) decided to wage psychological warfare against Communism. Project MKUltra secretly experimented with “mind control” techniques, dosing people with lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) without their consent. In fact, at one point the CIA…
As social stigma and perceptions surrounding mental health conditions continue to change, popular usage of mental health terms is increasing as well. Of these terms, “trauma bonding” has been among the most used, researched, and debated. A form of psychological manipulation, trauma bonding occurs when someone experiences cyclical abuse from…
The sweet, charming, handsome ex-Marine you’ve been emailing and texting with for eight months has a family emergency and can’t make his flight to meet you for the first time. You’re crushed. You’d let yourself fall hard for this guy, and now it might be another few months before you…
What memories are at the forefront when you think back on your pandemic year? Maybe you really got into home workouts, started to bake bread, and found some deep cuts on Netflix you’d never have discovered otherwise. In some ways, maybe it wasn’t so bad for you. But for many…
When Megan Thee Stallion released her feminist rap anthem “Hot Girl Summer” in summer 2019, she couldn’t have anticipated what it would mean for us in summer 2021. We’ve all suffered a year plus of trauma and isolation. This time around the sun, your seasonal makeover will have to go…
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…
Quick Summary A new study “A prefrontal-paraventricular thalamus circuit requires juvenile social experience to regulate adult sociability in mice” suggests that social isolation in childhood has a harmful impact on adult brain functioning and more specifically, in an area of the brain that’s responsible for regulating social behavior. In addition…
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,…