This time of year is exciting and special for many, as families come together to celebrate the holidays. However, it isn’t exciting for all. In fact, it can be a very difficult time for people in addiction recovery. Here are a few common issues for those in recovery during the…
Burnout is trudging to your desk each morning and barely putting a dent in your to-do list. It’s feeling depleted even after a full night’s rest. Burnout is exhaustion; and when you experience it, you know it. Burnout results from chronic stress at work that hasn’t been properly managed. Here…
We can train ourselves to better cope with boring tasks. Researchers from Washington State University recruited 54 participants to play a boring computer game. Every time a participant clicked a highlighted circle that appeared on the screen, a different circle would become highlighted. It took participants around 10 minutes and…
Despite the popular notion that humor is inappropriate during difficult times, humor and laughter can actually help us cope with tough losses. Looking for the humor and turning to laughter enables us to put the loss or the moment into perspective. If you’re grieving the loss of a loved one,…
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…
I work predominantly with “millennials” in New York City; those 20-30 somethings who are openly and honestly seeking therapy, very often for the first time, to address certain issues that are more common among this age group. Many consider this age group to be experiencing a “quarter-life crisis.” These individuals…
Oftentimes, we feel flustered after messing up and ruminate over the self-perceived embarrassment or mistake. However, more likely than not, those who witnessed the blunder either didn’t notice or don’t care about the blunder. We need to remember that we’re our own worst critics and put things into perspective: whatever…
If I’m being honest, I’ve been struggling for about as long as I can remember. Social anxiety has controlled my life since I was in elementary school. On the playground, I’d end conversations before anyone could make fun of me for something—because I was certain that would happen. Let’s just…
It might already be universally understood that using alcohol and/or drugs to cope with mental illness is a bad idea, but the “whys” of it might be less clear. It’s a big topic and there’s a lot of information out there, especially with all the discussions around legalization. Coping or…
I am kind. I am smart. I am important. It might sound like I’m bragging, but I assure you I’m not—I’m just practicing some positive affirmations! Have you ever heard of these? They’re basically positive statements or phrases that you say to give yourself a boost of confidence. And once…
I am a planner. Always have been, always will be. Now, I don’t keep an agenda like most planners—I make detailed lists instead, outlining my days, my weeks, sometimes my months. The idea is that I need to know what’s going to happen before it actually happens… or at the…
We all suffer from our fair share of heartache—whether it’s rooted in a breakup, the loss of a loved one, abandonment, the death of a pet, or any number of things. And in any such circumstance, it’s important that we confront the painful feelings that accompany the painful experience. But…
