Mental Health Topics

Just recently I was watching an old episode of Criminal Minds that was on the TV at my gym. Hotch and his trustee sidekicks were investigating a young boy’s disappearance and trying to put all of the pieces together—but the case ultimately went back to the suspicious parents. By the…

There are several personality disorders that can have a direct and harmful effect on those who suffer with them—a few examples include dependent personality disorder, histrionic personality disorder, and narcissistic personality disorder. These mental illnesses are characterized by strange thinking, feeling, and behavioral patterns, which cause individuals marked distress and/or…

There are several sexual disorders that can have a direct and harmful effect on both males and females—a few examples include hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD), sexual aversion disorder (SAD), and male or female orgasmic disorders. These disorders are characterized by specific sexual dysfunctions, such as low sex drive, aversion…

  Your locus of control is simply your belief system, it’s what you attribute your experiences, your successes and failures to. Now, you can have either an internal or an external locus of control: individuals with an internal locus of control attribute their successes and failures to their efforts and…

Dreams are weird: they’re these alternative realities that feel freakishly real until we finally realize we’re just dreaming or we wake up. I remember this one week where I had a significantly weird dream just about every night: in just 7 days, I fought anacondas, rode a train into the…

‘Never Eat Soggy Waffles.’ Not a bad piece of advice, but actually not a piece of advice at all—instead, an easy way to remember where North, East, South, and West are on a map. This mnemonic device made first grade a whole lot easier. As did ‘My Very Educated Mother…

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a form of psychotherapy treatment which focuses on changing one’s negative thinking and/or behavioral patterns that lie behind their difficulties. These may be sleep or relationship difficulties, issues with drug abuse, alcohol dependence, or anxiety and depression. It works by first helping an individual to…

Depression: a crippling illness characterized by fatigue, feelings of worthlessness, and a depressed state that affects 350 million people worldwide. This overwhelming statistic reminds us that any one of us could develop the condition—but not a single one of us hopes to. So we do what we can to prevent…

Affluenza may sound like a cold or similar sickness, but it is actually a term used to describe a more “metaphorical” illness, whereas privileged kids who grow up emotionally and developmentally isolated from their mother and father feel an intense pressure to be successful. These individuals feel this weight at…

Schizophrenia is a debilitating mental illness characterized by a range of cognitive, behavioral, and emotional dysfunctions. Individuals who suffer with this disease often experience delusions, hallucinations, incoherence, and dysfunction in major areas of life, such as at work or in their personal relationships. And while much has been discovered about…

Okay, before I delve into the topic of zodiac signs, let me just say that I know astrology is not backed by any scientific evidence whatsoever—however, it is kind of fun and a guilty pleasure of mine. With that being said, my zodiac sign is a Pisces: I am compassionate…

As we get older, we try to forget about and deny our age. We take off a few years on forms at the doctor’s office and when a friend asks which birthday this one is we definitely don’t tell the truth (despite their suspicious looks). But words can only go…