How I Avoid Antidepressants with Daily Mental Affective Meditations

How I Avoid Antidepressants with Daily Mental Affective Meditations In nearly 30 years of mental health exploration, personally and professionally, I've tried many different techniques. Nine years ago, I began a regimen of antidepressant therapy but quit 18 months ago. I've since developed ways to tend to my emotional health without medication. Here's a home-grown technique I call "mental-affective meditations." It employs some 12-step work, cognitive therapy, healing of the inner child and family tree and re-parenting tools. Read on...

Protective Parent or Partner Power Struggles? What's Best for Kids

Protective Parent or Partner Power Struggles
Family dynamics are complicated to say the least. Parents have relationships with each other as lovers, as partners and as caregivers for their children. It's vital that parents keep personal power struggles out of their parenting decisions.
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Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder-DSM-V PTSD for Non-Combat Emotional Issues

PTSD Diagnosed for Non-Combat Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Experiences Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD has been called 'combat fatigue' and 'shell shock' in times past. PTSD is usually associated with military personnel and combat experiences. PTSD can also be diagnosed for other stressful experiences. Read More

Quitting Antidepressants: Emotional and Psychological Addiction

Psychological and Emotional Addiction to Antidepressants
I've been taking anti-depressants for seven years and have quit them within the last few weeks. While they may not be physically addictive, anti-depressants are definitely emotionally and psychologically addictive.
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Parent-Child Role Reversal:Shame-Based Behavior

Parent-Child Role Reversal and Shame-Based Behavior
Alcoholism and sexual abuse are obvious causes of shame-based behavior in children. Other parenting behaviors shame children also. Parent child role reversal causes shame-based behavior in children. It breaks down a child's self-care boundaries.
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How Toxic Shame Grows in Dysfunctional Families

Psychological and Sociological Development of Toxic Shame Behavior
What is toxic shame? Toxic shame is a corrosive, pervasive sense of guilt which the shame-based person has done nothing to merit. Is shame organic or environmental? Toxic shame, like a parasite, grows in an unhealthy environment.
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Causes of Depression: Toxic Shame

Causes of Depression: Toxic Shame
Depression is singly responsible for a pandemic of physical and emotional health issues. Depression sprouts from many root causes. Like dandelions, depression is difficult to weed out. Toxic shame, that soul poison, causes many depressive episodes.
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Treating Depression: Participating in Your Own Recovery

Treating Depression: Participating in Your Own Recovery
We say in psychology that a person must be willing to 'participate in her own recovery'. A depressed person must see that he needs help, get treatment and do what it to get healthy. Sadly, this is often what a depressed person cannot do.
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Understand Adolescent Brain Development: Lack of Fear; Thrill Seeking

Understanding Adolescent Brains; Lack of Fear Means Need for Excitement
Adolescent brains have adult capacity but lack the restraint that comes with age. The brain of a teenager has developed intellectually, but doesn't understand cause and effect and consequences. This leads to a need for excitement and danger.
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Stinkin Thinkin, Toxic Behavior and Detachment in Relationships

Stinking Thinking and Toxic Behavior: Mental Detachment
In a relationship with stinking thinking and toxic behavior? If someone you love has stinking thinking with toxic behavior you need to detach. Your job is to keep yourself safe. Emotional and mental detachment is one method.
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What to Say to a Depressed Person

How to Comfort a Depressed Person
I'm a special education teacher certified in emotional impairment. I have a degree in psychology. I've read almost every book on depression self-help. I've also battled depression and it's my own experience with depression that has taught me the most.
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Emotional Health Help: Toxic Anger vs. Healthy Communication

Emotional Health Help: Toxic Emotions vs. Healthy Anger
Anger is a healthy emotion when we don't try to squash the feeling. Trying remain permanently calm and never show anger often leads to toxic anger. This guide differentiates between healthy and toxic anger.
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Children and Yoga in the Classroom: Foster Fitness and Learning

Yoga in School Classroom: Stretching and Breathing for Healthy Body, Healthy Mind In school classrooms, we often put the cart before the horse. Before we can educate a child's mind we must tend to his bodily needs. A tired, hungry, uncomfortable child does not learn well. Using yoga stretching fosters learning. Read More

Endorphins and Mood-Elevating Hormones

Endorphins: Mood Lifters and Depression Busters
Endorphins are not dolphins with interior skeletons or cartoon characters. Endorphins are hormones. Not the kind that make your teenager act like a mutant beings. Endorphins are the nice-guy hormones.
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Test Anxiety: Coping Skills

Test Anxiety: What it is and How to Combat It
Describes the psychology and physical effects of test taking anxiety. List many ways for students, parents and teachers to prevent and heal test anxiety.
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Helping Children Cope with Divorce

Helping Children Cope with Divorce
Divorce is worrisome for a parent and terrifying for a child. Age, past experiences and temperament affects how each child reacts to divorce. Developmental psychology that can help us help a child cope with a divorce. Read on...

Attitude of Entitlement: What to Do?

Why Kids Today Are so Lazy, Selfish and Undisciplined
"Kids today expect everything to be handed to them. Kids today are lazy and selfish. Kids today have no self-discipline. Kids today don't want to work for anything... " Why are there so many problems with 'kids today'? Developmental psycholology looks at rewards, prizes, gifts and motivation in teenagers and kids.

Panic Attacks: Identification and Coping Skills

Panic attacks, a.k.a fight or flight response follow a similar pattern that all fear issues follow. Adrenaline, heightened response, let down, physical complications. The difference? With a panic attack, no real danger exists. But- panic attacks are terrifying and debilitating just the same. Physical symptoms include: shallow breathing, dizziness, fainting, chest pain, nausea, sweating, chills, headaches...all the symptoms of an adrenaline rush. Panic attacks are insidious; they creep up and ambush you unexpectedly. Panic attacks are nebulous; they are very difficult to track down. But there's hope. Once you identify yourself as a victim of panic attacks, you can learn healthy new coping skills! Here's how

Eating Disorders: Bulimia, Anorexia

The Ultimate Guide to Parenting a Child with an Eating Disorder
Definitive coverage of weight loss, dieting and developing good eating habits in children. Taken from our experiences parenting a child with OCD, manic depression and severe eating disorder.
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Panic Attacks- Understanding and Coping Skills

Panic Attacks: Fight or Flight Response
Panic attacks are unreasonably strong reactions to neutral stimuli; ie 'melting down for no apparent reason'. Persons with panic attacks generally have very finely tuned 'problem' sensors. Let's explore this dangerous condition.
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