Podcast: Should I Date Someone With Bipolar Disorder?
  Can a relationship work when one person has severe mental illness? In today’s Not Crazy podcast, Gabe and Lisa discuss dating with bipolar disorder. They share their own story of dating, marrying and divorcing under the umbrella of Gabe’s bipolar diagnosis, and discuss the ups and downs from both perspectives. What are some positive signs that the relationship can last? And what are the clues that you might need to call it quits? Tune in for a heartfelt discussion on living and dating with severe mental illness. (Transcript Available Below) Please Subscribe to Our Show: And We Love Written Reviews!  About ...
Source: World of Psychology - June 16, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Not Crazy Podcast Tags: Bipolar Disorders General Marriage and Divorce Not Crazy Podcast Relationships Source Type: blogs

Using a Helpful Cognitive Tool During the Pandemic
The adjustments and changes we have made during the days of the pandemic have been a testimony to our collective ability to adapt and persist. We’ve been tested in deep ways from our disconnection from the greater community, to performing at a distance, roles so grounding to our sense of self.  We’ve also had the structures that keep us in rhythm challenged and this imbalance has increased stress in unsuspecting ways. For this, we need to draw on one of our most meaningful psychological tools. Cognitive Override enables us to take the “high road” and align with values at times when we are tempted to resign to less...
Source: World of Psychology - June 15, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: John C. Panepinto, PsyD, LPCS, NCC Tags: Motivation and Inspiration Boredom coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic Self Care social distancing Source Type: blogs

Good Grief: Healing After the Pain of Loss
Coping with grief after loss can be one of life’s greatest challenges. We all experience loss — whether it’s a death of someone we love, the end of a relationship, decline in health, or a job transition. Loss disrupts the continuity we feel in our lives. And that may throw our emotional balance into turmoil. Sadness, disbelief, anger, and fear can all be part of how we grieve. Or we may even feel detached and numb. We often describe the grieving process as linear, where we move through these emotions in an orderly, sequential fashion that ends in acceptance. But the truth is healing after loss can seem like a rol...
Source: World of Psychology - June 15, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Patrick Testa, MHSA, BSN, RN Tags: Grief and Loss Bereavement grieving Source Type: blogs

Boredom in the Year of Quarantine
Many parents have heard plenty of boredom-based lamentations from their kids, even before the age of coronavirus. But COVID-19 and the resulting quarantines have brought boredom into our lives on a whole new level. It doesn’t seem to matter whether the child is four or fourteen, being trapped at home and without regular interaction with peers leads to fairly dramatic childhood ennui. In comparison to the devastating losses we are experiencing in the world right now, boredom is not a terribly urgent issue. But it can bring distress to children and their families. Understanding the roots of boredom can offer parents strat...
Source: World of Psychology - June 15, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Jason Kahn, PhD Tags: Children and Teens Parenting Boredom coronavirus COVID-19 home school pandemic school age children social distancing Source Type: blogs

Cancer Recovery During a Pandemic
It’s been 18 months since I finished chemo for breast cancer, 15 months since I finished radiation at this writing, June 2020. My hair grew back a year ago. The tingling in my fingers is gone. I used to have heart flutters and some chest congestion; those symptoms have passed.   I had a mammogram recently; it was good. No “signs of malignancy.” That’s how the official language goes. I wasn’t expecting anything bad, but you never know. I saw my oncologist the following week. She felt my scar tissue. I have tenderness under my armpit where four lymph nodes were removed. She said it all felt fine. She also told m...
Source: World of Psychology - June 14, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Felicia Carparelli Tags: Health-related Mental Health and Wellness Personal Cancer coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic social distancing Source Type: blogs

How to Make the Most of Online Therapy
The pandemic has highlighted an important fact about teletherapy: It’s a highly effective, invaluable alternative to in-person sessions. Even as states reopen and therapists return to their offices, many clients may prefer to stick to their virtual sessions because of the convenience—or do a mix of in-person and online appointments. As such, we asked mental health practitioners to share how we can make the most of teletherapy. Below, you’ll find tips on everything from essential questions to explore between sessions to effective technical adjustments to ensure a smooth appointment. Ask questions. If you’re new to ...
Source: World of Psychology - June 14, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Margarita Tartakovsky, M.S. Tags: Disorders General Happiness Mental Health and Wellness Psychotherapy Self-Help Technology Treatment coronavirus COVID-19 teletherapy Source Type: blogs

Living in the Now while Dealing with Distress
As a chronic worrier, ongoing anxiety warrior, and general wary-of-what’s-going-to-happen-next kind of person, I know how healing it can be to practice the art of living in the present. As simple as that goal seems, though, it sometimes proves a lot harder than it sounds.  I’ve read numerous articles and books on the subject, including Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now, which offers specific practices on how to connect to the outer world and, even more importantly, to the stillness of our inner being to help anchor ourselves in the present moment. As Tolle points out, people can cope with whatever arises in the here ...
Source: World of Psychology - June 14, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tracy Shawn, MA Tags: Anxiety and Panic Books Self-Help Eckhart Tolle Living in the Now Meditation Stress The Power of Now Source Type: blogs

When a “ Positive Outlook ” Turns into Toxic Positivity
Maintaining a positive outlook can help you stay sane during a crisis. However, it’s very easy to become so focused on staying positive that you end up denying any and all negative experiences that are part of the universal human experience. Anne Silva, CEO & Founder, Tanglaw Mental Health, defines toxic positivity as “the excessive and ineffective overgeneralization of a happy and optimistic state at the expense of negative emotions and states that are part of our genuine human emotional experience.” She adds, “When an individual is exhibiting toxic positivity, they deny negative experiences—be it in themse...
Source: World of Psychology - June 13, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Psych Central Guest Author Tags: Publishers Spirituality & Health Positive Outlook toxic positivity Source Type: blogs

Psychology Around the Net: June 13, 2020
This week’s Psychology Around the Net dives into the benefits of using mindfulness to address the looming mental health crisis in business, why playing hard to get as a mating strategy can actually work, how shaking your booty with your grandma and grandpa can boost both their physical and mental health, and more. Stay well, friends! How We Justify Victim-Blaming, Scapegoating, and Systemic Abuse: Rebecca Mandeville explains the “just-world” hypothesis and how it relates to victim-blaming, scapegoating, and systemic abuse. The Power of 10 Minutes: How Mindfulness Can Address the Looming Mental Health Cri...
Source: World of Psychology - June 13, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Alicia Sparks Tags: Psychology Around the Net Career COVID-19 Creativity dance therapy grandchildren Grandparents hobby pandemic Paranoia quarantine Scapegoating systemic abuse Victim blaming Source Type: blogs

How Shame Shapes Our False Self
As much as we might value being an authentic person, we may find that we’re not always true to ourselves and authentic with others. Instead of being and showing our authentic self, we may have developed a way of being that attempts to look good, please others, and avoid the pain of embarrassment. We may fashion a self that’s not really us. This has often been called our false self. As discussed in my book, The Authentic Heart, I prefer to call our “fabricated self.” Famed psychologist Carl Rogers often urged us to live in manner that he calls “congruent.” This means that what we express is in harmony with what ...
Source: World of Psychology - June 12, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: John Amodeo, PhD Tags: Communication General Mindfulness Psychology Relationships Self-Esteem Self-Help Authenticity Honesty identity Intimacy Shame Source Type: blogs

Reframing the Toxic “ Quarantine 15 ”
In the midst of the COVID-19 global pandemic, there is currently a popular “Avoid the Quarantine 15” tagline making the rounds. This has apparently become the catch phrase warning to all of us quarantined individuals to be careful of possibly gaining 15 pounds. There are tools to calculate what you are predicted to gain during quarantine as well as news and social media outlets capitalizing on this notion to adopt what I would call “a more diet-centric focus into our already over-diet-focused and fat-phobic world.” I worry that this Quarantine 15 focus in its current usage is toxic and can backfire. It crea...
Source: World of Psychology - June 12, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Sandra Wartski, Psy.D. Tags: Binge Eating Eating Disorders Exercise & Fitness Stress Body Image Comfort Food coronavirus COVID-19 Diet diet culture Emotional Eating Health At Every Size Orthorexia Quarantine 15 self-soothing social distancing Source Type: blogs

A Nation Changes Its Mind about Black Lives Matter
A few years ago, over what I expected to be a completely pleasant dinner with a friend I hadn’t seen in quite some time, he asked what I thought of Black Lives Matter. Then he told me what he thought, in a torrent of anger and hostility.  It was unnerving. But it was his position, not mine, that was normative at the time.  I don’t know if he has changed his mind. But the nation has. In the two weeks following the May 25th death of George Floyd, support for Black Lives Matter (BLM) soared. The movement now has majority support. When the percentage who do not support it is subtracted from the percentage who do, the dif...
Source: World of Psychology - June 12, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Bella DePaulo, Ph.D. Tags: Policy and Advocacy Racism Black Lives Matter Police brutality Prejudice Source Type: blogs

Helping Your Children Cope with Societal Trauma
Children should be safe. Their primary jobs include playing and learning, sometimes in very tough environments. A news story of a missing boy or girl makes hearts beat faster with worry. Tragic accidents or intentional cruelty instinctively brings sorrowful or angry emotions to the surface for most of us. At times, however, what happens in view of our children inflicts a hidden trauma, one that can shape their life experiences and determine who they are for years to come. The events of 2020 qualify for both obvious and hidden types of trauma. With citizens in many countries divided on important issues and a pandemic contin...
Source: World of Psychology - June 11, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Jan McDaniel Tags: Children and Teens Parenting anxiety Childhood Anxiety Coping Skills coronavirus COVID-19 Trauma Source Type: blogs

Black Lives Matter: Supporting Black Americans Against Systemic Racism
Everyone at Psych Central is outraged against the continued violence against African Americans and those protesting for Black Americans’ rights. It’s time for every American to stand up and speak out against the systemic racism endemic to our country. It’s time to take a stand against this prejudice and racism that has been a 400+ year stain on our country. George Floyd, like too many African-Americans before him, suffered at the hands of overly-aggressive and racially-motivated prejudicial policing. He paid for it with his life. Despite decades of scientific research demonstrating how to de-escalate sit...
Source: World of Psychology - June 11, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: John M. Grohol, Psy.D. Tags: General Policy and Advocacy Racism Black Lives Matter George Floyd Police brutality Prejudice Source Type: blogs

Black Lives Matter: Supporting Black Americans Against Systematic Racism
Everyone at Psych Central is outraged against the continued violence against African Americans and those protesting for Black Americans’ rights. It’s time for every American to stand up and speak out against the systematic racism endemic to our country. It’s time to take a stand against this prejudice and racism that has been a 400+ year stain on our country. George Floyd, like too many African-Americans before him, suffered at the hands of overly-aggressive and racially-motivated prejudicial policing. He paid for it with his life. Despite decades of scientific research demonstrating how to de-escalate s...
Source: World of Psychology - June 11, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: John M. Grohol, Psy.D. Tags: General Policy and Advocacy Racism Black Lives Matter George Floyd Police brutality Prejudice Source Type: blogs