trauma and generalized anxiety disorder

Trauma refers to events which are emotionally painful and which remain in an individual’s subconscious throughout one’s life.  Trauma can occur in many different forms: (1) directly experiencing a violent event or mistreatment from peers or family members, (2) witnessing a violent event or death which happens to someone else, (3) dealing with a traumatic […]

If you are an adult with an insecure attachment style, you may have been raised in a chaotic or violent family environment or may have endured years of emotional, physical, sexual, and/or verbal abuse.  An insecure attachment style is mainly characterized by an inability to trust others and often includes self-sabotaging behaviors and a chronic

Distress Tolerance is a module in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), and these mindfulness-based skills are often called “crisis survival skills” because they help a person to navigate a perceived or actual crisis.  The Dialectical Behavior Therapy approach focuses on synthesizing your emotional brain and your reasonable brain, with the primary goal of learning how to tap

In his book, The Power of Unwavering Focus, Dandapani, a Hindu monk and philosopher, proposes that distraction, anxiety, stress, worry, and fear are the most severe mental ailments which plague modern society.  If you have Adult Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), you understand all too well how all of these mental states are created by

The CALM Approach is a learned and practiced set of coping and empowering strategies which can be applied to many of life’s unexpected emotional and mental challenges.      Concentration is an intentional and sustained focus on activities and tasks which you have prioritized as most important to achieving your personal and career goals.  Concentration requires

Gaslighting is a form of emotional abuse, which can occur in differing severity and time frames.  This narcissistic behavioral pattern got the name from a 1938 play, called “Gas Light,” which was about a sadistic man whose goal was to drive his wife insane, so that he could get her money.  If your partner or

Alexithymia is a difficulty with identifying, expressing, and regulating one’s emotions.  Alexithymia has been conceptualized as a form of emotional detachment which often manifests as a feeling of “numbness” or as an appearance of being “vacant” or “muted.”  Alexithymia has been frequently correlated with Adult ADHD, in that it is a defense mechanism from experiencing

If you have Adult Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), you may experience many more symptoms other than just problems with memory and focus.  First of all, Adult ADHD can cause social insecurity, difficulty with communication skills and emotional expression in your intimate relationships, ineffective decision-making and problem-solving skills, and frequent academic and professional mistakes or

     Being stuck, in general terms, is defined as being unable to move or being set in a particular situation or way of thinking.  Some synonyms for being “stuck” are being “fixed” or “immovable.”  In psychological terms, being stuck can occur on an emotional, behavioral, or cognitive (thoughts) level.  Negative thought patterns can cause you

Your unique sense of self has an ongoing and ever-changing formative tendency, which refers to an innate drive to progress from simpler to more complex forms over time, and a self-actualizing tendency, which refers to an innate drive to progress toward the fulfillment of your purpose and your potential in life. In 1890, William James