Tag: ANXIETY

Is It Time to Start Taking Meds?

 

When deciding about taking medication for depression, you’ll want to consider the general evidence, your individual experience, and your personal preferences.

About the general evidence: Research tells us about averages. On average, taking an antidepressant medication is more effective than taking a placebo for people with more severe and more long-term depression. On average, people with milder or shorter-term depression do just as well taking a placebo as taking an antidepressant medication. When we say that placebo “works”, we really mean that support, encouragement, and the passage of time seem to be effective “treatments” for milder or shorter-term depression. On average, antidepressant medications and specific kinds of psychotherapy are about equally effective. For people experiencing moderate depression, either treatment is reasonable. For more severe or long-term depression, combining medication and psychotherapy is—on average—more effective than either treatment alone.

Regarding your individual experience: If you have taken antidepressant medication before, then you have a different kind of evidence. If a specific medication has been helpful for you in the past (or caused you side effects in the past), it would likely have a similar effect. But your past experience with one medication doesn’t necessarily predict how you would react (positively or negatively) to a different medication.

Regarding your personal preferences: Some people have a strong preference to avoid taking medication. Some people prefer psychotherapy over medication, and some prefer the other way. Your preferences do count in this decision. Doctors and therapists may have useful information for you about averages. Families and friends can sometimes offer a useful outside perspective about how you are doing now and about your past experiences with treatments.  Taking medication for depression can be a complicated decision, so you’ll want to use the best information you can get. Decisions involve both information and preferences, and your preferences are the ones that matter.

Source:  dballiance.org

Photo credit:  fitpaa.com

What is an Empath?

Put simply, an Empath is a person who absorbs other people’s emotions and experiences these emotions as if they were their own.

Empathic people are highly sensitive to the emotional climates around them and often take on the psychological baggage of other people. This often leads to chronic mental and physical sicknesses.

In a world full of fear, greed, cruelty, egotism, and immense pain, your sensitivity is an immense blessing.

12 Signs You’re an Empath

Common signs of being an empath include:

  • The tendency to soak up other’s emotions and even physical sensations, like a sponge
  • Strong intuitive abilities or claircognizance
  • Chaotic or fluctuating emotions
  • Moodiness
  • Intense sensitivity
  • Highly creative
  • Inability to watch violence
  • Tendency towards anxiety and addiction
  • Tendency to attract wounded people
  • Gentle and caring nature
  • Chronic fatigue + digestive issues
  • Drawn to healing professions

How many of these signs can you identify within this list?

How to Become a Healed and Empowered Empath

The key to becoming a healed and empowered Empath lies in working to developing an individuated identity, clear boundaries, and non-attachment/resistance to emotions. The first step in becoming a matured Empath is to learn how to ground yourself in your body firmly.

Examples of practices that all Empaths will find beneficial include:

  • Mindfulness
  • Meditation
  • Yoga
  • Qigong
  • Breathing practices
  • Progressive muscle relaxation
  • Body awareness

Any technique that can help you get out of your mind and into experiencing the present moment with non-judgment and non-resistance will help you as an Empath.

Why You Are a Gift to This World

In a world full of fear, greed, cruelty, egotism, and immense pain, your sensitivity is an immense blessing.

Your sensitivity is a gift this world desperately needs.

The ability to care deeply for others is something our world lacks to a severe degree. Your gift not only closes the gap between people, but it also opens the door to loving-kindness and other extrasensory abilities such as intuition.

Can you imagine what the world would be like if we were all sensitive, caring, and receptive to each other? We would be living in paradise.

So, honor this experience of being an Empath for the great lessons and opportunities it presents you with.

Source: What is an Empath? (+ 12 Signs & How to Stay Balanced) ⋆ LonerWolf

Overcoming Social Phobia

Experiencing social anxiety and fear of social interactions can make simple responsibilities almost impossible to overcome. An estimated 15 million American adults have social anxiety, according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, with young adolescents who are transitioning to secondary school or college being particularly vulnerable. It’s suggested that social anxiety disorder symptoms usually begin around the age of 13.

Below are some techniques for self-treating this anxiety disorder.

Give Yourself Time to Heal

Healing requires patience, time, and effort. And it requires you to invest in yourself for your highest good. When healing, you must experience your pain, discomfort, and fear, all over again. You must be willing to process unsettling, difficult emotions, over and over again sometimes.

 

 

Source:   Ellen’s Universe

 

I Will Sit With You

 

 

One of the most subtle, yet powerful ways to be a force for good is by lending your calming, grounded presence to those who are struggling. Just the simple act of sitting with someone and being there for them during their darkest time can make all the difference.

Giving your undivided attention and listening as they share whatever is weighing on their heart can help them to feel understood and supported. While it is natural to want to be helpful and offer advice, most of the time, people just want to know that they are heard and understood. One of the loneliest feelings in the world is to feel unheard and misunderstood.

But can you sit and listen to someone without trying to offer up a solution?

As a problem solver myself, I can see how offering solutions to problems can be seen as loving. You want to help the people you care about. Most people aren’t looking for someone else to have the answers. They just want to be heard and understood. And when you think about it, if the person doesn’t feel heard or understood, coming in with the calvary with a solution to their problem can feel a bit…dismissive – even though you don’t mean it that way.

When someone you care about is hurting, strive to make them feel less alone than to “fix” their feelings. Meet them where they are and just be there for them. Doing so goes a lot further than you think.

Source:  mindsetmadebetter.com©