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How To Beat The Holiday Blues

Conventional wisdom is that there are more suicides during the holidays than at other times.  First, is this true? The good news is: It’s a myth according to the medical experts at Psychology Today. So the question then becomes, why do most people think it true? There is a well known reduction in the suicide [...]

Drs. Birnbach & Hyman – Reality Test For Marriage – Episode #37

A controversial look at whether a marriage can be saved—or if it’s “time to go.”

For the millions caught in unhappy marriages, consumed by sadness, anger, and fear, the question haunts: “Should I divorce?” Now, in their insightful new book, a husband-and-wife team of marriage experts helps readers find the answer by taking them through ten steps to determine if their relationship has reached the breaking point.
While Drs. Birnbach and Hyman do not advocate divorce, they point out that the most desirable situation—a happy long-term marriage—may simply not be possible in some cases. The book also discusses how the lives of people who stay in chronically unhappy marriages compare with those who split up. Filled with poignant case studies, cutting-edge research, and a 100-question self-assessment to determine if it’s “time to go,” this unique guide dispels the myths about divorce and enables readers to recognize if there is still hope . . . or if they (and their families) are better off apart.

A Quick Depression Quiz

Are you depressed?

Do you feel down?

Did you know that: 25 percent of adults will have a major depressive episode at some point?

It’s just a part of life. It’s human nature.

However, most people don’t realize that depression is bad for your heart health, memory and more.
With all of the economic troubles in the world today, sadly TV commercials for every antidepressant known to man have become a part of our modern culture. In a recent study, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention looked at 2.4 billion drugs prescribed in visits to doctors and hospitals in 2005.

Of those, 118 million were for antidepressants.

Why?

From Magic to Mayhem and Beyond with Steven Diamond

Today’s blog post contains Part 1 of a very dramatic interview with Steven Diamond, magician, entertainer, speaker, and author who graciously shared his life story with us.

Richard Zwolinski (RZ): Hi, Steven. Can you start by telling us a bit about your background?

Steven Diamond (SD): I was born on October 1, 1968 into a very dysfunctional American family in Portsmouth Virginia, though I didn’t know it at the time. It wouldn’t be until decades later that the true depth of the scars left on my life would be revealed.

All of the males on my mother’s side of the family were abusive, raging alcoholics, and I hardly knew my father’s side. My mother was consumed by mental illness and sought refuge in her Southern Baptist religion, where she would learn to hide.

Can Stress Lead To Addiction: Five (5) Warning Signs

Do you have a glass of wine each evening to unwind??

Don’t worry not everybody who uses alcohol or even drugs becomes an addict or an alcoholic.

Many addiction experts agree: you have to have a specific genetic predisposition to become an addict.

However, stress can lead people to try substances that they otherwise wouldn?t. Many times people (with and without genetic predispositions for addiction), first pick up a drink or try a drug in response to a stressor. However, some people can drink frequently or even use some drugs and stop whenever they want! That’s because an addiction, including alcoholism, is not acquired according to most medical evidence you simply can’t catch alcoholism or addiction unless you have that genetic code.

According to current official descriptions, substance abuse is indicated by daily or weekly abuse (or other episodic abuse), without signs of changing tolerance or marked withdrawal symptoms. Addiction is indicated by having signs including increasing or decreasing tolerance to the substance as well as marked withdrawal symptoms.*

So how can you tell if stress might be leading you to abuse chemical substances and placing you on the path towards becoming addicted to alcohol or drugs? If you find yourself frequently or regularly:

Assess Yourself!

Richard Zwolinski, LMHC, CASAC is the author of Therapy Revolution: Find Help, Get Better, and Move On (Without Wasting Time or Money), and Therapy Soup. He is a nationally and internationally licensed psychotherapist and anxiety and addiction specialist with over 25 years experience. He is writing patient rights and therapist ethics regulations for New York State, serves on the Ethics Committee of the NY Licensed Mental Health Counselors Association, and volunteers with at-risk youth. Richard encourages everyone to stay emotionally, physically, and spiritually aware and healthy so they can live the happy, productive, meaningful lives they were meant to live.

Richard is our newest guest blogger and it’s with GREAT pleasure that I introduce to you someone I feel has so much to offer…

Richard Zwolinski, LMHC, CASAC

Jealousy

We all know someone who is consumed by jealousy. Nothing pleases them and as time goes on they find their jealous emotions turning to hate, then anger and shortly thereafter rage. Jealousy is a toxic emotion that eats at that person from the inside out.

I like to think of it as a type of cancer. Cancer consumes it’s host on an ever expanding quest ignorant of the fact that eventually it will lead to it’s own demise. Simply put, jealousy can be a dangerous combination of fear and anger.

A top therapist recently explained it to me this way:

“When a person is consumed with jealousy they fear losing someone they value and become angered that this person of value is actually moving on with their life without them. The jealous person feels a deep sense of ownership and then betrayal. Forced to face their own demons they become jealous in an attempt to prevent the loss and justify their feelings. If the jealousy eventually turns to control or a sort of power struggle, this is a RED FLAG that their are serious underlying issues that need to be addressed.”

Anger – Episode #2

Original Air Date –  This episode originally aired in 2006 Anger, it’s something that affects us all. Not just us, but those around us as well. Learning to control one’s anger is a powerful life changing skill. We will learn real world skills and talk about how anger works and what you can do to [...]