Top 5 Instant Stress Relievers

Here are five instant stress relievers, in no particular order…

1. Humor—Simple but foolproof. If you can poke a bit of fun at your stressful situation or your reaction to it, you’ll find you can diffuse a lot of the tension. If you can’t, Google some jokes and find one or two that tickle your funny bone.
2. Music—Studies have shown that listening to music that mirrors a depressed mood actually can lift a person out of symptoms of depression. However, when overloaded and stressed out, it is best to listen to whatever music you find soothing. If it has a slow beat (with or without percussion), even better. The beat will entrain your heart and slow down your pulse! Five minutes ought to do the trick.

What, Me Worry?

Many therapists are seeing growing numbers of people struggling with anxiety about how America’s (and the world’s), problems are affecting them.

Floods. Hurricanes. Tsunamis. Earthquakes. Volcanoes (both with pronounceable and unpronounceable names). Drought. Violence. Crime. Terrorism. Suicide Bombers. War. Child Soldiers. Oil Spills. Global Warming. Global Cooling. Disease. Epidemics. Autism. Learning Disabilities. Physical Disabilities. Poverty. Hunger. Economic Downturn. Unemployment. Job Instability. Debt. Bills. Abuse. Infidelity. Arguments. Divorce. Bullying. Traffic. (And the Loneliness. Sadness. Depression. Worry. Fear. Anxiety associated with them).

These are some of the topics many therapists are hearing about lately.

Stress at the DMV: Why Less Power Means More Stress

In general, a person who has less relative power is under greater stress –
especially in personal and societal relationships—than someone who has greater relative power. Someone with greater relative power (depending on personality, cultural upbringing, the present situation), will generally have less reason to fear fallout from negative interactions than someone one with less power.

If you are in a position of power (or even if you aren’t), and have trouble imagining how those with less power feel, think of your last trip to the DMV or the Post Office (or any dealings you may have had with the IRS).

Now do you remember what it feels like to have less relative power? Think about the long lines and the unintelligible forms you have to fill in that seemed designed to trip you up! Think about the sheer amount of time you have to spend attending to these bureaucratic requirements. In these and other taxpayer-funded agencies the citizen has almost no power relative to the public employees whose salaries they pay.

In these situations, people you have had no previous relationship with, i.e. government bureaucrats, have been granted an incredible amount of control over your ability to travel or communicate with others or simply control over your time and the money you’ve earned! They are in power, you are not.

The Healthy Self – Humility, Belief, and Control

How we handle stress is due in large part to how healthy our sense of self is. A healthy sense of self exhibits

1. a balanced blend of humility and confidence
2. a respect for others and self-respect
3. an awareness of one’s own strengths—and acknowledgment of one’s weaknesses
4. resolve to accept what can’t be changed—with ourselves , others, and the world— as well as a dedication to improving oneself.

This is a tall order and no one is perfect. But it is essential that we all try to work on this balance if we are to have healthy relationships and a sense of meaning in our lives—two key factors in helping us cope with inevitable stress.

Life (and Stress) After Therapy

Have you finished therapy or treatment for mental health or addiction? Are you asking yourself, “What next”? Do you feel a bit like you’ve jumped out of a plane and aren’t sure if the parachute will work? Or worse, aren’t even sure where the ripcord is?

If this sounds like how you feel, you may not have received a written aftercare plan from your therapist. One of the surprising failures of therapy or treatment is that some therapists (together with their patients—this is important), don’t write a cohesive, supportive aftercare plan. Just as a therapist should work together with you on a written treatment plan in order to help therapy focus on your treatment goals, they should also work together with you on a brief, but relevant plan for when you are done with therapy. Having a plan will help you manage the stress of “going out on your own”.

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