Bonds Fixed Income Despite Year End Funding Pressures CBN Maintains OMO and FX Interventions Naira Crashes Below N360 Per Dollar at the Parallel Market as External Reserves Resume Downtrend Demand Pressures Force c50bps Rally on 2024 FGN Bond Money Market Rate Decreased As Overnight Rate Fell to 2508 Markets Close on a Quiet Note as Tight System Liquidity pushes Funding Rates Higher Investors Look To Secondary Market To Fill Unmet Demand At Previous Days Auction Summary of December 2018 FGN Bond Auction Results DMOs Weak Borrowing Appetite Forces 10yr Auction Rate 33bps Lower DMO to offer N70bn FGN Bonds tomorrow as N100bn FGN Sukkuk Bond Offer Closes Diamond Bank Eurobond Rallies 800bps Following Merger Announcement Average Yields on Long Term Bills Remain at Over 170 on Aggressive OMO Mop Ups Average Market Rate Rose By 069 To Settle At 2589 As CBN Continued Its Liquidity Mop Up TBills Market Ends Bearish as CBN Conducts Special OMO Auction Funding Rates Moderate as Market Players Undersubscribe CBN OMO Bond Yields Pare Losses amid Renewed Local Demand Invest in FGN Monthly Bond Auction December 2018 System Liquidity Falls To Negative Territory Amid Continued OMO Auctions Money Market Rates hit Five Month High as CBN Maintains OMO Interventions Sukuk Offer Opens at 15743 Average TBills Rate Advanced 73bps to 144 Sustaining Bearish Run Average Money Market Rate Rose to 824 to Settle at 2521 News All News ARTS FINANCE BlockChain Cryptos Bonds Fixed Income MSME Funding Lending Credit MSME Schemes Plans Budget Agriculture All One Min News Archives Associations Practice Budget and Plans Business Regulations Law Practice Capital Market Capital Market Report Chamber of Commerce Commodities Corporate Results Credit Services Registry Data Financial Inclusion Debtors Recovery Doing Business in Nigeria ECOMMERCE Education Knowledge Elections Employment Generation Programme Enterpreneurship ETFs Faith Religion Fintech Fiscal Policy Forex Frauds Scandals Funds General Global Market Health Insurance Investing in Technology Investments Islamic Finance Make in Nigeria Market Sentiments Market Updates Mergers Acquisitions Ministry of Finance Mobile Money and Telcos Monetary Policy Mortgage MSME Conference Events Fairs MSME Policies Acts Rules Regulations MSME Agencies associations MSME START UP Mutual Funds Nigeria Economy Oil Gas Online Trading Opinions and Analysis Pensions n Retirement People Personal Tax Politics Power Energy Private Equity Products Services Property Real Estate Proshare Confidential Public Private Offers Regulators REITs Research Resources Reviews Outlooks Savings Thrift Investment Security Support Service Report State and Local Govts Stock Analyst Updates Stock PICKS Taxes Tariffs Tech Investors Financing VC Tech Regulations Govt Tech Start Ups Tech Trends Trade Investment Transportation Travel Tours Unlisted OTC MARKET Wills and Trusts World Bank IMF and Dev Agencies World of Business Year After Connect with Proshare

B B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O


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self 22 Dec 2010 What is inner beauty Altruism and generosity bring out the best in us says David ServanSchreiber by Psychologies Sometimes a particular phrase or image we stumble across online affects us deeply Recently I was moved by a slide show dedicated to Audrey Hepburn with quotes and pictures showing her in her dazzling youth and her radiant maturity As a child in the Netherlands Hepburn nearly died of hunger in a country devastated by World War II and was rescued by the UN refugee programme Towards the end of her life she was asked about her beauty secrets She replied with remarkable grace For lovely eyes seek out the good in people For a slim figure share your food with the hungry For beautiful hair let a child run his or her fingers through it once a day People even more than things have to be restored renewed revived reclaimed and redeemed Never throw out anybody The beauty Im aware Im a long way from seeing beauty that way and from never throwing anybody out I could just let these lines drift away like an unattainable ideal But if I allow myself to be touched by this altruistic and generous vision I feel a warm glow in my heart Something in me responds bringing me closer to what is good and right to everything precious in my being And I want to be more like this woman who has gone so much further than I and savoured that human generosity that is in all of us We in the West are so obsessed by our negative emotions that even scientific research has focused exclusively on them Of the five basic emotions disgust fear anger sorrow and happiness only one is positive and that is rather insipid Negative emotions are useful Fear and anger stop us in our tracks and focus our attention on selfdefence Put yourself first they seem to shout On the other hand when were exposed to the great generosity of someone we admire a wellkept garden or an impressive landscape the opposite reaction occurs Being truly inspired also stops us in our tracks and takes us out of our dreary habitual trains of thought But instead of shutting us down it opens our hearts and minds to new ways of being and receiving what the world has to offer us and what we have to offer Oxytocin the hormone that creates bonds of affection is created by the brain reacting to emotions that make our heart beat faster It is produced during breastfeeding and during orgasm in relationships based on love not just sex It is also produced when we are touched by the example of someone we admire Doubtless this love hormone reminds us that it is through our bonds with other people that we get in touch with everything thats good in us Sign up to the Psychologies newsletter Weekly inspiration tips and advice from the best experts in the world on creating the life you really want related news articles self I aim to match the inside with the outside Image advisor Mandy Lehto talks to sophrologist Dominique Antiglio about clothes as a pleasurable second skin without being a distraction by Psychologies

O O O O O O B I B O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O


Stanley Coren PhD DSc FRSC Canine Corner The Nature and Consequences of Noise Sensitivity in Dogs Noise sensitivity in dogs may predict fearfulness in other situations Posted Sep 03 2015 Source SC Psychological Enterprises Ltd I was visiting the apartment of a friend who owns a handsome black Standard Poodle when suddenly there was a loud booming sound from the apartment above It sounded much like someone had tipped over a file cabinet The response of the dog was an immediate show of stress running over to his mistress and standing there trembling and panting It is not unusual for loud noises to trigger fear and anxiety in dogs and depending upon the nature of the specific sounds the proportion of dogs affected can be quite large Loud noises can provoke a variety of apprehensive and fearful behaviors in dogs ranging from evidence of minor discomfort restlessness shaking panting drooling freezing yawning and seeking comfort from its owner to fairly marked behaviors hiding defecation urination selfmutilation or vomiting In some dogs the anxiety related effects can persist for hours and can be quite disruptive Why is it the case that some dogs react fearfully to loud sounds and others do not A number of explanations for noise sensitivity have been suggested and these include genetic factors a traumatic experience associated with noise exposure social transmission learning from other fearful dogs or a result of how the owner treats the dog punishing the dog for its fear related behaviors or reinforcing the dogs fear by being overly comforting A study that was recently accepted for publication in the journal Applied Animal Behaviour Science has taken a new look at noise sensitivity in dogs This new study was conducted by Linn Mari Storengen and Frode Lingaas from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Biosciences in the Norwegian University of Life Sciences at Oslo Norway It was a large study that looked at the behavior of 5257 dogs The participants in this research were dog owners who belonged to one of 17 different dog breed clubs in Norway Each participant filled in a webbased survey to report the noise sensitivity of their pets in four different situations fireworks loud noises banging soundsgunshots thunderstorms and heavy traffic For each different type of noise the owners rated the severity of their dogs fearful responses on a fivepoint scale ranging from a low of no signs up to a high of very strong signs of anxiety Any dog that showed strong signs of anxiety on any of the four different types of noises was classified as a noise sensitive fearful dog In this study 23 of the dogs were reported to be fearful of noises which is a bit more than one out of every five If there is a genetic predisposition for particular dogs to be noise sensitive then it might show up as differences between various breeds of dogs This study looked at 17 different breeds and it does confirm that certain breeds are significantly more fearful of loud sounds For example if we consider the number of dogs in this investigation that are most fearful of fireworks we find the Norwegian Buhunds Shiba Inus and Soft Coated Wheaten Terriers In contrast the lowest frequency of fearful dogs are found among Pointers Great Danes Boxers and Chinese Cresteds The fact that there seems to be a physiological bias toward noise sensitivity is confirmed by several other findings in this study For example female dogs are found to be 30 more likely to be more fearful of noises then are male dogs Obviously the difference between males and females is genetic but it is also hormonal The possibility that there might be a hormonal factor which helps to determine noise sensitivity was supported by the fact that neutering makes a difference in fearful responses to noises In fact neutered dogs were found to be 72 more likely to be fearful of noises when compared to sexually intact dogs Such management of noise related behavior by the dogs owners could still contribute to noise sensitivity On the other hand it does seem to strongly suggest that certain physiological factors are playing a role in this behavior If we are looking at a general physiological predisposition toward fearfulness then noise sensitivity should predict the anxiety related behavior of a dog in other situations as well The results of this investigation seem to confirm that A dog which is fearful to loud noises turns out to be three times more likely to show separation anxiety When we compare dogs with noise sensitivity to those who are resistant to noise effects we find that the sensitive dogs are 18 times more likely to show signs of being fearful in novel situations These noise sensitive dogs are also four times more likely to take a longer time to calm down after stressful situations All of this suggests that noise sensitivity might be an indicator of some underlying physiological mechanism which makes dogs more reactive to potentially stressful events in their environment If all of this is true then we could actually use the noise sensitivity of dogs to measure the likelihood that they will have stressful responses in other circumstances For example recently researchers have found that older dogs are much more likely to react with stress in various situations than are younger dogs for an example If that is the case then this suggests that older dogs should also be more noise sensitive It turns out that data from this new research bears this out For each additional year of a dogs age there was a 34 increase in the likelihood that the dog would show strong or very strong signs of fear when exposed to loud noises So if your dog gets spooked and fearful by loud sounds this new research suggests that it is more likely that much of his noise related anxious behavior may be the result of his heredity and physiology rather than something that came about because of events that occurred during his life history Stanley Coren is the author of many books including The Wisdom of Dogs Do Dogs Dream Born to Bark The Modern Dog Why Do Dogs Have Wet Noses The Pawprints of History How Dogs Think How To Speak Dog Why We Love the Dogs We Do What Do Dogs Know The Intelligence of Dogs Why Does My Dog Act That Way Understanding Dogs for Dummies Sleep Thieves The Lefthander Syndrome Copyright SC Psychological Enterprises Ltd May not be reprinted or reposted without permission Data from Storengen LM Lingaas F 2015 Noise sensitivity in 17 dog breeds prevalence breed risk and correlation with fear in other situations Applied Animal Behaviour Science httpdxdoiorg101016japplanim201508020 5 Comments

O O O O O O O O O O B O B I O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O


Emily

Deans

MD

Evolutionary

Psychiatry

Selenium

and

the

Brain

An

important

micronutrient

for

brain

and

thyroid

function

Posted

Oct

Source

httpenwikipediaorgwikiFileSeBlackRedjpg

Our

modern

industrial

diets

can

be

full

of

calories

but

paradoxically

low

in

some

important

minerals

Having

enough

of

these

minerals

such

as

magnesium

is

vital

to

good

physical

and

mental

health

Selenium

is

another

extremely

important

micronutrient

that

may

be

low

in

the

diets

of

some

modern

populations

leading

to

chronic

health

problems

Selenium

is

found

in

the

soil

and

in

marine

bivalves

such

as

oysters

Levels

in

the

soil

are

quite

high

in

certain

parts

of

China

Turkestan

and

the

Western

United

States

Levels

are

very

low

in

Finland

Scotland

New

Zealand

and

other

parts

of

China

so

that

livestock

must

be

supplemented

or

they

will

fall

ill

According

to

some

gardening

message

boards

soils

where

I

live

here

in

New

England

arent

great

and

Texas

where

I

grew

up

is

rather

middling

And

according

to

various

sources

it

is

somewhat

difficult

to

figure

out

how

much

you

do

get

from

the

soil

as

areas

vary

widely

and

many

forms

of

selenium

are

more

bioavailable

than

others

What

does

selenium

do

Well

selenium

is

key

to

one

of

the

bodys

master

antioxidants

glutathione

peroxidase

This

complex

keeps

the

delicate

polyunsaturated

acids

in

our

cell

membranes

from

getting

oxidized

rancid

Polyunsaturated

fats

such

as

fish

and

a

certain

percentage

of

poultry

oils

are

particularly

vulnerable

to

becoming

rancid

so

having

lots

of

glutathione

peroxidase

around

to

protect

our

cell

membranes

is

helpful

when

we

consume

these

essential

fats

We

really

dont

want

to

run

low

on

the

master

antioxidants

doing

so

leaves

us

vulnerable

to

a

lot

of

toxic

gunk

building

up

in

our

systems

with

longterm

effects

Selenium

deficiency

has

been

described

in

China

as

Keshan

Disease

a

type

of

heart

problem

It

is

also

thought

to

be

a

factor

in

gastrointestinal

cancer

liver

cancer

and

prostate

cancer

In

addition

selenium

in

concert

with

iodine

seems

to

be

important

to

thyroid

hormone

production

specifically

in

the

conversion

of

inactive

to

active

thyroid

hormone

Selenium

deficiency

seems

to

be

one

of

the

major

dangers

of

a

carelessly

designed

ketogenic

diet

for

treatment

of

epilepsy

in

children

leading

to

death

via

an

enlarged

heart

and

abnormal

heart

rhythm

Selenium

deficiency

was

also

deemed

the

cause

of

death

via

cardiomyopathy

of

adult

patients

on

seleniumdeficient

TPN

total

parenteral

nutrition

given

to

patients

in

desperate

circumstances

who

for

some

reason

can

not

tolerate

any

food

given

via

mouth

or

tubes

in

the

gut

Selenium

is

a

trace

mineral

so

it

is

appropriate

for

humans

in

trace

amounts

As

with

nearly

all

vitamins

and

minerals

just

because

we

need

some

doesnt

mean

more

is

better

Humans

need

micrograms

rather

than

milligrams

People

have

died

from

disastrously

low

blood

pressure

and

heart

failure

via

the

ingestion

of

gram

amounts

of

selenium

and

toxicity

occurs

at

milligram

amounts

The

first

symptoms

of

toxicity

are

hair

and

nail

brittleness

and

garlic

smell

on

the

breath

Gun

bluing

is

selenious

acid

and

ingestion

can

lead

to

death

via

selenium

poisoning

I

wouldnt

recommend

drinking

gun

bluing

as

severe

selenium

toxicity

seems

like

one

of

the

more

horrible

ways

to

die

Selenium

is

available

in

grains

nuts

fruits

vegetables

animals

and

bivalves

Fruits

and

vegetables

however

dont

seem

to

have

that

much

in

the

US

and

the

best

food

source

is

actually

brazil

nuts

one

ounce

will

get

you

over

micrograms

so

take

it

easy

and

have

just

a

few

at

a

time

Brazil

nuts

are

also

a

bit

high

in

omega

fatty

acids

and

radium

as

it

happens

which

might

be

a

reason

not

to

make

them

a

major

staple

of

your

diet

Organ

meats

are

also

high

in

selenium

ounces

or

so

of

tuna

beef

cod

and

chicken

breast

will

get

you

around

mcg

whereas

a

typical

grain

meal

pasta

oatmeal

will

net

you

around

mcg

Though

phytic

acids

in

grains

do

interfere

with

mineral

absorption

studies

of

women

eating

wheat

from

seleniumrich

soils

showed

a

nice

elevation

in

plasma

levels

of

selenium

Source

The

adult

US

RDA

is

micrograms

though

a

bit

higher

for

pregnant

or

breastfeeding

women

The

doctors

Jaminet

recommend

mcg

daily

and

the

US

upper

tolerable

limit

is

mcg

the

level

above

which

those

nails

start

to

get

brittle

you

get

irritable

and

tired

and

that

breath

begins

to

be

garlicky

On

the

other

hand

Chinese

studies

of

daily

doses

up

to

micrograms

showed

no

adverse

effects

nor

did

another

study

of

mcgs

daily

Cool

it

on

the

supplements

if

your

breath

gets

garlicky

or

your

nails

start

to

look

like

this

picture

Actually

go

see

a

doctor

pronto

if

your

hair

falls

out

and

your

nails

look

like

that

Now

we

have

a

general

idea

about

what

selenium

is

where

it

comes

from

and

what

is

too

little

and

too

much

But

what

does

it

have

to

do

with

the

brain

Turns

out

the

most

selenium

and

mental

health

data

is

associated

with

pregnancy

aging

andor

thyroid

gland

function

Lets

talk

pregnancy

and

depression

for

a

minute

Little

known

fact

that

slightly

more

women

are

depressed

during

pregnancy

than

after

it

And

if

you

combine

ante

and

postnatal

depression

statistics

this

is

what

you

get

for

the

moms

and

kiddos

poor

maternal

selfcare

increase

in

alcohol

and

drug

use

during

pregnancy

decrease

in

seeking

medical

care

during

pregnancy

more

preeclampsia

birth

difficulties

preterm

delivery

reduced

breastfeeding

lower

APGAR

scores

poor

sleep

failure

to

thrive

developmental

delays

greater

risk

of

illness

in

the

baby

more

behavioral

problems

and

at

years

offspring

of

depressed

mothers

are

almost

five

times

more

likely

to

suffer

depression

themselves

There

are

any

number

of

social

and

medical

factors

that

are

linked

to

perinatal

depression

but

lets

focus

a

bit

on

the

nutritional

ones

links

have

been

found

with

folate

status

vitamin

calcium

iron

selenium

zinc

and

omega

Kaplan

and

colleagues

in

a

great

literature

review

found

potential

beneficial

effects

from

B

vitamins

vitamin

C

D

and

E

calcium

chromium

iron

magnesium

zinc

selenium

and

choline

on

mood

symptoms

Real

Food

Best

Fetal

Dinner

A

recent

study

showed

a

significantly

decreased

Edinburgh

Postnatal

Depression

Scale

score

thats

good

in

pregnant

women

randomized

to

receive

mcg

selenium

daily

Selenium

is

required

for

the

synthesis

and

metabolism

of

thyroid

hormones

And

way

back

in

Benton

and

Cook

did

a

randomized

controlled

crossover

trial

of

mcg

of

selenium

vs

placebo

in

people

for

weeks

followed

by

a

month

washout

then

the

crossover

arm

of

the

trial

Selenium

supplementation

was

associated

with

increases

in

selfreported

mood

This

same

paper

tells

us

that

when

push

comes

to

shove

and

selenium

is

deficient

the

brain

is

the

last

place

that

selenium

levels

drop

suggesting

that

in

the

brain

selenium

is

important

More

recently

Gosney

et

al

reviewed

the

effects

of

micronutrient

supplementation

on

mood

in

nursing

home

residents

finding

that

no

residents

started

out

with

insufficient

serum

levels

of

selenium

yet

weeks

of

mcg

selenium

supplementation

included

in

a

multivitaminmultimineral

with

mcg

iodine

was

directly

correlated

with

decreases

in

depression

scores

and

increases

in

serum

levels

Supplementation

with

selenium

resulted

in

reduced

serum

thyroid

hormone

and

increased

serum

thyroid

hormone

suggesting

that

the

additional

selenium

helped

the

rather

boring

become

the

metabolically

active

In

other

studies

selenium

serum

level

was

associated

with

cognition

in

the

elderly

In

a

year

followup

of

Alzheimers

patients

cognitive

decline

associated

with

dropping

selenium

levels

So

selenium

is

certainly

something

we

dont

want

to

be

deficient

in

particularly

if

we

have

hypothyroidism

histories

of

depressive

illness

or

are

worried

about

cognitive

decline

However

with

an

average

US

intake

of

micrograms

a

day

many

of

us

will

have

more

than

adequate

intake

We

should

worry

about

pregnant

women

children

the

elderly

and

those

who

eat

almost

entirely

processed

junk

food

getting

sufficient

amounts

The

best

way

to

get

vitamins

and

minerals

is

almost

always

from

whole

unprocessed

foods

Good

for

your

thyroid

your

heart

and

your

brain

Image

credit

Image

Credit

Copyright

Emily

Deans

MD

Comments

O O O O O B O O B O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O B O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O B O O O O O B O O O O O O B B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O


Odelya Gertel Kraybill PhD Expressive Trauma Integration Roadmap After Trauma Six Stages to Trauma Integration The cyclic effects of trauma Posted Sep 28 2018 In 2005 as a fellow in a Masters program in Conflict Transformation I took an Intro to Trauma Healing class I was thinking about the impact of trauma on conflicted societies when I signed up for the class not about myself But in ways I had not anticipated the class came home to me For the first time confounding pieces of my complex life history made sense to meand they were all about trauma Today I also see that the awakening I experienced had to do with more than the things I was learning in class For the first time in my life I was living in a truly peaceful environment with none of the reminders of imminent conflict that were a part of daily life in my homeland In this safe place I began to remember and feel traumatic experiences that I had pushed down and far away for years I experienced intense anxiety and fear even though there was obviously no threat around me For the first time I realized how much fear had been a part of my life and how much I had internalized fear responses into my daily functioning By that time I had done almost ten years of therapy with psychodynamic therapists No one had ever suggested to me the possibility that I was a trauma survivor Now struggling to make sense of intense PTSD symptoms in a setting of zero threat I realized that I was a trauma survivor myself This realization helped me make sense of myself and my life Perhaps even more importantly it opened up for me an array of selfcare strategies that I had not previously thought about This experience is one of several that have shaped my thinking about trauma and the Expressive Trauma Integration approach I eventually developed Accurate knowledge about trauma and its impactwhat professionals call psychoeducationis crucial for survivors Like me for much of my life many trauma survivors dont understand the connection between their daily emotional struggles and trauma Absent clear understanding of what is going on most blame themselves living with intense shame and guilt Across all borders genders and cultures I witness selfblame among trauma survivors most often as shouldacouldawoulda If only I had done something differently the outcome would have been different is the recurring thought rumination ETI Roadmap After Trauma Source Dr Odelya Gertel Kraybill Learning about the neurophysiological mechanisms of trauma was lifechanging for me For the first time I was able to make sense of a variety of confusing symptoms reactions and responses that had persistently troubled me for years Another pillar in the Expressive Trauma Integration framework is recognition of the multidimensional nature of trauma and the responses necessitated by it read more about it in this blog You can review the Expressive Trauma Integration After Trauma Roadmap below as an infographic This Roadmap is describing what takes place before during and after trauma Whether you are a trauma survivor a therapist working with trauma survivors or a first responder who interacts with survivors in their earliest moments of this journey this roadmap is designed to guide you in the process of trauma integration In my view the road after trauma is cyclical not linear None of the stages is once and done Survivors usually go through each phase more than once although often with differing durations and intensities Think of the diagram as a spiral upwards rather than a simple progression Roadmap after trauma Six Stages to Trauma Integration Source Dr Odelya Gertel Kraybill The cyclical nature of progress is particularly important to grasp in regard to Stage 3 Withdrawal Withdrawing is an instinctive and essentially healthy human response to difficulties of almost any kind without it wed never remove ourselves from danger Since it is so much a part of the way human beings are wired survivors dont go through withdrawal once and then move on Most will have at least one big period of withdrawal Then they will have many small and mediumsized times of withdrawal and many more moments when they have a strong instinct to withdraw From the perspective of survivors this is discouraging for it feels like a return to the same place Part of proper psychoeducation is about helping survivors recognize it is not Every human being lives with moments of strong urges to withdraw survivors will have more of these than normal since trauma strengthens the instinct to withdraw read more about it in this blog on experiential psychoeducation But having these moments does not mean that a survivor is back in the swamp of early posttrauma response Ordinary daytoday living even when there are routines brings everyone on a regular basis to stress responses that are very similar physiologically in how they feel to posttrauma responses Survivors who are psychoeducated can recognize these mechanisms and incorporate routines of selfcare that over time enable them to selfsustain read more in this blog on selfsustainability One of my goals in developing this roadmap was to find a way of talking and thinking about posttrauma experience in a way that is both realistic and hopeful In my experience the widely used words healing and recovery are misleading In reference to illness or injury to the body to me they often imply that all traces of injury or illness disappear To reflect the twin elements of realism and hopefulness that are appropriate after trauma I use the term Trauma Integration We may not heal in the ways healing sometimes means but we can integrate traumatic experiences into our lives in ways that enable us to live from our highest potential as human beings while expanding our capacity to endure the pain and the aftereffects of trauma Trauma integration begins with a decision to take steps however small towards it A professional trauma therapist with a good understanding of the road ahead can be an invaluable resource to a survivor in the journey Key contributions of the therapist in my view should be psychoeducation read more in this blog helping the client to figure out selfregulation read more in this blog and assisting the client to setup and implement daily routines of selfcare read more in this blog Comment

O O O O O B I O O O B I O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O


Aaron BenZeév PhD In the Name of Love Is Love Blind A mistyeyed view is most advantageous for enduring love Posted Mar 19 2010 Love is not blindIt sees more and not less but because it sees more it is willing to see less Will Moss Love is blind and marriage is the institution for the blind James Graham Many a man has fallen in love with a girl in a light so dim he would not have chosen a suit by it Maurice Chevalier Lovers are often blind to the beloveds negative traits and tend to create an idealized image of the beloved We often love the idealized object rather than the real one Are we then blind when we fall in love and when we maintain it In a surprising number of cases people fall in love with their idealized vision of their lovers or with the idea of being in love rather than with the actual reality of their lovers Indeed people often say that they are living out their dreams with their beloved Positive illusions are in fact central to romantic love Lovers do not see clearly if at all their beloveds negative traits and tend to create an idealized image of the beloved One reason for idealizing the beloved is that we tend to evaluate positively that which we desire Our inclination toward something often leads to its positive evaluation Idealization of the beloved may also be considered as a kind of defense mechanism enabling us to justify our partly arbitrary choice A similar defense mechanism is typical of people who have recently bought a new car and subsequently spend a lot of time reading its advertisements and avoid reading those for other cars they might have bought instead Men seem to idealize women more than women idealize men For example a survey of love songs has found that females were more often described as heavenly or angels than males Idealization of the beloved is more typical of love at first sight and the initial stages of love when a spontaneous evaluation made on little information has an important role If the person fits into the schema underlying the spontaneous evaluation then the person is evaluated positively When more information is available this evaluation must also take into account negative aspects The initial ignorance of the persons characteristics which is expressed in idealization is later replaced with a more realistic picture based upon new and more detailed information Many divorcees testify that they can not understand how they could have Most married people are able to indicate their partners character defects physical defects and bad habits Moreover we may love an evil person an unintelligent person an aesthetically unpleasant person or an arrogant person while knowing this person to be so The cognitive change of gaining additional negative information about the object does not necessarily lead to separation However if love is to be sustained the cognitive change must be accompanied by an evaluative change compensating for the new negative information In light of the complexity typical of love and the fact that lovers are often unwilling to face reality selfdeception and mistakes are likely to occur We can be wrong in identifying the beloveds attitude since the person can easily fake or hide it We can also be wrong in identifying our own loving attitude one reason being that sexual desire can be confused with romantic love This is especially true in the first stages of romantic love when sexuality plays a dominant role According to the troubadour tradition the love test used in order to prevent such confusion among lovers is to spend a night in his mistress arms without any sexual consummation People who are in love for a prolonged period of time maintain the idealized notion of their beloved for the whole period As Solomon who has been happily married to his wife Ziva for the last forty years says When I look at my wife now I still see the young and beautiful Ziva I first met As Simon Blackburn nicely puts it Perhaps we prefer Cupid to have dim sight rather than to be totally blind but it is also just as well that he is not totally clearsighted It seems that positive illusions and a mistyeyed view rather than either clear sightedness or complete blindness are most favorable for enduring love It is not always the case that To know him is to love him Quite often greater knowledge reduces love see here and here This is in accordance with the lack of a clear positive correlation between ones knowledge and ones happiness As Ingrid Bergman noted Happiness is good health and a bad memory The above considerations can be encapsulated in the following statement that a lover might express Darling when you look at me and are not sure about your love please look at the larger picture and do not focus on the boring details Those who have the best sight or the best memory are not necessarily the happiest people 9 Comments

O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O


Barbara Markway PhD Shyness Is Nice 50 Ways You Can Be Brave Today Simple ways to get your brave on Posted May 01 2013 Sometimes the biggest act of courage is a small one Lauren Raffo Bravery isnt only about heroic acts in unusual situations It can also be as simple as the risk of trying something new Here are 50 ideas to get you started Allow yourself to feel what youre feeling Let go of people who continually let you down Look at yourself in the mirror with kindness Tell someone you love himher Preach whats in your heart Write your own story Share your thoughts Share your opinions Dont wear make up Risk being wrong Try something for the first time Trust your instincts Set boundaries Put pen to paper Sing a song Dance Play the ukulele Try Roller Derby Tolerate discomfort bravery doesnt always feel good Make a mistake Follow your heart Say I dont know Ask for help Share your vulnerabilty Face your problems Let the past be the past Allow yourself to be in a photo Take a picture of yourself Trust your ideas even the crazy ones Stand up for someone who is being picked on Leave an abusive relationship Say goodbye to your gremlins Be your own beloved Stand up against any kind of prejudice Say no to the things you dont want Say yes to the things you want Wear something ridiculous just because you like it Be the first person to reach out after a conflict Give a stranger a flower Ask someone how they are and really listen Let go of your need to control everything Embrace your weirdness Dont react to criticism Give someone a hug Give yourself a hug Say kind things to yourself Invite feedback Let go of being busy all the time Be open to changing courses Remember bravery is not the absence of fear Begin again Watch this Brave lyric video by Sara Bareilles Its so good What about you How have you been brave today You might also like 80 SelfCare Ideas Shyness is nice and shyness can stop you from doing all the things in life youd like to Ask by The Smiths Read how we named our blog Source Lets Keep in Touch To subscribe to my posts via email click here Join me on Twitter and Facebook I also write at The SelfCompassion Project with its own page here To read more of my posts on this blog click here I am the coauthor of Dying of Embarrassment Painfully Shy and Nurturing the Shy Child Dying of Embarrassment Help for Social Anxiety Phobia was found to be one of the most useful and scientifically grounded selfhelp books in a research study published in Professional Psychology Research and Practice Ive also been featured in the awardwinning PBS documentary Afraid of People Photo credit Pink Sherbet Photography Flickr CC 2 Comments

O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O


Michael J Breus PhD Sleep Newzzz Yoga Can Help With Insomnia Yoga and sleep look to be a good match Posted Oct 04 2012 Looking for a lowimpact exercise routine with high returns for health and sleep Try yoga The pleasures and benefits of yoga are widely understood yoga can improve physical strength and flexibility improve breathing reduce stress and enhance mental focus What may be less well known are the positive effects that yoga can have on sleep A new study indicates that yoga can help to improve sleep among people suffering from chronic insomnia Researchers at Harvard Medical School investigated how a daily yoga practice might affect sleep for people with insomnia and found broad improvements to measurements of sleep quality and quantity In this study researchers included people with different types of insomnia evaluating people with both primary and secondary insomnia Primary insomnia is sleeplessness that develops on its own independent of any other health problem or sleep disorder Secondary insomnia develops as a symptom or consequence of another medical condition Many illnesses and health problems are associated with insomnia including cancer chronic pain conditions such as arthritis and fibromyalgia and depression Medications taken for chronic or acute health conditions can also trigger insomnia as can the use and abuse of substances such as alcohol Researchers in this study provided their subjects with basic yoga training then asked them to maintain a daily yoga practice for eight weeks The study participants kept sleep diaries for two weeks before the yoga regimen began and for the duration of the eightweek study period In the sleep diaries they kept a record the amount of time spent asleep number of times they awakened during the night and the duration of time spent sleeping between periods of waking in addition to other details about nightly sleep amounts and sleep quality Twenty people completed the eightweek evaluation and researchers analyzed the information in their sleep diaries to evaluate the influence of yoga on the disrupted sleep of chronic insomnia They found improvements to several aspects of sleep including Sleep efficiency Total sleep time Total wake time Sleep onset latency the amount of time it takes to fall asleep Wake time after sleep onset There isnt a great deal of research into the effects of yoga on sleep and its potential value as a treatment for sleep problems and disorders But we have seen other scientific evidence in recent years of yogas effectiveness in improving sleep This study of 410 cancer survivors found that yoga was linked to improved sleep quality reduced feelings of fatigue reduced frequency of use of sleep medication and an improved sense of quality of life among patients who practiced yoga twice a week for 75minute sessions This research looked at the effects of yoga among post menopausal women with insomnia and found that yoga was linked to a reduction in symptoms and the severity of the sleep disorder This study also found yoga linked to lower stress levels and an enhanced sense of quality of life In this study of women with osteoarthritis and sleep problems an evening yoga practice was linked to significant improvements in sleep efficiency and a decrease in the frequency of individual nights of insomnia Insomnia is the most common sleep disorder among American adults with 10 to 15 percent of the population suffering from chronic insomnia As many as 40 percent of adults in the US experience some type of insomnia every year Older people women and those with other health problems are at higher risk for insomnia Despite its prevalence insomnia like many other sleep disorders remains significantly underdiagnosed according to recent research This study showed that while 1 percent of the population surveyed had a clinical diagnosis of insomnia 37 percent of those surveyed showed symptoms of insomnia Insomnia may be common but if left untreated its health consequences can be anything but benign Chronic insomnia is associated with a number of serious medical conditions Insomnia is associated with high blood pressure and other cardiovascular problems This largescale study found that people with insomnia had significantly elevated risk of heart attack Insomnia is also associated with inflammation in the body which is itself a risk factor for heart problems and other serious illnesses Research indicates that lack of sleep can have negative effects on cognition and the brain This study linked insomnia with destruction of gray matter in the brain This group of four studies conducted independently of one another found evidence that poor and fragmented sleep may contribute to impaired cognition as we age Insomnia has been found linked to both anxiety and depression The relationship between sleeplessness and these mental health disorders is still being understood including whether one condition precipitates the other But insomnia depression and anxiety share a deep and difficult connection Lack of sleep and disrupted sleep is also associated with obesity Weve seen extensive research that shows undersleeping is linked to weight gain and the diseases associated with obesity With so much at stake finding effective treatment for insomnia is an important endeavor Sometimes medication can be an appropriate choice but any treatment is best to begin with basic lifestyle changes Yoga and other regular forms of exercise can help to form the basis of a longterm sustainable lifestyle that helps you sleep more and better Sweet Dreams Michael J Breus PhD The Sleep Doctor wwwthesleepdoctorcom 1 Comment

O O O O O O B O O O B B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O B O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O B O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O B O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O B B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O


Marilyn Wedge PhD Suffer the Children As Good As It Gets 7 reasons people stay in unhealthy relationships Posted May 11 2016 Remember the movie As Good as it Gets Jack Nicholson is a selfcentered insulting narcissistic guy who thinks that the world revolves around him When he falls for waitress Helen Hunt he tries to become a better person He still has his intimacy issues but he becomes much nicer Why cant I have a normal boyfriend Hunt laments to her mother Her mothers sage reply is because it doesnt exist For her part at first Hunt seems more normal Slowly however we realize that she has significant problems with intimacy as well Hunt and Nicholson have a lot to work out but there is enough motivation for both of them to change their behavior In real life however that is not always what happens Often one partner wont admit that he or she has problems and believes their relationship issues are all the fault of the other person Usually however as in As Good as it Gets there are flaws on both sides Both partners need to change for the relationship to become healthier I am often faced with situations in couples therapy where partner A has changed as much as he or she can while partner B has not made a similar effort Partner B either cant or wont work on the relationship issues Partner A however ends up staying in the relationship for the wrong reasons Here are 7 reasons that people stay in unhealthy or damaging relationships 1 Partner A stays in the marriage for the sake of the kids She wants her children to have a secure family life Perhaps her parents were divorced and she doesnt want her own children to come from a broken family 2 Partner A is afraid to live on her own or can not envision life without Partner B This is typically the situation when the partners married when they were young and lived by themselves for only a short time or not at all 3 Partner A does not want to take a hit on her quality of life She feels she can not afford to be a divorced woman Its well known that women especially suffer a decline in their standard of living after divorce Of course if the wife is the main breadwinner husbands might feel this way as well 4 Partner A can not envision packing up her belongings and moving to a separate residence The task seems overwhelming 5 Partner A feels so bad about herself or himself usually as a result of their partners wearing them down that he or she doesnt think she can find a better relationship This partner feels that the relationship she has is as good as it gets 6 Partner A keeps thinking that given enough time Partner B is going through some sort of mid life crisis and will eventually change He will give up his affair he will stop watching porn she will stop cluttering etc This usually doesnt happen without the partner making a true commitment to therapy 7 Partner A feels that there is a stigma to divorce because of her religious convictions She would prefer to suffer in a bad relationship to going against the tenets of her religion Partner A typically prefers to wait for Partner B to take the first step toward divorce I have seen many people damaged in unhealthy relationships because they feel that the relationship is as good as it is going to get for them While no relationship is perfect staying together for the wrong reasons can be degrading and toxic to a persons self respect Copyright Marilyn Wedge PhD Marilyn Wedge is the author of the new book A Disease called Childhood 2 Comments

O O O O O O B I B I I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I B I I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I B I I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I B I I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O


Carl E Pickhardt PhD Surviving Your Childs Adolescence Teaching Adolescents Teaching resistant adolescents is different from teaching more willing children Posted Oct 27 2014 A friend suggested that I write a blog about teaching adolescents Since Im not a classroom teacher I said the best I could do is reflect on what young people have reported in counseling about those teachers who seemed to work well for them where the relationship personally and educationally came to positively matter for the benefit it provided First appreciate how teaching a classroom of adolescents can be more difficult than teaching a classroom of younger children Just as parents typically encounter more active and passive resistance argument and delayed compliance from their detaching adolescent than their attached child so teachers typically encounter more resistance from students beginning around the upper elementaryearly middle school grades around ages 9 13 when the separation from childhood and entry into early adolescence usually begins For example in middle school there are frequently more classroom disciplinary referrals particularly for boys aggressively expressing their male side less attention paid in class more challenges and complaints from students less consistent completion of homework lower motivation to academically achieve more disorganization and distractibility and increased expressions of boredom like tuning teachers out These are not problems for teachers to solve they are realities with which to contend If you want to work with more receptive and appreciative students its probably best to teach in the early elementary grades before the adolescent change begins The affectionate student that adored their 1st grade teacher acts more disaffected with their 6th grade teacher And as older adolescents proceed through high school and even into college the spirit of resistance can still be in play as the young person often gets increasingly mired in procrastination resisting not only what adults want them to do but even resisting what they would like to get done themselves Thus in the early stages of adolescence the rallying cry of resistance is You cant make me But as adolescence progresses it becomes I cant make me Sad testimony to this change sounds like this I flunked out of college because I couldnt get myself to do the work When people talk about the teacher as being in loco parentis standing in adult place of parents they are correct The classroom teacher is the most present parentlike authority in most adolescent lives and it is easy for some students to transfer resistance to parents to resistance to a teacher For example there can be adolescent dislikes of a teacher who feels similar to a controlling or critical parent at home Or there can be teachers of subjects like grammar or mathematics where fixed operating procedures can sometimes arouse hostility in an adolescent who bridles at the imposition of arbitrary However although in loco parents can get in the way for the classroom teacher of adolescents representing one more parentlike authority it can also provide a great opportunity It can offer the chance to meaningfully relate to a salient adult at a time when the connection with parents is strained and difficult to access In adolescence lots of young people miss a close connection to parents and welcome one with a significant adult who is not entangled with their personal past where they can establish their own reputation independent of family dynamics and history So you have the attentive middle school science teacher with whom some of her students choose to eat lunch a couple times week We just hang out but its no big deal Except for young people hungry for meaningful communication with an adult it really is Or you have the gruff high school social studies teacher who charges his students to engage in associated community service that creates additional demands outside of class which they appreciate We do more work but its no big deal Except for young people hungry for an adult to push them into socially contributing it So what might teachers do in class to encourage adolescent attention and engagement From what Ive heard three teacher influences come to mind Acceptance Safety and Challenge When it comes to ACCEPTANCE these adults have expectations that really fit the adolescent state of mind and functioning as opposed to teachers who fault an adolescent for not meeting or living up to what they ideally expect An example of acceptance might be I expect to have students will have a harder time completing and getting work in on time I expect to have students who wont always want to be motivated to perform in class and I expect to have students whose engagement in class shall depend a lot on the state of feeling they bring on any When it comes to SAFETY these adults appear mindful of insecurities of the age that can make classroom learning a very risky business for adolescents risks that can interfere with learning For example consider five First there is the risk of declaring Ignorance I dont know I dont know how Second there is the risk of making Mistakes through trial error effort to understand I may mess up I may do it wrong Third there is the risk of feeling Stupid I cant get it I dont know how Fourth there is the risk of looking Foolish Others will see me struggle I will feel embarrassed Fifth there is the risk of being Evaluated Suppose I dont do well suppose I fail For insecure adolescents sometimes it can feel safer not to try to shut Teachers can discourage these reluctant students even further by making learning more dangerous like this They can ridicule Ignorance I cant believe you dont know this They can be impatient with Mistakes Youre not trying They can accuse of Stupidity How can you be so slow They can provoke sense of Foolishness What must others think They can consign effort to Failure Youll never get it right On the other hand teachers can encourage reluctant learners by making it feel safer like this They can affirm Ignorance All learning starts with recognizing what we do not know They can be patient with Mistakes Getting it wrong is how you learn to get it right They can appreciate feeling Stupid Youre dont lack intelligence youre learning at your own rate They can be respectful of appearing Foolish Letting others see you struggle to learn is brave They can extract gain from Failure From trying you know more than you did before When it comes to CHALLENGE teachers most fondly remembered or firmly valued tend to be those who were not the easiest to get by but the sources of hardest work Resistant adolescents seemed to appreciate being pushed beyond their comfort limits to accomplish more than they thought they could The memorable teacher relentlessly pushed adolescents to push themselves harder to learn and accomplish more at a time in life when hard work demanded by an adult authority was not what they felt naturally inclined to do An example of great teaching adolescents that I have never forgotten occurred in a high school classroom I was invited to observe many many years ago In my opinion the teacher faced an impossible task Her students were high school age young men who shared one thing in common elementary reading skills They were there to learn to read As they walked in she greeted them individually happy to see them all Each student then sat down with the same book to follow along silently as one student at a time was chosen to stand up and read a passage My bet would be that if you interviewed those young men now grown older today most would remember that teacher for the valued contribution that she made For more about parenting adolescents see my recent book SURVIVING YOUR CHILDS ADOLESCENCE Wiley 2013 Information at wwwcarlpickhardtcom Next weeks entry When Adolescents Start Talking Less to Parents Comment

O O O O O O O O B I O O B O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O

teaching adolescents
adolescents
willing children


Azadeh

Aalai

PhD

The

First

Impression

Facts

About

Human

Behavior

That

Defy

Our

Assumptions

What

truths

can

science

teach

us

Posted

Jul

We

are

living

in

polarizing

times

Whatever

the

categorization

is

we

are

constantly

being

bombarded

by

rhetoric

trying

to

pit

different

groups

against

each

other

Perhaps

the

most

classic

and

longstanding

division

throughout

civilization

has

been

the

pitting

of

the

sexes

against

each

other

As

I

try

to

remind

my

students

every

semester

whether

we

are

talking

about

crosscultural

research

or

differences

between

women

and

menat

the

end

of

the

day

we

are

all

more

similar

than

we

are

different

The

differences

are

oftentimes

what

I

refer

to

as

window

dressing

or

more

readily

observable

than

our

similarities

or

shared

humanity

Moreover

differences

between

individuals

or

even

groups

arent

inherently

problematic

it

is

when

these

differences

are

used

to

denote

deficiency

characterizing

one

group

as

inferior

to

the

otherthat

focusing

on

differences

becomes

problematic

and

has

the

potential

to

sow

conflict

within

a

culture

So

for

those

of

you

trying

not

to

get

swept

up

by

all

the

problematic

rhetoric

we

are

inundated

with

not

only

by

this

administration

but

also

by

corporate

media

I

am

here

to

share

with

you

that

the

science

is

on

the

side

of

our

shared

humanityhere

are

some

facts

that

defy

our

assumptions

about

groups

and

challenge

many

of

the

stereotypes

and

problematic

values

being

transmitted

in

our

culture

right

now

It

is

not

in

mans

nature

to

be

violent

It

is

in

our

nature

to

have

empathy

Perhaps

one

of

the

most

persistent

stereotypes

about

the

nature

of

man

that

the

research

is

constantly

challenging

is

the

notion

that

man

is

somehow

wired

for

violence

or

naturally

inclined

towards

conflict

and

warfare

In

fact

what

the

research

consistently

identifies

is

that

individualswhether

male

or

femalehave

to

be

systematically

indoctrinated

into

a

culture

of

violence

before

they

can

effectively

engage

in

killing

behaviors

Soldiers

are

conditioned

not

born

For

a

compelling

and

exhaustive

account

of

this

reality

I

recommend

On

Killing

The

Psychological

Cost

of

Learning

to

Kill

in

War

Society

by

Lt

Col

Dave

Grossman

The

research

that

he

presents

defies

the

traditionaland

historicalway

we

are

socialized

to

think

about

warfare

and

society

While

we

are

not

naturally

inclined

towards

violence

we

are

in

fact

wired

for

empathy

The

discovery

of

the

mirror

neuron

system

in

the

brain

presents

some

interesting

and

compelling

notions

of

our

capabilities

as

humans

And

in

fact

this

system

is

not

even

exclusive

to

humansit

was

first

discovered

in

monkeys

Mirror

neurons

are

a

subset

of

neurons

in

the

brain

that

fire

not

only

when

an

individual

is

engaging

in

a

given

behavior

but

also

when

an

individual

is

observing

someone

else

engaging

in

a

behavior

These

neurons

cant

tell

the

difference

between

seeing

and

doingthey

fire

either

way

This

reflects

an

inherently

social

system

within

the

brain

The

mirror

neuron

system

wires

us

to

connect

with

others

socially

to

learn

through

observation

As

reported

by

the

APA

The

concept

might

be

simple

but

its

implications

are

farreaching

Over

the

past

decade

more

research

has

suggested

that

mirror

neurons

might

help

explain

not

only

empathy

but

also

autism

and

even

the

evolution

of

language

Winerman

para

Men

are

the

more

biologically

vulnerable

of

the

two

sexes

One

of

the

most

pervasive

stereotypes

regarding

differences

between

the

sexes

is

that

males

are

somehow

endowed

with

superior

skills

or

capacities

relative

to

females

Of

course

such

a

perverse

logic

has

been

used

for

centuries

to

justify

the

dominance

of

males

over

females

in

patriarchal

societies

across

the

globe

The

science

however

tells

a

different

story

In

fact

because

of

the

chromosomal

pairings

that

define

sex

as

either

male

or

female

males

are

more

biologically

vulnerable

than

their

female

counterparts

A

basic

developmental

psychology

textbook

identifies

the

process

of

fertilization

and

the

chromosomal

pairings

that

determine

sex

An

XX

combination

indicates

a

female

XY

indicates

a

male

The

male

from

conception

is

the

more

fragile

of

the

two

sexes

Estimates

are

that

males

are

conceived

for

every

females

However

so

many

males

are

spontaneously

aborted

that

only

males

are

born

for

every

females

A

similar

pattern

appears

in

neonatal

life

and

continues

throughout

development

until

women

finally

outnumber

men

reversing

the

original

ratio

Dacey

Travers

p

The

authors

go

on

to

conclude

that

Structurally

and

functionally

females

resist

disease

better

than

males

the

male

is

more

subject

to

hereditary

disease

and

defect

Environmental

elements

expose

the

male

to

greater

hazards

Females

are

born

with

and

retain

biological

superiority

over

males

Dacey

Travers

p

These

facts

defy

the

way

that

we

are

socialized

to

think

about

men

and

women

I

present

them

here

as

evidence

that

the

biological

facts

regarding

sex

vary

from

the

social

and

cultural

associations

we

equate

with

gender

The

nature

of

man

and

woman

holds

certain

truths

that

challenge

the

ways

we

are

socialized

to

think

about

our

relative

masculinity

and

femininity

Race

is

a

social

construct

not

a

biological

one

If

a

perversity

of

basic

facts

regarding

sex

differentiation

has

been

used

to

promote

male

dominance

across

the

globe

a

similar

social

hierarchy

regarding

race

has

also

been

rooted

in

junk

science

While

there

are

biological

underpinnings

to

skin

color

the

notion

of

race

is

not

in

fact

rooted

in

biology

In

fact

today

the

mainstream

belief

among

scientists

is

that

race

is

a

social

construct

without

biological

meaning

as

reported

by

Gannon

para

Moreover

genetic

scholarship

suggests

that

racial

categories

are

weak

proxies

for

genetic

diversity

and

need

to

be

phased

out

Gannon

para

Nonetheless

we

are

inundated

with

rhetoriceven

within

the

scientific

communitydrawing

distinctions

between

groups

based

on

notions

of

race

being

a

biological

construct

One

is

not

born

into

a

particular

race

however

that

categorization

is

defined

by

the

society

and

culture

a

person

is

born

into

that

defines

groups

in

a

particular

way

The

notion

of

race

is

very

akin

to

that

of

genderwhat

are

the

social

cultural

and

psychological

meanings

we

attach

to

blackness

and

whiteness

same

as

we

do

to

maleness

and

femaleness

The

history

of

race

relations

in

our

country

is

perhaps

the

greatest

testament

to

the

role

that

environment

or

culture

plays

in

our

notions

of

race

The

body

is

selfhealing

We

are

a

nation

of

addicts

Whether

it

is

prescription

or

recreational

drugs

we

are

getting

on

the

streets

there

is

an

epidemic

of

addiction

right

now

in

our

culture

The

opioid

epidemic

in

particular

developed

in

large

part

from

unsuspecting

patients

experiencing

pain

after

physical

injuries

or

surgeries

who

then

became

dependent

on

the

painkillers

their

physicians

were

prescribing

to

manage

their

pain

during

the

recovery

phase

While

the

treatment

of

pain

is

an

inexact

sciencethere

are

both

physical

and

psychological

influences

on

our

experience

of

painwhat

is

often

overlooked

by

the

mainstream

medical

establishment

is

that

our

bodies

have

selfhealing

capacities

Dr

Lissa

Rankin

author

of

the

revolutionary

Mind

over

Medicine

Scientific

Proof

That

You

Can

Heal

Yourself

does

an

exhaustive

review

of

all

the

ways

the

body

is

equipped

to

repair

itself

Moreover

she

traces

the

significant

role

that

our

stress

response

and

psychology

play

in

the

infections

and

diseases

that

we

develop

In

offering

a

summary

of

her

work

she

shares

that

the

bodys

natural

selfrepair

mechanisms

fully

function

when

the

nervous

system

is

in

relaxation

response

Rankin

para

The

realization

that

our

bodys

natural

state

is

one

of

harmony

can

be

transformative

for

individuals

who

have

been

seeking

external

remedies

for

what

ails

them

The

journey

then

becomes

one

of

selfexploration

and

of

delving

deeper

into

the

internal

mechanismsnot

only

physiological

but

critically

the

psychological

onesthat

can

be

holding

us

back

Haters

can

experience

reform

We

are

living

in

a

dangerous

time

where

we

are

seeing

the

rise

of

hate

groupswhite

supremacists

rebranded

as

alt

right

but

still

promoting

the

same

oldfashioned

hatreds

are

reemerging

all

across

the

globe

Despite

this

there

are

also

organizations

that

are

attempting

to

rehabilitate

individuals

who

have

been

indoctrinated

into

a

culture

of

hate

The

organization

Life

After

Hate

for

instance

attempts

to

counter

hatred

and

discrimination

through

compassion

and

other

prosocial

techniques

This

organization

was

founded

by

former

violent

extremists

in

and

has

reportedly

helped

more

than

men

and

women

who

were

affiliated

with

hate

groups

leave

these

organizations

and

seek

a

better

life

that

is

not

defined

by

hatred

or

violence

In

an

interview

the

cofounder

and

board

chair

of

Life

After

Hate

had

this

to

say

about

what

he

has

learned

since

he

has

started

this

work

He

shares

Happy

people

dont

plant

bombs

and

happy

people

dont

behead

people

and

happy

people

dont

paint

swastikas

on

synagogues

Its

just

not

the

case

Disenfranchised

lonely

selfloathing

people

do

that

There

is

something

missing

from

their

life

something

they

didnt

get

whether

it

was

as

a

child

or

maybe

they

were

abused

or

maybe

they

came

from

a

broken

home

or

something

was

missing

Even

for

me

who

came

from

a

relatively

normal

household

there

was

something

missing

As

reported

by

Lenz

para

I

share

these

facts

as

a

reminder

that

many

of

the

ills

our

culture

is

facing

right

now

are

byproducts

of

problematic

socialization

and

thus

can

be

repaired

We

are

a

culture

that

has

lost

sight

of

our

shared

humanity

and

all

of

the

ways

that

we

are

connected

to

one

another

Maybe

a

little

science

can

help

us

recognize

all

the

ways

we

are

being

led

astray

and

bring

us

back

to

some

basic

truths

In

summary

I

would

like

to

close

with

this

quote

taken

from

research

on

mirror

neurons

Neuroscientist

Vittorio

Gallese

shares

that

It

seems

were

wired

to

see

other

people

as

similar

to

us

rather

than

different

and

concludes

by

identifying

that

at

the

root

as

humans

we

identify

the

person

were

facing

as

someone

like

ourselves

as

quoted

by

Winerman

p

Perhaps

now

more

than

ever

we

must

remain

vigilant

in

identifying

these

truths

about

our

nature

Copyright

Azadeh

Aalai

References

Dacey

JS

Travers

J

Human

Development

Across

the

Lifespan

Sixth

Edition

McGraw

Hill

Boston

Gannon

M

February

Race

is

a

Social

Construct

Scientists

Argue

The

Sciences

Scientific

America

Retrieved

on

July

from

httpswwwscientificamericancomarticleraceisasocialconstructscientistsargue

Lenz

R

February

Life

After

Hate

Southern

Poverty

Law

Center

Retrieved

on

July

from

Comments

O O O O O O B O B I O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O


Ilana Simons PhD The Literary Mind Why Do We Have Emotions Mental illness often results from excess emotion Posted Nov 14 2009 Mental illness often results from excess emotion The overflow of emotion doesnt just drive mood disorders like Major Depression but fuels most psychological problems phobias anxiety trauma hoarding obsessiveness borderline personality disorder and drug and alcohol abuse Why oh why were we made to feel so much Its as if our wiring which when given the options of emotion and reason gravitates to the former were out to screw us The popular answer is the evolutionary onethat emotions have helped us survive When we lived in the wildwith monkeys and mastodons and tigerswe needed emotions in order to react quickly to dangerous stimuli If faced with a tiger its better to be rocked with a fear so strong it triggers a rush of blood than to sit around and theorize about the threat We developed an emotional system because it could induce quick responses to danger for theorists on emotion and evolution see Antonio Damasio Joseph LeDoux and Robert Trivers But the claim that emotions keep things alive is too simple After all you can name a lot of efficient enduring response systems that dont include emotion Rivers are onethey skirt serious barriers and survive through history Or consider an ivy plant It has a very good sensory system and no love fear or drama to weigh it down It winds itself up from the ground over rocks through the locks of gates finding places to cling It can endure weather changes feed itself and grow new cells Thats a solid response system not driven by emotion So again why An evolutionary answer with a bit more detail is that were animals more aggressive and selfconscious than rivers and plants are Aggression and the desire to survive that comes with selfhood helped scoot animals up the food chain If you want to create a system that works hard to survive make it consciousness and emotional It will want to keep itself around On top of that human beings are the most selfconscious animals This makes us increasingly invested and crafty in our need for survival We developed basic emotions fear joy like the other animals But then we developed a more complex rational system too in which we could imagine our own past and future selves It was the ability to reason about old and future selves to set traps and not just run from tigers that allowed us to dominate the food chain Rational thought helped us shape the world for our future rerouting rivers breeding plants caging tigers We now have two highly developed systems reason and the emotional core still sitting there like the primitive animal inside us As said above mental illnesses often result from an imbalance in those two And emotions kick us in the ass these days for a number of reasons For one even though emotions like fear used to be helpful in the wild theyre less efficient helpmates in modern civilized life Of course we still have plenty to fear but our threats are not usually immediate like a tiger but rather distant like money and war and homelessness The old fightorflight In turn therapy these days often focuses on keeping our systems in balancebalancing our emotion and reason One nice concept along this line comes from Dialectical Behavioral Therapy DBT DBT has established the concept of the wise mind which is a useful integration of the emotional and rational selves We get to wise mind when were able to step back from emotion and reason with it The wise mind puts emotion and reason in conversation or uses reason to calm emotion down We likely have emotions because they help us survive But they also tend to drive us crazy when given too much reign Of course what Im saying barely scratches the surface After all the other reason why we developed emotion is that emotion helps build relationships and bind communities We would not be able to coordinate our goals so well if we did not love and fear and trust and feel a sense of pride In this light heres post 2 which focuses on the social use of emotions 20 Comments

O O O O O O O O O O B B I O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O

emotions
mental illness
psychological problems


Guy Winch PhD The Squeaky Wheel The Difference between Complaining and Whining How complaining venting and whining have different psychological impacts Posted Oct 10 2012 Complaining and whining can be distinguished by the nature of the dissatisfaction and by our motivation for expressing it Complaining involves voicing fair and legitimate dissatisfactions with the goal of attaining a resolution or remedy When we voice legitimate dissatisfactions but do so without the goal of attaining a resolution we are merely venting And when the dissatisfactions we voice are trivial or inconsequential and not worthy of special attention we are whining The distinction is significant because complaining venting and whining have very different effects on our psychology and emotions How we complain affects us in substantial ways many of which we fail to realize They impact us materially read Do You Speak up When You Should emotionally read How Much of Your Life Do You Spend Angry physically read When Minor Complaints have Major Consequences and psychologically read Does Complaining Damage Our Mental Health In addition how we express dissatisfactions has a significant impact on how we are perceived by those to whom we voice them read The Survival Guide for Dealing with Chronic Complainers Now a new study expands this body of knowledge by demonstrating that children as young as threeyearsold can distinguish between complaining and whining and respond accordingly In the first part of the study toddlers were exposed to an adult who displayed emotional distress to different situations Some of the situations involved legitimate harm such as one adult dropping the lid of a toy box on anothers hand and some involved the adult overreacting to a minor inconvenience such as having their shirt sleeve snag on the toy box lid The adult responded to all incidents by pouting frowning and whimpering In the second part of the study the child was given two helium balloons and the adult was given one The adult then accidently let go of their helium balloon and again displayed signs of distress The children were much quicker to offer the adult one of their own balloons if they had previously witnessed them being distressed for justifiable reasons having their hand caught in the toy box than they were had they witnessed them being distressed for unjustifiable ones having their shirt sleeve snagged in the toy box The study demonstrates that children as young as threeyearsold can distinguish legitimate complaints from whining and display empathy accordingly Taking time to consider whether our complaints are worthwhile what we hope to attain by voicing them and how doing so might impact those around us is a crucial step too many of us skip in todays culture of complaints View my short and quite personal TED Talk about Psychological Health here For more about complaining psychology and how it affects our lives and relationships check out The Squeaky Wheel Reference Young Children Sympathize Less in Response to Unjustified Emotional Distress Robert Hepach Amrisha Vaish and Michael Tomasello Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology Developmental Psychology online Aug 13 2012 Copyright 2012 Guy Winch Follow me on Twitter GuyWinch 2 Comments

O O O O O O O O O B O B O B O O B O O O O O O O O B O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O B O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O