Blogs
Most people think physical violence is more dangerous than verbal abuse in a relationship, but this is a misconception. It's why we often hear well-meaning advice such as, "If an abuser's behavior turns violent, it's time to leave." But should it have to get to this point before the abused person walks away? Emotional abuse and physical violence are not mutually exclusive -- in fact, one is usually a precursor to the other. So, let's explore the psychological side effects of verbal abuse, some of which have dangerous implications.
As exciting as the holiday season can be, it can also bring up self-stigma about mental health problems. Spending more time with friends and family can lead to a lot of comparisons that may cause shame about one’s position in life. As someone who deals with mental health problems, I sometimes feel like a failure because I think I should be doing so much more, but mental illness has gotten in the way. Dealing with mental health self-stigma is always hard, and the holidays tend to be particularly difficult.
Understanding the definition and examples of the ad hominem fallacy will change the way you process arguments forever. This is really important in the context of trying to figure out if you are a victim of verbal abuse, which is sometimes the case when the ad hominem fallacy is used.
Psychiatrist William Dodson developed a term specifically applicable to people with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): rejection sensitive dysphoria (RSD). Rejection sensitive dysphoria applies to people with ADHD because ADHDers tend to be particularly sensitive. While the existence of RSD is up for debate, the emotionality of ADHDers is not. Many with the disorder agree that they are extremely sensitive to rejection, criticism, and failure.
In my last post, I talked about my upcoming trip to couples counseling with my boyfriend. I voiced my fears that couples therapy could be detrimental to the relationship because maybe there were more problems than I thought. I realized that rather than us having problems together, we both suffered a lot of trauma separately that created imagined problems in our head. Although I was right about the imagined problems, couples counseling opened my eyes to my own problems and gave me incentive to continue with individual therapy.
My life is chaos and that makes coping with anxiety difficult. In this house, there is always something going on, whether it’s family drama, the dogs barking at everything, or something essential changing. At present, there is no clear path to my desk because my aunt recently moved in. I know I will go to the storage unit soon and fix this overcrowded situation. In the meantime, it is hard not to let the abundance of personal belongings drive me to distraction. For me, I have to find ways to get things done with anxiety even when life is in chaos.
Food is often out into two categories, good and bad, but food is not "good" or "bad." Having these judgmental thoughts around food leads us to believe we are either "good" or "bad" for eating certain foods. This disordered eating pattern of thought leads us deeper into our disorders. I have been working a lot lately on seeing food as a neutral party which does not have a "good" or "bad" label attached. Here I share the importance of not judging food as good or bad for successful eating disorder recovery.
Using medication in binge eating disorder recovery can be a wonderful tool that helps your recovery blossom. There are those who are against the use of medication in eating disorder treatment and I believe these people have some valid points. In the end, I think that the use of proper medication in binge eating disorder recovery can be a really big help.
Facing the possible side effects of changing antidepressant medication can make trying a different one really scary. You read the list of the medication's side effects and hear all of the horror stories that other people have told. You try to remind yourself that these are their stories and not your own. So you gather up the courage to actually try it. I recently started a psychiatric medicine and have learned many things about how to cope with the side effects of changing antidepressant medication.
As a person who experienced dissociation from trauma, I am thankful for dissociation even though it happens to this day. It can be difficult to be thankful for things when you have dissociative identity disorder (DID). When you have DID, you have experienced significant trauma that impacts your entire life. So what's to be thankful for when things seem to be so hard? Is dissociation from trauma something to be thankful for?
I believe she will only be able to rid herself of her demons, and hopefully her BPD as well, when she's ready to confront the abuse of her father. If she can put the blame where it belongs, she may stop projecting that victim/perpetrator cycle on the present men in her life. These demons are a metaphor for the purgatory she has created for herself. That reality has consequences in the real world, but it need not be real in the tangible sense. Exorcising her demons will require the expenditure of real physical energy and probably the destruction of aspects of her personality. If this ever happens, and it's possible but not probable, then these demons will evaporate. They are only as real as one's personality is real. In short, reality is not the question, it's what you make of the things you feel to be real.