Author Archive

Listed by most recent articles first.

• Dialectical Behavior Therapy in the Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder
  People with borderline personality disorder can be challenging to treat, because of the nature of the disorder. They are difficult to keep in therapy, frequently fail to respond to our therapeutic efforts and make ...
• An Overview of Dialectical Behavior Therapy
  Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) is a specific type of cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy developed in the late 1980s by psychologist Marsha M. Linehan to help better treat borderline personality disorder. Since its development, it has also ...
• Why Are You Overeating?
  I believe that the basis of compulsive eating is emotional and that people really need to learn to listen to their hungers. It's important for them to eat when they're hungry, to stop when they've ...
• Children and Psychiatric Medications
  Medications Prescribed for Childrenwith Depression, Anxiety, or ADHD One in ten of America's children has an emotional disturbance such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, depression or anxiety, that can cause unhappiness for the child and ...
• More Questions and Answers about Attention Deficit Disorder in Children
  Q. What is Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)? A. ADHD refers to a family of related chronic neurobiological disorders that interfere with an individual's capacity to regulate activity level (hyperactivity), inhibit behavior (impulsivity), and attend to ...
• Teenage Anger
  Teen anger takes many forms. It may be expressed as indignation and resentment, or rage and fury. It is the expression of teenage anger — the behavior — that we see. Some teens may repress ...
• Accepting the Truth about Ourselves
  Another Session in Confession Considering the amount of time I spend confessing my mistakes and shortcomings in therapy, I often think the doc missed his true calling. And therapy would definitely be easier if I could ...
• Coping with Chronic Pain
  A little pain usually is a good thing. It's our alarm system. It's our body's way of saying, "Hey, that's hot ... get away before it hurts you!" But when the pain lingers on and ...
• Facts about Suicide
  Men are four times more likely than women to die by suicide, but women try to commit suicide twice as often as men (they're just unsuccessful). Such attempts often are viewed as a "cry for ...
• An Introduction to Suicide
  Suicide is an irrational desire to die. We use the term "irrational" here because no matter how bad a person's life is, suicide is a permanent solution to what is nearly always a temporary problem. ...
• What Causes Schizophrenia?
  The causes of schizophrenia, like all mental disorders, are not completely understood or known at this time. There is no known single cause ...
• Helpful Hints about OCD for Family Members
  OCD affects not only the sufferer but the whole family. The family often has a difficult time accepting the fact that the person with OCD cannot stop the distressing behavior. Family members may show their ...
• Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing
  Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a relatively new clinical treatment that has been scientifically evaluated primarily with trauma survivors. EMDR's originator, Dr. Francine Shapiro, describes the procedure in detail in a recent book, ...
• Communication Addiction Disorder: Concern over Media, Behavior and Effects
  By Joseph B. Walther Dept. of Communication, Cornell University Presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association Boston August, 1999 Abstract Recent attention to Internet Addiction Disorder (IAD) raises concerns about conceptualization and etiology of such a ...
• Types of Abuse
  Abuse refers to harmful or injurious treatment of another human being that may include physical, sexual, verbal, psychological/emotional, intellectual, or spiritual maltreatment. Abuse may coexist with neglect, which is defined as failure to meet a ...
• Medications: Symptom Relief, Not Cure
  Just as aspirin can reduce a fever without clearing up the infection that causes it, psychotherapeutic medications act by controlling symptoms. Like most drugs used in medicine, they correct or compensate for some malfunction in ...
• An Overview of Treatments for Bipolar Disorder
  Medical and therapeutic treatments for bipolar disorder include antidepressants, mood stabilizers, antipsychotics, benzodiazepines, and psychotherapy. Treatment of bipolar disorder is usually lengthy, often lasting years, although most long-term treatment is limited to simply taking ...
• Lifestyles of People with Bipolar Disorder
  Bipolar disorder can be influenced by alternative treatments and lifestyle choices -- including diet, exercise, sleep, and religious/spiritual practice, coping skills and suicide prevention. There are alternative or complementary treatments for bipolar disorder, ...
• Diagnosing Bipolar Disorder Can be Challenging
  Consider the following scenario: A person visits their doctor or psychiatrist in a state of near-suicide. After probing for other possible causes of the patient's condition, the psychiatrist diagnoses that their patient with clinical depression ...
• The Two Types of Bipolar Disorder
  The DSM-IV (the diagnostic Bible) divides bipolar disorder into two types, rather unimaginatively labeled bipolar I and bipolar II. "Raging" and "Swinging" are far more apt: Bipolar I Raging bipolar (I) is characterized by ...
• Steps to Address Domestic Violence
  Break the Silence Victims should talk to family, friends, neighbors or co-workers about the domestic violence they experience. It may be helpful to call a domestic violence hotline for information, referrals and support. Develop a Safety Plan When ...
• Domestic Violence Organizations and Resources
  Hotlines There are local, state and national support systems available to help victims of domestic violence. They can help with housing, legal information, welfare, treatment and counseling. For a list of local and state domestic violence ...
• Understanding Domestic Violence
  Domestic violence, or violence in the family unit, with women and children as primary victims, is a major public health problem. Domestic violence constitutes a pattern of abusive behavior that includes the use or threat of ...
• Understanding the Effects of Domestic Violence
  Domestic violence physically, psychologically and socially affects women, men and their families. Initially, the abuse usually is an attempt by one partner to exert control through intimidation, fear, verbal abuse or threats of violence. Victims of ...
• Taking Action with Domestic Violence
  When spouses, intimate partners or dates use physical violence, threats, emotional abuse, harassment or stalking to control the behavior of their partners, they are committing domestic violence. The first step is for the victim to understand ...