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World of Psychology


Happiness

Three Steps for Finding Purpose and Why It Matters

As I opened my front door on a recent May morning, I was greeted by the welcoming sight of two small, dark eyes and a tiny head. She was up above me, by the light on our porch, sitting in her nest, devotedly protecting and warming her eggs. I had seen a flurry of activity over the past month -- a scuttering of wings back and forth, day after day, as she built this nest, an architectural feat balancing on the tip of the lamp post.
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General

Podcast: Psych Central Turns 25 This Year

It’s Psych Central’s 25th anniversary! In today’s show, we celebrate the Internet’s largest and oldest independent mental health site with founder Dr. John Grohol. Just a few years after the World Wide Web became public domain, Dr. Grohol was inspired to create an online resource for everyone -- a site where patients, clinicians and caregivers could come together to access and share valuable mental health and psychology information.

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Ethics & Morality

Ridiculing the Experts Who Just Might Save Us: Why Is This Happening?

Years ago, when I was teaching a course on nonverbal communication, I read a research report on a topic relevant to that class. It had just been published. So that day, instead of starting with the lecture I had planned, I told the students all about the new study. 

It is a small thing, I know, but I was proud of myself. I thought the students would appreciate having access to the most up-to-date findings in the field. 
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Children and Teens

Maintaining Sanity while Working at Home with Kids

I have been talking with neighbors, friends, and friends of my adult kids to see how COVID-time has impacted working parents with children. Some parents love working from home. They find they are more productive and more creative than ever. They are enjoying having so much family time. They hope and wish that they will never have to go back to 9 to 5, five days a week. “What’s not to love about working remotely?” they ask. No commute. Working in sweats. No distractions from difficult coworkers. And lots more family time. These are not the people I worry about.
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Disorders

Podcast: Religion’s Role in Mental Illness Treatment

Does religion help or harm people with severe mental illness? In today’s Not Crazy podcast, Gabe and Lisa welcome Rachel Star Wither, host of the Inside Schizophrenia podcast, to discuss religion’s role (or lack thereof) in treating those struggling with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. Rachel relates her personal experiences of mixing religion with her illness and shares how she currently manages to believe in God while keeping her faith “separate” from her symptoms.

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Anorexia

Midlife Eating Disorders in Quarantine

With the spread of coronavirus in the United States, our lives are changing in ways we never anticipated. Along with feeling heightened emotions like anxiety, uncertainty or even panic, many are experiencing unprecedented changes to their daily lives. Mass unemployment and job insecurity have impacted millions of Americans, and many of whom are fortunate to remain secure in their employment have adjusted to a new work-from-home lifestyle. 

While such disruptions are harmful for everyone, quarantine has been particularly difficult for those who suffer from an eating disorder, such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder, and have already been in a particularly vulnerable state due to forced isolation.
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Communication

Do You Have Too Much Self-Doubt — or Not Enough?

Do you often think that you make poor decisions? Do you constantly question yourself when you make a difficult choice? Do you lack confidence in yourself?

Self-doubt can have a paralyzing effect on our lives -- keeping us spinning on the sticky wheels of insecurity. Doubting ourselves at every turn, we become overly-cautious, which can stifle our creativity and restrain us from taking risks.

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General

Psych Central: Reflections & Gratitude After 25 Years

Long before Google, Facebook, Twitter, and even WebMD, Psych Central began its life in 1995 as a side project I created to highlight great mental health resources online at the time. Over its 25-year lifespan, we've gone from a dozen simple pages to tens of thousands of referenced articles.

After 25 years, it's time to reflect on Psych Central's past, present, and the future yet to come.

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Publishers

How to Release Worry and Embrace Uncertainty

"Fear, uncertainty, and discomfort are your compasses toward growth." ~ Celestine Chua
Uncertainty can be the glue for anxiety if you allow it. One thing can snowball into another and soon you are looking at the road ahead, absolutely dumbfounded about which way to go. It shakes us to our core; it disrupts our security, our stable foundation and makes us feel unsettled, even a bit lost.

But can our lives change without uncertainty?

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