A GoodTherapy.org News Headline

A new study uses individual surveys, church attendance records, and changes in retail hours (to include or exclude Sunday mornings) to gauge whether attending church or spending the morning shopping makes people happier. The group most affected by expanded store hours was white women, and the study found that they were significantly happier if they chose to attend church rather than ‘treat’ themselves to a morning of shopping. As with many other areas of mental health, the instant gratification of shopping feels good in the moment, but it does not feed over into our long-term psychological well-being. Attending religious services, by contrast, while not as immediately gratifying as shopping, gave people more substantial psychological and emotional benefits that lasted over time.

© Copyright 2010 by http://www.GoodTherapy.org Therapist Santa Rosa Bureau - All Rights Reserved.

A GoodTherapy.org News Summary

Awareness of post-traumatic stress disorder and other psychological issues related to trauma has been particularly high over the past year, as increasing numbers of returning veterans struggle with the condition. However, troops deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq are not the first large group to suffer PTSD. Of veterans who are today older than 65 and who have been treated, for any condition, by the Veterans Administration, PTSD rates are around 36.4 percent. Some veterans with PTSD were directly injured during combat, while others were not injured but did experience the psychological trauma of combat itself.

A recent study, published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, shows that veterans with PTSD are more likely to suffer dementia than other groups are. Of the more than 10,000 veterans in the study, 36.4% of the entire group had PTSD. Their PTSD was found to be a stronger indicator of dementia even than traumatic injury, which can result in brain damage and cognitive alteration. Here are the statistics: among wounded veterans, 5.9% of the non-PTSD group had dementia, while 7.2% of the PTSD veterans did. Among the veterans who were not wounded, 4.5% of the non-PTSD group had dementia, while 11.1% of the PTSD veterans did. Read the rest of this entry

© Copyright 2010 by http://www.GoodTherapy.org Therapist Fresno Bureau - All Rights Reserved.

A GoodTherapy.org News Headline

A new study shows that young adults (ages 17-24) who get less than the recommended hours of sleep (7-8 hours per night) are more prone to developing mental health problems later in life, or experiencing worsened symptoms for existing problems. The study, which was conducted by the George Institute for Global Health in Sydney, Australia, involved 20,000 participants and is the first to document on a large scale the sleep-mental health connection. This knowledge may help counselors and psychologists who work on college campuses in particular, where most students are in the 17-24 year age range, and many get well below the recommended daily amount of sleeping.

© Copyright 2010 by http://www.GoodTherapy.org Therapist Redondo Beach Bureau - All Rights Reserved.

A GoodTherapy.org News Headline

The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) is trying to raise awareness of the dire consequences that mental health care budget cuts will have on low income mothers and their children. Statistically, women are already twice as prone to depression as are men. Ten and fifteen percent of pregnant and postpartum mothers, respectively, experience depression. And poverty increases the risk of depression across the board. With those staggering figures, NAMI estimates that more than half of babies in poverty are being raised by mothers who struggle with depression. These families already have less access to counseling, therapy, and other forms of psychological and emotional support. Cutting mental health budgets at the state, federal, and local levels only decreases these mothers’ ability to a therapist and get help.

© Copyright 2010 by http://www.GoodTherapy.org Therapist Birmingham Bureau - All Rights Reserved.

By Jodi Clarke, MA, LPC/MHSP, NCC Childhood Sexual Abuse Topic Expert Contributor

Click here to contact Jodi and/or see her GoodTherapy.org Profile

Many clients who have experienced childhood sexual abuse find it frustrating over time that they cannot remember details of the abuse. Clients have described it as trying to play a card game without a full deck of cards. There are times when adult survivors enter therapy with the anticipation of “filling in the blanks,” or finding all of those lost cards, with hopes of then being able to move forward with their lives. Although it sounds like a good plan, there are some things to consider.

The primary issue with trying to remember every detail of your abuse before moving forward is the accuracy factor. Whether related to sexual abuse or other experiences, we simply cannot “force” memories to surface and expect that they be accurate. Research has suggested that our memories of major events may be susceptible to alteration, in particular, because we tend to replay key segments in our mind, “… each time having the potential to alter…” the minor details of the event (Miller, 2010). Often there are key aspects or instances of the abuse that a survivor will remember very clearly, yet others that seem vague. With the desire to move forward may come a strong internal push to bring vague memories into clear focus once and for all, in an attempt to put them in their proper place. Ask yourself, “Will remembering every detail of my abuse help me move forward more quickly or easily?” The truthful answer is “no.” As a matter of fact, it may compound and slow down the process. Read the rest of this entry