Co-Dependency Workbook Exercise 3
If you are reading this article, then you probably have completed your list of troubled relationships. I hope you are patting yourself on the back for having done this. I am sure it was painful to take an honest look at your current relationships. Generally, in codependent relationships there is some pain and emotional abuse. They tend to be rather lopsided, with you doing most if not all of the giving. When you realize this, you may get angry and feel as though others are using you. You may wonder why this is. It is because when they meet you, they sense that you are a caretaker who will want... Read More
Reactive and proactive aggression are seen as subtypes of generalized aggression. Reactive aggression is linked to negative outcomes and can stem from perceived threat. People with high levels of impulsivity and underlying 
Discrimination can cause significant psychological pain. People who are discriminated against because they are visibly different from others must continue to come to terms with their physical appearance despite their perceived differences. Racial and ethnic prejudice still occurs in societies throughout the world, as does discrimination against people with disabilities. Other forms of commonly practiced prejudice are against people with varying religious, sexual, or cultural beliefs. Regardless of the type of discrimination, the damage that it causes can be severe. People who experience intolerance... 
While spring conjures up beautiful images of tulips, crocuses, and daffodils, it is also a yearly reminder to clean one's abode. Historically, when people turned to herbs for most of their medicinal needs, spring was associated with rejuvenating the liver by taking the milk thistle for a couple of weeks, or simply adding dandelion greens to a daily salad. Psychologically, it is an opportunity to do an interior sweep of one's cranium. I'm talking about all those repetitive thoughts that create feelings and catalyze behaviors, some desirable, and some not so welcome.
If you feel stagnant from... 
Individuals who do not express anger can suffer significant mental and physical health problems. Suppressed anger can lead to stress, frustration, worry, and isolation. Bottling up angry feelings has been shown to cause numerous physical complications resulting from stress. Some research has even demonstrated a link between anger and depression. Depression itself can cause sleep problems, memory impairment, lack of concentration, appetite suppression, and other harmful physical issues. But until recently, little research has focused specifically on how anger suppression and expression affect the... 
Foster care providers face challenges that most caregivers never experience. Children placed in their care come with a history of negative experiences that can include neglect, sexual abuse, violence, emotional unavailability, mental abuse, verbal abuse, exposure to drug and alcohol use, and other traumatic events. These children often lack the basic skills necessary to develop healthy relationships with caregivers and cannot interact in empathetic and understanding ways with peers and others. Because these children had impaired 
Some people are able to forgive more easily than others. Small errors in judgment, little white lies, and backhanded comments can quickly be forgiven. But resentments that run deeper, such as those caused by infidelity, sexual abuse, and addiction can leave physical and emotional scars that are difficult to overcome. These transgressions can cause anger that ranges from mild to severe. Holding on to that anger prevents an individual from being able to forgive the perpetrator. Research has shown that the 
Attachment bonds form the foundation of a child’s well-being and set the stage for their behavior patterns. Children who have secure 
Racism and prejudice are issues that are at the forefront of social concern today. Ethnic differences are causing riots, uprisings, and loss of life in nations throughout the world, including our own. Classic conditioning is a theory that suggests that individuals learn racism and prejudice through exposure to events by either experiencing them personally or observing them. Once a perspective is formed, it can be reinforced through continual verbal, visual, or actual cues. For instance, a person who has a fearful encounter with someone from another race may later see others exhibit fear, thus reinforcing... 
Mindfulness is a therapeutic approach that focuses on increasing a client’s attentiveness and awareness of the present, through acceptance and understanding, without judgment. Mindfulness-based approaches have been shown to help increase emotional regulation in people with many different psychological issues, including, drinking problems, suicidal ideation, gambling addiction, self-harm behaviors, depression, anxiety, and many others. One of the many benefits of mindfulness therapy is that it can address multiple issues at a time. Individuals who have addictions often pick up a new behavior when... 
If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.
-Woody Allen
No matter who you are, things will happen to throw you off kilter. Life intrudes on inner peace with an uncanny regularity. It may be your boss, spouse, children, house, parents, finances, health, or even a freaky weather event, but life has its own trajectory, and no one can know what new challenge awaits.
Luckily, there are many ways to regain equilibrium. Trial and error, plumbing your depths to see what really works for you, and discerning the differences between various situations that trigger your sympathetic nervous... 
Food and eating problems are a serious concern among young women. Existing research has shown a link between eating problems and perfectionism. Evidence has also demonstrated a direct relationship between perfectionism and exercise. It has also been suggested that anger is related to perfectionism. Suppressed anger and trait anger may somehow increase the vulnerability for eating problems. But until recently, this relationship between anger and eating problems has not been thoroughly explored. College-age women, who are under 
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released its official autism rates this morning: 1 in 88. The rates for boys are even more frightening: 1 in 54. I've been sitting at my desk trying to wrap my brain around these numbers, because to me, they are not numbers, they are shattered lives. My son IS the 1 in 54. He was born in 1997 when rates were somewhere around 1 in 500. He's only 14. In 14 years, this is the explosion. Worst of all, our government has not yet called a national emergency.
Here is the real emergency: For every "1" in these statistics, there are two parents, four... 
