A Tribute to Patty Duke

As you probably know, actress Patty Duke died on March 29, 2016. Of course, her talent as an actress can’t be denied, but her mental health advocacy was equally important. This advocacy is what puts her in my personal Hall of Fame.

First diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 1982, Patty Duke was one of the biggest spokespersons for people with the disorder. She made it a lifelong mission to dispel the stigma of the disease. She spoke openly about her illness in two books: Call Me Anna and A Brilliant Madness. Call Me Anna was published in 1987, almost 30 years ago. Patty Duke was completely out of the closet about her mental illness in the 1980s. That is a big deal.

As a person with bipolar disorder, I owe a lot to Patty Duke. I was diagnosed in 1991 and have struggled with the disease for my whole adult life. I know what Patty Duke went through. In fact, I believe Patty Duke deserves a big “thank you” from bipolar people and from all people with mental illness for the way that she spoke openly and rationally about her malady and her whole wonderful life. Her son, Sean Astin, has invited the public to contribute to a mental health foundation in his mother’s name — The Patty Duke Mental Health Initiative.

Anna Marie Pearce, better known as Patty Duke, was born on December 14, 1946, in Elmhurst, Queens, New York. Patty made it her career to entertain and enlighten people. She was an actress, one of the greatest American actresses of all time.

I remember watching her when I was a child when she was on “The Patty Duke Show.” Sidney Sheldon, the creator of “The Patty Duke Show,” had noticed early on that Patty had two distinct sides to her personality. He then developed the idea of the two contrasting personalities of identical cousins. In this sitcom, Patty played herself and her cousin. These “two” characters, identical cousins, were always getting into zany predicaments, often by impersonating each other. Patty was a rough-and-tumble, down-to-earth, middle-class American teenager, and her cousin, Cathy, was a highbrow, well-traveled Scottish sophisticate. The well-written comedy always fascinated me and made me laugh. Patty was very good at delineating the two very different personalities with two very different accents.

But Patty had graced the stage before this. Her first major role was that of Helen Keller in “The Miracle Worker.” This was a Broadway production, and she was 12 years old. For the later film version of this role, she won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Patty Duke was most known for her acting roles as a teenager, but later in life, she did receive three Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards. She was a lifelong actress. From 1985-1988, she was the President of the Screen Actors Guild.

Tinseltown / Shutterstock.com

from World of Psychology http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2016/04/03/a-tribute-to-patty-duke/

10 Tips for Staying Sober During Difficult Times

Self-care is critically important, especially in early recovery. Here are some methods to stay balanced, for 12 steppers and non-12 steppers alike.

My 2016 had a rocky start. It was all relatively manageable stuff — tremors, instead of earthquakes — but for a recovering alcoholic, the smallest of shakes can sometimes feel off the Richter scale.

I came down with a nasty, two-week flu, which left me feeling behind on work. That led to me feeling grumpy and stressed about my financial situation, which led me to being grumpy with my family and friends, and soon, I was looking at everything with anxious and hopeless eyes.

Fortunately, this isn’t uncharted territory for me and I have some tools to help pull me out of a downward spiral.

1. Be Happy for Others

“I have been sober for 90 days and I’ve loved every minute of it!” Do not punch the person who said this in the face. Perhaps you had this feeling and lost it — perhaps you never did. As much as you or I might resent the grinning resident of that pink cloud, try to see them for what they truly represent: possibility.

We are all recovering from the same insidious disease — condition, ailment, whatever you want to call it — it’s amazing any of us, at the bare minimum, made it out alive. When anyone suffering from this addiction manages to wrest something like happiness out of the detritus, it’s cause for celebration, and even gratitude. It’s a reminder of the kind of life that’s out there for us — sometimes it happens at 90 days, sometimes it takes a little longer, but those irritating Pollyannas are a symbol of hope for us all.

2. Get Outside and Get Moving

I’m terrible at taking my own advice on this, but I would be a much happier person if I did. In study after study, science has proven the effects of exercise on mood. I’m pretty sure even climate change deniers admit that 30 minutes of exercise a day can transform one’s outlook on life (denying climate change also probably improves one’s outlook on life but those who do so are in for a rude awakening down the road).

Perhaps Elle Woods said it best in Legally Blonde, ”Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy. Happy people don’t kill their husbands.”

Having a dog really helps in this endeavor, and is probably the only reason I ever breathe fresh air. Plus, it’s extremely hard to be depressed when you are being kiss-attacked by a puppy.

3. HALT

While the 12 steps might not work for everyone, there are a few adages that are irrefutably sound. One of these is HALT. When you’re feeling crappy, ask yourself if you are Hungry, Angry, Lonely, and/or Tired. Whether you’re having a bad day or struggling with clinical depression, learning to HALT and take stock of the situation is one of the fundamentals of self-care.

When things are really rough, I usually find that I haven’t HALTed in ages. I’m Hungry, Angry, Lonely and Tired, and by the time I’ve dealt with all that, I’m Hungry again. HALTing won’t solve all your problems, but it will make you as well-equipped as possible to deal with those problems.

4. Lists

I love lists. Lists of things you can do something about, lists of things you can’t, lists of things you can do about the things you can’t do anything about — and so on. I’m a firm believer in writing to relieve anxiety, but it can also be a direct way to tackle problems. This will be familiar to those who have gone through the 12 steps, but it can be practiced in a distinctly non 12-step way.

In Feeling Good, David Burns outlines a way to examine and write through negative emotions. The tools he outlines are common in cognitive behavioral therapy and offer a framework for examining what is often seemingly impossible to objectively analyze: our own thoughts and feelings. There are a variety of worksheets and other tools to help with this on the Internet but, even though Feeling Good is an older book, it’s one I like a lot.

You can find a summary of the cognitive distortions and how to work through them on paper here. Although it’s specified for depression, it’s appropriate for anyone who feels like their emotions are a roller coaster and they are just hanging on for the ride.

5. Take a Load Off

Often, when I feel like I can’t keep everything together, it’s because I am trying to do too much, too fast, too often. Even though what I’m trying to do is more productive (work) than it was before I got sober (drinking), it’s still a struggle to realize that I am, sadly, human.

While more self-indulgent than HALT, which ensures you’re meeting basic needs, taking a load off is giving yourself permission to stop trying to manage all the different aspects of your life and just…enjoy. Marathon old episodes of Parks and Rec, get your favorite takeout, rewatch The American President for the 89th time (It’s just me? Okay, then) or pick up a book. We are constantly surrounded by a million different forms of entertainment, but it can be hard to slow down long enough to actually enjoy any of it. An evening of guilty pleasure TV or a mystery novel isn’t going to throw your life off balance. In fact, it may be just the thing you need to tip your emotional scales back towards the center.

For more tips to stay sober when life seems to be falling apart, visit the original feature article, 10 Ways to Stay Sober When Everything’s Falling Apart, over at The Fix.

from World of Psychology http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2016/04/02/10-tips-for-staying-sober-during-difficult-times/

6 Ways to Eliminate Everyday Anxiety

Anxiety is actually good for us. It gives people a surge of energy, splash of wakefulness, and
intrinsic drive to get through the day. It was useful when our ancestors needed to be alerted from dangers and it’s useful today.

Unfortunately, anxiety can tend to get out of control and interfere with our work, social lives, and health. It can progressively increase if we do not attend to it. Here are helpful tips to attack everyday anxiety so it doesn’t turn into anything problematic.

1. Acknowledge it.
   Anxiety is characterized by intense worry. In general, people report anxiety as an uncomfortable feeling with overwhelming thoughts. While some people sense anxiety as soon as it enters their body, others can’t recognize it. It can manifest differently in different people. It may be accompanied by physiological reactions such as sweating, palpitations, and shortness of breath.

   Anxiety signals the brain that a possible danger was detected. By acknowledging the anxiety, you address the signal rather than dismissing it.

2. Stomach breathing.
   Anxiety activates the flight or fight response, and it’s not easily shut down. In acknowledging the anxiety, we prepare our body to calm down, but we can still be left with a pounding heart and flushed face.

   For example, you may feel calm until you set foot on a stage. Walking off stage can shut the process down. What is it about walking off stage that shuts off this reaction? Breathing.

   Breathing regulates your sympathetic nervous system and regulates the release of hormones that cause the physiological reactions. In breathing with your lower stomach, you are able to breathe in the most oxygen and release the most carbon dioxide. In using your full lung capacity with stomach breathing, you will be more quickly able to shut down leftover physiological reactions.

3. Be present.
   In experiencing anxiety, you are worrying about something that possibly could happen in the future. Is a person who’s deathly afraid of rabbits really going to get killed by a rabbit? Probably not. The person with this phobia, however, isn’t thinking about what is happening in the present because they are worrying about what the rabbit might do to them in the near future.

   When you are experiencing anxiety, your mind is tricking you into thinking of the worst possible outcomes to any situation. It is crippling to live with a constant fear of the future. In learning to be present, you aren’t ignoring the future but accepting it as it comes. You cannot control what happens in the future, you can only control what you are doing here and now.

4. Make use of the anxiety.
   Anxiety can be useful. Use that surge of energy you feel when anxious to complete an activity. On days where you are feeling elevated distress, try going for a run or taking a trip to the gym. It would be a waste of energy not to use that natural injection of dopamine and serotonin your body has given you.
5. Don’t ignore it.
   Everyone feels anxious sometimes. Ignoring it won’t cure it. It’s a temporary solution. Meanwhile anxiety will accumulate and leave you weak after so many attempts to suppress it.

   In attending to the anxiety, you are choosing to take control of it. It is much better to attack the monsters in your closet than to close the door and pretend they don’t exist.

6. Let your mind help you.
   The mind is a powerful thing that can help make our lives easier. Our brains are also imperfect, however, and we should strive to know our weaknesses as much as our strengths.

Six Image available from Shutterstock.

from World of Psychology http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2016/04/02/6-ways-to-eliminate-everyday-anxiety/

Psychology Around the Net: April 2, 2016

Happy Saturday, sweet readers!

I’m hoping you all ended your week with some funny April Fools’ Day shenanigans, and are ready to start the weekend with some of the latest developments in mental health!

Read on for news on how men are more vulnerable to developing stress-related depression, how people with mental health issues fit in when it comes to physician-assisted suicide, ways you can effectively help another person cope with anxiety or depression, and more.

Men More Vulnerable to Developing Depression From Long-Term Stress: Although we’ve long believed women are more prone to suffering life’s stresses, which often can turn into depression, new research (which focuses heavily on gender) from the University of Michigan of Public Health claims “[…] men are 50 percent more vulnerable to the effects of stress when the researchers examined how stressful events translated into depression 25 years later.”

The Risky Concept Of Mental Illness Assisted Suicide: The topic of assisted suicide (or, “physician-assisted suicide, PAS) is controversial enough; what happens when we turn the debate from assisting someone suffering from a physical illness to assisting someone with a psychiatric condition? Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Manitoba (Canada) Harvey Max Chochinov discusses a special committee’s report to Parliment, which states “[…] an overwhelming consensus among witnesses that palliative care needs to be improved more generally, and that better supports need to be provided for individuals with disabilities, individuals with mental health issues, and individuals with dementia.”

How the Brain Processes Emotion: A new study from MIT uncovers brain neurons located in the amygdala contribute to the process of how the brain assigns emotional associations to events which, once we learn more about “how this information is routed and misrouted,” could help us better understand mental illnesses such as anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and even addiction.

8 Tips for Coping with Other’s Anxiety or Depression: People are diagnosed with and manage illnesses and other disorders everyday. Diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer — everything. As someone who doesn’t have experience (and to be fair, professional training) with these conditions, it’s unlikely you know how to help…without a little help yourself, that is. Thus, it isn’t so surprising that someone who hasn’t managed his or her own anxiety or depression before might be a bit confused on how to help others who struggle with them. Here are eight tips on how you can help a family member, friend, or even a close co-worker cope with anxiety or depression the right ways.

The Genes for Pot Addiction Have Been Identified: During new research published in JAMA Psychiatry, one of the identified genes is linked to a risk for both depression and marijuana addiction, which might help clear up why past studies have presented such conflicting information (e.g. whether or not smoking marijuana causes depression); if there are genes that increase the risk for both conditions, it might look like an addiction to marijuana causes depression, when actually, people with a genetic risk for depression are more likely to smoke more pot in order to self-medicate.

Fostering Creativity to Improve the Patient Experience: Yuna Lee, a Ph.D candidate at the Yale School of Public Health, is using the inspiration she found by watching her family manage multiple nursing homes to write her dissertation on how patient experience can be improved by fostering creativity and innovation in health care organizations. Says Lee, “I’m trying to understand what the creative process looks like in health care, and in many ways it looks different from other industries […] What ideas take hold and which ones fail, and what can leaders and managers do to nurture the most promising ideas?”

from World of Psychology http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2016/04/02/psychology-around-the-net-april-2-2016/

How Time of Day Can Affect Morality

For some people, morality appears to be a flexible concept. They might be good, honest, and upstanding in one moment and a liar and a cheat in another. Believe it or not, this sort of behavior might be a bit more common than you think. Someone’s shifting morals might have less to do with him or her as a person and more to do with the time of day.

Three Harvard Business School professors — Christopher M. Barnes, Brian Gunia, and Sunita Sah — published research in the Harvard Business Review showing a connection between a person’s chronotype (the time of day that person works most effectively) and their adherence to ethical behavior. The researchers conducted two different studies and concluded that “morning people,” or “larks,” are more likely to behave unethically at night and “evening people,” or “night owls,” are more likely to behave unethically in the morning.

The first experiment tested participants’ behavior in the morning. The participants were asked to solve as many matrices as possible. Then, they were instructed to tell the researchers how many matrices they had solved and would be rewarded for each correct answer. Participants were told that their work was anonymous and could therefore overreport to make more money. However, the researchers were able to check the participants’ work and found that night owls were more likely to cheat.

The second experiment tested participants’ behavior both in the early morning and late at night. Participants were told to roll a pair of dice and report their average score back to the researchers. Higher scores would result in greater monetary rewards. The researchers did not actually verify which numbers the participants rolled, but they knew that the average score should be around 3.5. Not surprisingly, the participants’ self-reported results differed based on how well their chronotype matched the time of day. During the morning experiment, larks reported an average score of 3.86 and night owls reported an average score of 4.23. During the evening experiment, larks reported an average score of 4.55 and night owls reported an average score of 3.8.

So why would someone’s circadian rhythm change their behavior? People’s energy levels change with their circadian rhythms, meaning that larks have less energy later in the day while night owls have less energy earlier in the morning. The researchers hypothesized that people who are mismatched with their circadian rhythm are more likely to behave unethically because they don’t have the energy to resist temptations.

The important takeaway from this study is that people ought to be aware of their own circadian rhythm and to keep it in mind when performing certain tasks. Employees should try to adjust their work schedule to fit their circadian rhythm if possible. Both morning larks and night owls should be aware of how they plan their day and leave important decision-making tasks for when they are most energized.

Honesty Image available from Shutterstock.

from World of Psychology http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2016/04/01/how-time-of-day-can-affect-morality/

6 Ways to Start Practicing Self-Compassion — Even If You Believe You’re Undeserving

For many of us being kind to ourselves is hard. It’s hard even when we’re struggling — and need compassion most. Instead, we get mad. We tell ourselves to buck up. We wonder why we’re so weak. We criticize and hurl insults. We withhold our favorite things — telling ourselves that we don’t deserve to participate in enjoyable activities, because after all, we screwed up everything.

But the good news is that you can learn to cultivate self-compassion. Which is vital. Self-compassion helps us to meet life’s challenges in a supportive way, said Amy Finlay-Jones, Ph.D, a clinical psychologist, compassion teacher and researcher who specializes in self-compassion. In fact, according to research, self-compassion has a measurable effect on our mental health and well-being, she said. (See here and here.)

Self-compassion is “the intentional cultivation of a relationship with oneself that is respectful, kind and compassionate,” said Celedra Gildea, Ph.D, a psychotherapist in Portland, Ore., who leads Mindful Self-Compassion, Compassion Cultivation Training and Mindfulness groups. Below are six ways you can start cultivating self-compassion, even if you’ve been berating yourself for years.

Reduce disparaging times, and up kind moments.   

Simply notice when you feel most self-critical and aggressive toward yourself, Finlay-Jones said. Maybe it’s when you’re tired or overworked. Maybe it’s when you’re spending too much time on social media. “Whatever it is, see if you can refrain from it a little.”

Also, pay attention to the times you feel nourished and comfortable with yourself, she said. This might be when you’re taking a walk in nature or hanging out with your friends or working on a creative project. “Whatever it is, see if you can cultivate a little more of it in your life.”

This can give us more space to be gentle and curious with ourselves, Finlay-Jones said.

Take a self-compassion break.

Gildea suggested trying an exercise created by self-compassion researcher Kristin Neff, which helps us recognize and soothe our suffering. Put your hand on your heart or any place that feels comforting.

Simply say, “This hurts” or “This is suffering.” Next, say something that acknowledges that you’re part of a community of people struggling, such as: “I’m not alone” or “We all struggle in our lives.” And lastly, offer yourself some kindness, such as: “May I be kind to myself,” “May I accept myself as I am,” or “May I be patient.”

Speak tender words — like you would to a child or your child.

“Many of us think that we don’t have the capacity or words to give ourselves compassion,” Gildea said. She shared a powerful story that reveals we do. Gildea was volunteering at a women’s abuse shelter, trying to teach a group of women the self-compassion break. Because of all the pain they’d endured, they couldn’t find any words of compassion for themselves.

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. Another volunteer brought in a baby who was crying. The mom took her baby into her arms and started whispering loving words, like: “Don’t you worry sweet one, we are going to be OK. I’m right here and no one is going to hurt you anymore.” She was able to effortlessly shower her child with compassion.

“Deeply touched, we all put our hands on [our] hearts and spoke the same words of compassion, imagining our little child sitting next to our adult selves safely in our hearts,” Gildea said. “They had found the key.” Maybe you can try the same.

Try this loving meditation.

Another way to start practicing self-compassion is by bringing to mind a loved one and noticing the feelings of love and warmth that tend to arise, Finlay-Jones said. “Step-by-step, we become more skillful at mobilizing this capacity, so that after a time, we are more able to include ourselves in the circle of compassion.” She created this beautiful meditation for readers to try.

Pay attention to how you’re practicing.

“Self-compassion is not about self-improvement,” Finlay-Jones said. She stressed the importance of paying attention to how you’re practicing self-compassion. Do you have an attitude of impatience or harshness? Are you being considerate and comforting?

Many of her clients share long lists of self-care practices they’ve tried. These lists might include everything from running to yoga to psychotherapy to meditation. Yet, they feel anything but cared for. Instead, they feel exhausted, overwhelmed, anxious or depressed, Finlay-Jones said. “This is often because they are demanding and aggressive with themselves in the process — treating themselves as though they are a problem to be fixed, and self-care is the solution.”

To be truly self-compassionate, she noted, it’s important to work on acknowledging that we are all acceptable exactly as we are.

Delve into your needs and values.

Self-compassion goes deeper than supporting ourselves in the moment. According to Finlay-Jones, it “involves understanding what our deeper needs and values are, and aligning our behavior accordingly.” For instance, one deeper need all of us have is connection. As she writes in this piece, you might meet this need by spending time with friends, playing with your pet, listening to music and helping others.

You might be thinking, but what if I don’t deserve self-compassion? What if I don’t feel worthy or loveable or deserving of kindness?

As Finlay-Jones said, start practicing anyway. “[S]elf-compassion is so important precisely because we don’t feel worthy, or deserving, or loveable. There is, therefore, no better time to start.”

Self-Compassion image from Shutterstock.

from World of Psychology http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2016/04/01/6-ways-to-start-practicing-self-compassion-even-if-you-believe-youre-undeserving/

Best of Our Blogs: April 1, 2016

Are you in a shame spiral for feeling like a fool? It’s April Fool’s today, but the real hurt comes when loved ones shame you for doing something you need to do for you.

I met a woman who has two young kids living in another state. It was a conscious decision to make their father legal guardian. Instead of supporting her for what was a difficult decision, her family criticized and abandoned her. Yet, her awareness that she couldn’t care for them while managing her own mental health was a lifesaving one. Her and her two kids are healthy and happy because of it.

It takes courage to do something that’s best for you especially if others don’t agree. If you’re getting your own share of pushback because of how you’re coping with ____ (anxiety, OCD, your kids, etc.), you’ll appreciate our top posts this week.

10 Indicators of Toddler Anxiety
(Parenting Anxious Kids) – Is your toddler who is scared of monsters suffering from anxiety? Read this to discover potential anxiety issues early.

3 Questions For Moving Beyond Anxiety
(One Day You Will Roar) – If you’re struggling to cope with anxiety without the use of medication, this could help you move pass a state of fear and paralysis towards relief.

11 Superpowers of Anxious Children
(Stress Better) – Can there really be a benefit of having anxiety? If you have an anxious child, it may not feel that way. But here are a few surprising strengths kids develop as a result of being anxious.

OCD: The Secret Illness
(Overcoming OCD) – Secrets do more harm than good. People who have OCD often suffer in silence. Here’s one way you can start to shed the shame of secrecy.

What to Eat to Sleep Better
(Nutrition & Mental Health) – If you’re not getting enough zzz’s at night, this may improve the quality of your sleep. The latest research says this diet could boost your mental and physical health.

from World of Psychology http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2016/04/01/best-of-our-blogs-april-1-2016/