Am I Bipolar or Just Sad

depression No Comments »

Have you ever wondered if you have Bipolar Disorder? It is not uncommon to wonder if you have a mental illness, let’s first start by exploring what exactly bipolar disorder is:

The DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), which is the criteria on which all disorders are judged, defines bipolar disorder as the occurrence of one or more manic or mixed episodes often accompanied by depressive episodes. Even if you’re depressed almost all of the time, going through just one manic episode qualifies you for a diagnosis of bipolar disorder.

So to summarize, it is about feeling up and down, with no real criteria of needing to be up more then down, and vice versa.

But the big question here then, is what exactly does it mean to have a manic and or depressive episode? Certainly we all feel up and down sometimes, does that mean we are all bipolar?

To experience a depressive episode, you need to experience depression on a clinical level. This is what makes the difference. If you feel down, I would encourage you to take a step back from your situation and look at a few factors:

Is the depression creating a significant impairment on your life? Examples of this would be things like: is it effecting your job, the relationships around you, are you sleeping a significant amount of time?

These are all signs of a potential problem.

If you suspect that you may be experiencing depressive and manic episodes, I would encourage you to speak to someone. We all experience ups and downs, but if they are having a significant impact on your life, it is time for you to seek help. Wouldn’t you like to have your life back in order?

 Mail this post

The Benefits of Online Therapy For Depression

depression No Comments »

The internet certainly has changed the world and opened up many opportunities. One of these is online therapy. Online therapy allows you to meet online with a therapist from the comfort of your own home.

Are you struggling with feelings of depression? One thing that you should realize is that depression is more common then you may realize. When we become depressed, we tend to focus on the negatives, and can fail to see the positives, even though they are still there.

When you feel depressed, it is comforting to be able to talk to someone about how you feel, and recognize that you are not the only one experiencing troubles.

Online therapy would focus on helping you to find a way to deal with your depression. It would begin by taking an objective look at your life, and your situation. Your therapist would work with you to find the cause of the depression. Once the cause is identified, a plan of action can be created.

A plan of action is a set of steps that you can work on to deal with your depression. Often times when people feel depressed, they tend to distort reality a bit. They see the future as offering no hope when in fact there is always hope. There are things that you can do to make your future better. It is just that sometimes you can’t see these steps for yourself. You need an objective person such as a therapist, to steer you through the confusion, so you can start working on things to reduce your depression.

 Mail this post

Advice on How to Stop Panic Attacks

etherapy No Comments »

There is nothing quite like experiencing a panic attack. Your body gets unbelievably tense, and you feel like you can’t breathe. It is very important for those that experience these to understand what they can do to help avoid and stop these panic attacks before they occur.

A panic attack occurs when your body gets overloaded. It doesn’t know what to do with the anxiety it is creating, and this then manifests itself into the form of a panic attack.

I would strongly suggest taking some steps to prepare right now, before you have your next attack. This will make dealing with the next occurrence significantly easier.

What calms you down? Where would you most like to be? Perhaps it is at home. Maybe you find the beach relaxing? Take a minute and think about this, and the next time you start having an attack, do everything you can to focus on the place you picked as most comfortable. Close your eyes and envision that you are actually there. Try to think about what it would smell like, and feel like to be there. This will take your mind away from the stressful panic that you are currently experiencing.

Often times panic attacks can occur because our mind blows things out of proportion. We interpret a situation as having no way out when in fact it really isn’t as bad as it seems. Taking a step back from things and talking about it can help us better understand that the situation causing the panic can be improved.

Panic attacks are more common then you may realize. Just try your best to remain calm. Once the attack has subsided, make sure that you spend time thinking about what caused the attack in the first place, so you can take steps to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

 Mail this post

Working on Panic Attacks in Therapy

online-therapy No Comments »

Panic attacks are a terribly unpleasant thing to experience. Fortunately, therapy can be a positive way to help treat the attacks. This article will examine how therapy can help you work through your attacks.

Typically therapy begins with an assessment of yourself. This helps the therapist understand more about your history, and also current situation. This background is very important.

The therapist would help you to determine the source of the panic attacks. You would both look at the times that you experienced the attacks, and determine what would trigger them.

The therapy would then focus on two issues, it would work on finding ways to deal and cope with the attacks when they happen, and would also focus on working through whatever issues were causing the attacks in the first place.

Learning a skillset to deal with panic attacks is very important. This would give you the ability to cope and work through panic attacks as they occur. This means learning about ways to relax your body, and how to engage your mind to stop the attacks.

Panic attacks are born out of anxiety, and chances are there are some major things in your life causing the anxiety. Therapy is a way to identify these issues, and develop an action plan to deal with and reduce the stress. We have a habit of making things worse then they need to be, and sometimes cannot see that there is actually a way to deal with the stress, rather then suffer from it.

Panic attacks are a terrible thing to experience, but fortunately there is help!

 Mail this post

The Benefits of Online Therapy for Anxiety

online-therapy No Comments »

Anxiety is a difficult thing to live with. It can lead us to constantly worry about everything. The good news is that there is help. This article is going to explore how online therapy can help those struggling with anxiety.

Anxiety is a part of being human. Sometimes though, anxiety can become a bit too much for us to handle, and starts to interfere with our lives. This is when you should take action to get it under control.

Online therapy is essentially meeting with a therapist online rather then in an office. This means that you can meet with a therapist from the comfort of your own home, which is rather appealing in this fast-paced society.

Therapy for those struggling with anxiety focuses on finding ways to cope with, and reduce the anxiety that the individual is experiencing. This would include things such as:

1) Helping the individual develop a skillset to make living with their anxiety easier. This would include finding activities and techniques that would allow the person to calm down.

2) Determining the source of the anxiety, and exploring what could be done to reduce it and make it more livable. Often times there are solutions out there that the individual cannot see. This is one of the benefits of speaking with someone that is outside of the situation. Sometimes a situation can seem hopeless, but there is always hope!

The key to dealing with anxiety is recognizing that you are not powerless in the situation, and there are things that you can do to make your life better. Just hang in there!

 Mail this post

Did You Know Online Therapy Can Treat Depression?

online-therapy No Comments »

There is nothing quite like fighting depression. The world feels like it is against you, and hope is nowhere to be found. Depression is a state of mind, and there is help out there. Often times when we feel depressed, we can distort reality, and fail to see the positives, and only focus on the negatives. Can online therapy treat depression?

We live in an everchanging world, and it seems that just about everything is now available online. This includes therapy. Is online therapy safe? Does it really work?

Online therapy allows you to meet with a therapist from the comfort of your own home. Meetings are confidential, and held in either an online chatroom, or on the phone. While it is different then seeing someone in person, it certainly still can be very effective, and is a great match for people.

Some people simply do not feel comfortable sitting in a therapist’s office. They would much rather be in their own home, and find that chatting online is a much less intrusive setting.

Online therapy for depression focuses on taking a closer look at where the depression is coming from, and brainstorming ways to deal with it. This is a very cognitive process, and can be completed online. Once you can find the cause for the depression, it is possible to brainstorm ways to treat it.

A typical online session consists of a chat that is focused on the depression. The therapist and client examine together where the depression is coming from, and take a closer look at the situation to determine what could be changed to bring about some relief.

The therapist is often able to see things that the client could not, as the therapist is a trained professional, that is able to have a view on the situation "from the outside looking in".

Online therapy can be a great way for those struggling with depression to receive help.

 Mail this post
WP Theme & Icons by N.Design Studio
Entries RSS Comments RSS Log in