Parents aim to teach their children good manners by saying "please" and "thank you" from an early age – but these polite words, plus other actions, may mean much more than people realize.
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They say this is the most wonderful time of the year — and quite possibly, it could be. That is, except if you anticipate having combative relatives in your home during the holidays. If you’re worried about the possibility of fights or quarrels over any number of topics during the holiday season, mental health experts share strategies and insights for how to diffuse arguments and how to speak to relatives about your concerns.
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Family trips are wonderful opportunities to create memories, especially if multiple generations are part of your vacation plan. The reality is that an extended family vacation is quite different from a holiday meal or a crowded backyard BBQ — and spending large amounts of time together with your extended family may present both wonderful bonding experiences as well as some challenges.
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Disagreements in the workplace can happen despite everyone's best attentions. They can also quickly escalate from a difference of opinion to a full-out argument — including shouting, name-calling and even demeaning language, according to career experts and others.
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Last year, when my son started kindergarten, my mom friends warned me that he might come home irritable the first few weeks. They were right: My normally happy-go-lucky five-year-old would trudge off the bus, throw his backpack on the entryway floor, and turn on the TV without a word (except to demand a bowl of Goldfish). When I asked about his day at dinner or at bedtime, he’d shut me down and change the subject.
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Teaching your child to have a voice and be assertive is an important life skill that may benefit their future. Experts say assertiveness skills can help your child's relationships—whether they be romantic ones or friendships, in work or school settings, or simply with themselves.
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Most days, it feels like the world around us has never been more unstable. Between the COVID-19 pandemic, the panic surrounding climate change, and the very real political issues we all face every day (just to name a few things), it seems like w're in a constant state of tumultuous change. As parents, it's easy to spend a lot of time worrying about how this much change will affect our children, even when many people say they'll be OK because of how resilient they are.
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Despite the pain of stepping on a Little People figurine, there are somebenefits to having baby toys strewn around your house. Toys can be a great way for your baby to learn and develop essential life skills as they grow and discover more about the world, and when babies start playing with toys, they can attempt to keep themselves busy. But when does your baby actually start playing with them instead of just gumming toys or tossing them across the room?
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Social media can be a tool for disseminating information and staying connected with loved ones or a mouthpiece for misleading rumors and a trigger for panic and fear. Right now, it's all of the above.
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The threat that the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) poses to physical health is serious and ongoing, and as the outbreak continues, the relentless fear, stress, and uncertainty are taking their toll on mental health as well. The reasoning behind the anxiety is simple, even if the road to managing it is not.
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Life is filled with endless reasons why seeking the help of a therapist may be beneficial: the ever-growing demands of work, household responsibilities, family and relationship issues or mental health conditions. But experts will be the first to tell you that there are a handful of things that you should know before signing up for the process. For starters, where do you find a good therapist? What will a session entail? And how much pre-appointment prep do you need to do?
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We've all been there: on the couch, surrounded by snacks, heading into hour five of a TV-watching marathon. It can happen when you're totally absorbed in a show, or when glazing over after a long week at work. But whatever the reason, it can also leave you wondering how all that screen-time will impact your brain.
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Sometimes when I’m feeling a bit down in the dumps, I do my best Partridge Family impression and sing the lyric “come on get happy” over and over and over again. Granted, that doesn’t sound nearly as cool as canceling all my plans for the night to soak my troubles in a lavish bubble bath aesthetically fit for the ‘gram, but it does the trick. The way I see it, positivity, like happiness, isn’t a destination; it’s a journey. You need just as many little ways to bring more positivity into your life as you do glamorous ones, otherwise you’re destined to be moody more often than you’d probably like to be, right?
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If you have a few habits caused by anxiety — things you might only do while home alone, such as talking to yourself, pacing around, or avoiding looking at your phone — know that you're not the only one who has these quirks. And you're definitely not "weird," either.
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Millions of people use talk therapy to help them manage their mental health, but not everyone sticks with it. Wondering how long you should stay in therapy is totally normal, and the answer will be different for everyone. Some people start therapy to help deal with a particularly difficult period in their lives, and then stop once that obstacle has been dealt with. Others might stop because they think therapy is too much of a time commitment, compared with the benefits, or too costly. But whatever the reason for stopping may be, it can actually help to continue seeing your therapist, even when you feel "good" about your mental health.
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Life is filled with endless reasons why seeking the help of a therapist may be beneficial: the ever-growing demands of work, household responsibilities, family and relationship issues or mental health conditions. But experts will be the first to tell you that there are a handful of things that you should know before signing up for the process. For starters, where do you find a good therapist? What will a session entail? And how much pre-appointment prep do you need to do?
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While anxiety disorders can be difficult to fully overcome — especially since they can be chemical in nature, as well as deeply ingrained — that doesn't mean you can't learn coping skills for anxiety, or figure out ways to move past it.
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New Year's Day is approaching, and once the celebrations have come to a close, the holiday can bring up a variety of mixed emotions for many people. Those of us who are prone to anxiety often experience fears and worries about what lies ahead in the new year, or we look back on the previous year and berate ourselves for not doing certain things differently.
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Child therapist Natasha Daniels, LCSW, was in session with a couple who proudly proclaimed, “Oh no, we never tell our son he’s done a good job.” That’s because, they told Daniels, they didn’t want to fill their son with empty praise.
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The transition from "kid" to "adult kid" can be a weird one for you and your parents. Now that you're grown, you're likely ready to create some healthy boundaries, talk with your mom and/or dad like an adult, and be treated like one, too. But there are some habits that can make this difficult and awkward, as well as a few that can even ruin your relationship with your parents, if you aren't careful.
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