Parenting is, so often, full of negative reinforcement – “No, you cannot wear shorts in the snow,” and “No, I don’t think it’s a good idea to eat ice cream and hot dogs for breakfast.” To be able to say yes feels so refreshing. Read more

Do you remember times growing up when you begged for permission to stay in bed and skip school to avoid a problem? Tough tests, fights with friends, heartbreaks, embarrassment, and Read more

School anxiety symptoms are nothing new. Is there an adult alive that didn’t try to skip school to delay a test, sleep in or avoid an unpleasant social situation? We hid under the covers, faked an illness, begged and even threw tantrums depending on our level of desperation. And on occasion, our ploys worked, at least for the day. Read more

Every one of us encounters situations that make us anxious, uncomfortable and yes, even fearful. It is part of the human experience and a primal urge that keeps us safe and prepared. Unlike these normal fears, fears from phobias are excessive, out-of-control and involuntary reactions that are not proportional to the circumstances, risks or dangers. While many who suffer from phobias realize that their distress is unwarranted and irrational, the anxiety persists, leaving them feeling like powerless participants in their own life story. Read more

It’s often said that necessity is the mother of invention. And never has this proverb been more relevant than the story of Dr. Marsha Linehan and how her own mental illness contributed to the development of a groundbreaking new psychotherapy treatment called Dialectical Behavior Therapy, better known as DBT. Read more

A quick Google search on just that -- how to mend a broken heart -- results in nearly 10 billion entries. “Can you die of a broken heart?” nets about 400 million results. It’s safe to say, then, that a broken heart may be just as common as the common cold -- and like the common cold, has no single, hard and fast, guaranteed cure. Read more

Learn the truths about many of the myths behind social anxiety, and what it's like for someone who suffers from it. Read more

In order to achieve mindfulness, it's important to achieve three different states of mind: rational mind, emotion mind, and wise mind. Dialectical behavior therapy can help you to strengthen the skills you need so you can live mindfully. Read more

Health anxiety brings with it a persistent belief that your symptoms are actually those of a serious medical condition. The worry you have over your health becomes so consuming, so distressing, that it affects how you live, think, and operate. For those with severe health anxiety, it can become absolutely crippling. Read more

If you’ve lost someone too, whether it’s recently or from years ago, know that it’s normal to feel unbearable pain. The holidays may trigger a response on you that you may not expect – some have said they just want to crawl into bed and sleep the season away, while others say they drown themselves in busy work so they don’t have to feel. Read more

Dialectical behavior therapy is a treatment that was developed by Dr. Marsha Linehan in the 1980s. It was originally designed to treat borderline personality disorder, but has since been proven to be an effective treatment for a whole host of mental health disorders, including depression, PTSD, and anxiety. Read more

Mindfulness is the act of being present in the moment. If you can pay attention to what is going on around you, where you are, what you’re feeling, what you’re seeing, what you’re hearing, all in this exact moment in time, you’re being mindful. Read more

When a person with an impulse control disorder begins to feel the urge or the temptation to commit this activity, he typically feels a rising anxiety, as if he’ll explode if he doesn’t do it. Once he performs the action, he may feel a huge sense of relief or even a rush of satisfaction and happiness, no matter how dangerous the activity was, or despite the negative or dangerous consequences of that activity. Read more

Those with an anxiety disorder tend to also suffer from chronic and seriously low self-esteem. Anxiety is really good at twisting what’s actually happening into what it wants you to think as real. Read more

It’s a feeling most are familiar with: that nervous, uneasy sensation of walking into a room and all eyes are on you. It’s that moment before you have to make a presentation at school or in the boardroom. It’s the nausea you might feel before a big first date, or having to introduce yourself to a room full of strange new faces. Read more

Anxiety really messes with the communication between your brain and what’s called the enteric nervous system, which is the operation behind your digestion. This disruption can cause you to become irregular. Read more