Do you sometimes lie regardless of whether it is important to tell the truth or not? Do you tend to have a lot of unnecessary complications in your relationships? Is it hard for you to keep track of the lies you have told to others, and get caught in your lies? If ‘yes’ is your answer to most or all of these questions, you may have a problem with pathological lying.
Read moreHow Image Transformation Therapy Helps You Be Like the Superhero Deadpool
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If you’re a fan of Marvel Comics superheroes and movies, you probably know who Deadpool is. What you probably didn’t know is that you can have a superpower he doesn’t possess: the ability to heal your emotional traumas in an easy and direct manner. Read on to find out how.
Read moreWhat Harm Reduction with Compulsive Sexual Behavior Might Look Like
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Are you someone who knows you suffer from compulsive sexual behavior, but struggles with the idea of having to significantly curtail the amount of sex in your life because of this? Do you feel like committing yourself to a program of recovery means you are doomed to live a life of celibacy? If so, read on because I have some good news for you.
Read moreDo's and Don'ts If Your Partner Has BPD
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Do you feel like you are always trying to figure out what set off your partner in some interaction you had with them and that you are always walking on eggshells with them? Do you yourself feel depressed because of the endless cycle of emotional volatility you keep getting caught up in with them? Please read on to find out what you need to do and avoid doing to cope if you answered yes to both of these questions.
Read moreThe Spirituality of Gratitude
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Do you struggle to find things to feel grateful for and feel like you live with a perpetual dark cloud over your head? Do you think that somehow everything you do somehow turns out bad and you are destined for failure? If you do, then I really want you to keep on reading so you can find out how to start turning things around.
Read moreAddiction Recovery Essentials: Pillar Five, Commitment to Recovery
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This month I’m posting a summary of the last of my 5 installments from my most recent book: The 5 Pillars of Addiction Recovery. This month is on Commitment to Recovery. If you waffle about whether recovery is a long-term process, please be sure to read this before you decide for a quick fix.
Read moreIdentifying and Coping with Birth Trauma
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Are you a new mother or father and struggle with being haunted by thoughts about the delivery of your child? Are you bothered by negative emotions related to these thoughts and find yourself reliving this in vivid detail? Do you feel like you ‘should’ be happy following the birth of your new child and feel tremendous guilt about not feeling this way? If you answered ‘yes’ to most or all of these questions you may suffer from birth trauma.
Read moreAddiction Recovery Essentials: Pillar Four, Coping Skills
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Being able to use effective coping skills to overcome addiction issues is perhaps the most important tool of long-term addiction recovery. In my latest blog post highlighting each of the 5 sections of my book The 5 Pillars of Addiction Recovery, I talk about how coping skills fit into the picture.
Read moreHow Laughter Can Be The Best Medicine
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There’s an old saying that ‘laughter is the best medicine,’ and perhaps at no other time do we need more laughter than right now. That doesn’t mean it’s easy to experience, and you may struggle to have a good laugh just about all the time. Read on to find out how it plays a role in mental health and how you can have more of it below.
Addiction Recovery Essentials, Pillar Three: Structure for Safety
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Have you ever found yourself reacting to the world around you like a pinball in a pinball machine? When someone acted a certain way to you, you just had some extreme reaction that totally threw you and your day off balance? Or have you found your whole day being thrown off by some unexpected event that rattled you to your core? These all point to the need for structure for safety from addictive behavior, which I covered in Chapter 3 of my book The Five Pillars of Addiction Recovery. Below is a synopsis of this important and indispensable pillar.
Read moreGratitude and Mindfulness: A Great Combination to Counter Mental Illness
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If you suffer from depression at times and tend to get lost in negative thought spirals, you’ve probably noticed how these tend to bring your mood down in a hurry. If you also often find you struggle in finding anything to look forward to, then mindfulness and gratitude may be very important tools in improving your mood and outlook. Read on to learn more about how you can reverse depression by taking up both of these practices.
Addiction Recovery Essentials, Pillar Two: Community
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If you are someone who struggles with addiction issues and find yourself mystified by how cunning and baffling your own situation is with your own ‘drug of choice,’ I am presenting my own condensed version of my latest book on the topic: The 5 Pillars of Addiction Recovery. This month’s pillar or installment is about the role of community in overcoming addiction.
How to Cope With Anxiety When You Can't Start Therapy Immediately
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Are you stuck on somebody’s waiting list for therapy because they are full, but still feeling acute anxiety? Maybe you haven’t even called someone to get therapy help because you are feeling frozen from doing anything about it. You don’t have to sit on your hands in the meantime: there are some things you can do while you wait.
Read moreAddiction Recovery Essentials: Pillar One
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If you are someone who struggles with addiction issues and find yourself mystified by how cunning and baffling your own situation is with your own ‘drug of choice,’ I am presenting my own condensed version of my latest book on the topic: The 5 Pillars of Addiction Recovery. This month’s pillar or installment is understanding your addiction, in particular the recovery process.
Read more4 Reasons Why Love Bombing is a Bust
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Are you someone who has ever been love-bombed only to later be left in the lurch by someone you thought loved you? Are you someone who’s ever love-bombed someone else and later realized you didn’t really mean what you said and did? In either case you could be a victim of love-bombing and the likely underlying mental health diagnoses that goes with it.
Read moreIsolation During the Holidays and 3 Ways to Fight It
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Are you someone who normally struggles with isolation, but the holidays add an extra layer of loneliness and pain to an already deprived existence? Do you tend to just hope that something or someone comes along to spring you out of your lonely cell of existence at this time of year to somehow break the uninterrupted sense of aloneness you experience? All this has major implications for mental health which I go into below.
Read moreThe Curious Case of Ted Lasso
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If you’re a fan of Ted Lasso, like I am, you’ve probably noticed he has developed a case of anxiety and panic attacks since the start of the show and moving to England. His situation is very similar to many people who suffer from anxiety and panic in that the anxiety and panic are definitely not the main issue that’s driving his or anybody’s disease.
Read moreBetrayal Trauma and How It Affects Mental Health
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Visit our page on trauma therapy to find out more about how Scott can help you with trauma.
About the author: Scott Kampschaefer, LCSW is a private practice therapist in Frederick, Maryland. He has an extensive background in working with depression, anxiety, and bipolar disorder at a clinic for older adults with these disorders in Austin. He now works with adults and adolescents 14 and up in private practice. His most recent book is titled The 5 Pillars of Addiction Recovery and is available for purchase on Amazon and in paperback on this website.
Gabor Mate Knows Trauma
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If you want to know what the essence of trauma is, I highly recommend watching The Wisdom of Trauma featuring Gabor Mate. He is a very gifted doctor who understands the subject both from a clinical and personal point of view. I review the movie/documentary in this week’s blog.
The Causes of Road Rage and How to Cope with It
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Are you someone who feels like there are times when you just can’t seem to control your temper behind the wheel? Are you consistently appalled by how other people drive and can’t help but let them know about it? If you are concerned about how upset you get behind the wheel or you have someone in your life you are concerned about struggling with road rage, I have some important information for you.
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