Building mental wellness on a foundation of strength
In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychology-related terms. This week's term isn't so much a term as a category. We're going to look at psychological effects that impact the process of reading. Missing Letter Effect If someone is asked to identify each occurrence of a particular letter in a… Continue reading What is… Psychological Effects on Reading
In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychology-related terms. This week's term is cognitive remediation. Cognitive remediation (CR) aims to improve psychosocial functioning by addressing several areas of neurocognitive functioning, such as attention, working memory, and executive functioning. CR is used mostly in schizophrenia and traumatic brain injury. It's also… Continue reading What is… Cognitive Remediation
In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychology-related terms. This week's term is amnesia. Amnesia is a memory deficit that can go in two different directions. Retrograde amnesia goes backward, affecting previously stored memories. Anterograde memory loss goes forward, affecting the ability to move short-term memory information into new long-term… Continue reading What Is… Amnesia
In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychological terms. This week's term is memory. Memory is highly complex. There are multiple different types, and multiple areas of the brain that are involved. Memories not only need to be encoded in the first place, but they also need to be stored… Continue reading What Is… Memory?
We hear a lot about neuroplasticity, the amazing ability our brains have to remodel themselves and create new connections. These are actual structural changes in the brain, and can happen following some form of damage but also with exposure to cognitive demands and the acquisition of new skills. According to an article in the Journal… Continue reading Let’s Get Synapsing – Exercise Your Brain!
We tend to create a lot of rules about how we should think, feel, and act. We may believe that there is some sort of objective truth to these rules, but the reality is they're really just mental myths. These examples come from Dialectical Behavioural Therapy: I don't deserve to get the things that I… Continue reading Mental myths that get in our way
Despite what the title might suggest, this post isn't about me being self-critical. I've been struggling for months with cognitive symptoms of depression, and on a daily basis I notice that it impairs my functioning. But it's not something I've ever had much of an objective sense of, until I tried the THINC-it test. Measuring… Continue reading I’m Actually Getting Stupider: The THINC-it Test in Depression
I have always found the cognitive symptoms of depression to be among the most disruptive to my overall functioning. When I'm really unwell it feels like I can't think my way out of a paper bag. I tend to describe the effect on my thinking as "mashed potato brains".