A safe place to talk openly about mental health & illness
In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychology-related terms. This week's term is neuroticism. Neuroticism is a personality trait that's part of the Big Five model of personality. It involves: ... the tendency to experience frequent, intense negative emotions associated with a sense of uncontrollability (the perception of inadequate coping)… Continue reading What Is… Neuroticism
In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychology-related terms. This week's term is selective mutism. Selective mutism (SM) is a rare disorder that begins in childhood and is characterized by an inability to speak in select social contexts (hence the "selective" part of the name). It used to be called… Continue reading What Is… Selective Mutism
A while back, a post about choosing to be positive came up in my WP Reader feed. The blogger mentioned that "our mind is something we do and can have control over." While they weren't making reference to mental illness at all, I don't think control over one's own mind is quite so cut and… Continue reading How Much Control Do You Have Over Your Mind?
It seems like everyone’s talking about gaslighting these days. But if everyone and their dog seems to be gaslighting (or being gaslit by) everyone else and their cat (or if cat and dog are both accusing the other of gaslighting them), is it really a meaningful descriptor of emotional abuse? Or does the meaning just… Continue reading Is the Term Gaslighting Overused?
In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychology-related terms. This week's term is Internal Family Systems therapy. Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy is a type of psychotherapeutic approach that's based on the idea that the mind is naturally multiple, and we all have a system of parts. It's often used… Continue reading What Is… Internal Family Systems Therapy
This post is a follow-up to a conversation Winter Dragonflies and I were having about different mental errors that can feed into social anxiety. We all have a natural set of cognitive biases that can result in mental errors, so I wanted to take a look at what some of those might be. Cognitive biases… Continue reading Cognitive Biases that Can Feed into Social Anxiety
In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychology-related terms. This week's term is executive functioning. The idea for this post came from Meg of Where Good Advice Happens. Executive functioning refers to higher-level cognitive processes related to organization and regulation. It's the C-suite of your brain, or kind of like… Continue reading What Is… Executive Functioning
Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is really big on using metaphors to convey key concepts. This post will take a look at a few of them. Self-as-context metaphors Chessboard A core message of ACT is that our self is the context for what happens inside out head, not the content of it. One metaphor for… Continue reading Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Metaphors
In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychology-related terms. This week's term is avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder. Avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID) is a type of eating disorder that involves restricting food intake, not with the aim of weight loss, but more along the lines of picky eating twisted to… Continue reading What Is… Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID)
Blackness Interrupted: Black Psychology Matters by Nicól Osborne and Tamera Gittens is a passionate call for greater recognition of Black psychology, which pertains specifically to the experiences and culture of African American people. The authors explain the multiple barriers that face African Americans contemplating higher education in fields like psychology. They explain the impact of… Continue reading Book Review: Blackness Interrupted: Black Psychology Matters