MSI Press Blog

 : Excerpt from Mental Health Mayday (G. Bagdade) - WORKING WITH A COUNSELOR “I’m fixing a hole where the rain gets in, and stops my mind from wandering.” (Lennon & McCartney, 1967) When I started my Bachelor’s program at Penn State, I was well aware that I would have difficulty in the whole process of going back to school. Finding time to write papers, studying terms on notecards, this jaunt back to academia was enough to keep a large supply of Excedrin Migraine on hand, for sure! I remember during my first semester my wife told me to take classes that I would enjoy. So, I signed up for Humans as Primates because I always had an affinity for animals and the fossil record. When the class was completed, I ran to the nearest computer to reveal my impending score. Being a C+ student my whole scholastic career, I was expecting to follow suit in my old ways. A few keystrokes later and… all A’s?! My brain could barely comprehend the information my eyes were filtering in. Kismet has a wa

  Excerpt from I Love My Children, But I Don't Always Like Them Carma’s Story Every family has to figure out the expectation game and how each child may respond to surprises, frustration, disappointment and even too much excitement. As children grow up, and their behavior evolves, their capacity to handle change and respond to unwelcome triggers may also vary, depending on a number of factors. Every family must deal with this process. The Greens came to me because their daughter kept embarrassing them at family functions. Both parents had four siblings, and everyone lived nearby, so they came together to enjoy a meal at least once a week. Carma’s parents considered this a blessing, but their daughter wasn’t so appreciative. As she turned 12, she often tried to get out of family events by crying and begging to stay home alone. I facilitated a parent-child meeting with them (see Chapter 6). After some open-ended questions, Carma was able to verbalize that she felt nervous being with

  Excerpt from  Think Yourself into Becoming a Language Learning Super Star Avoid Emotional Reasoning If you are an emotional reasoner, you may get completely derailed on your journey to good language proficiency because you let your emotions rule your reason. Emotional reasoning, often lumped in with cognitive distortions (Beck, 1979), lets your emotional state, which can be a result of your academic experiences or a result of the events in your life or both, color your attitude, whether that is toward your course, your studying, your homework, your teacher, your textbook, your assignments, your classmates, or any other aspect of your academic life.   Definition of emotional reasoning Emotional reasoning feels like you are riding a roller coaster. Your performance chugs upward, then speeds downward, over and over. Under these conditions, your performance is tracking with these emotional peaks and valleys, ups and downs, and not with your study. Here are some examples: •   

  Shared from Jackie's blog:  The Day I Learned I Was Really Important, Just Not in the Way I Thought The past week or so has been tough! Blog subject, or maybe book subject tough. On Tuesday I picked up a full mug of coffee and felt a familiar dull ache. This ache sent a panicked message to my brain. Oh crap! I’m getting a flare. My "tell" that a fibro flare is coming is this dull achy hand and wrist pain. So uncomfortable that I can’t wrap my fingers around a glass or even hold my phone without making it worse. I quickly calmed myself with the reminder that I hadn’t had a flare up that lasted more than a few days in over three years. Whatever I was doing, meds, supplements, diet, exercise-ish (being honest here), was keeping my symptoms at bay! For the rest of the day I took it easy on my joints and tried my best to stay calm. Later that my evening my shoulders and neck started to ache but again I reminded myself that it should all be over soon. I thought about how luck

  Dr. Ortman writes -  I wrote three “Anonymous” books for recovery from anxiety, depression, and anger. I view these mood states as similar to drug addictions that can be relieved by working the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. The seeds for these books were planted in my childhood. I was raised in an alcoholic family where I learned about the tragedy and power of addiction. As an adult, I sought healing and growth through therapy and participation in Adult Children of Alcoholics and Al-Anon groups. In graduate school, I wrote my dissertation on treating those with a dual diagnosis, that is, with both a substance use and mental health problem. Working with my patients in private practice for the past thirty years, I observed that many suffered from chemical dependencies and process addictions, such as gambling, shopping, and sexual acting out. I further noticed that many of my patients who suffered from anxiety, depression, and anger felt possessed by their moods and powerles

   SOUNDS OF SILENCE “Be still and know that I am God.” --Psalm 46: 10   At the end of therapy sessions, my patients often ask me, “What can I do to make this better? Can you give me an exercise?” My advice is always the same, which mostly disconcerts them, “Just pay close attention to yourself.”  “How do I do that?” they ask. “Just be quiet, listen, and see what you learn about yourself,” I respond. I explain, “You can only heal from the inside out. When you understand yourself, you will know what to do.”  My patients see themselves as broken and needing to be fixed. They view me as the expert who will guide them to health. It is as if they are a broken car, and I am a skilled mechanic. They want a manual of repairs for a quick fix. I tell them, “You have the answer within you, but may not know it yet.”  We live in an attention deficit culture. We are hyperactive and need to keep busy. Being alone and quiet makes us restless and nervous. We are easily distracted. Quickly bored, we ne