5 Habits That Can Help Lift Depression
These habits are worth knowing about because research supports them as ways to support mood over time. They help gradually, and they work best as a companion to treatment. You don't need to do all of them perfectly. Small, steady steps in the right direction count.
Why Reassurance-Seeking Makes Anxiety Worse Over Time
Anxiety creates a sense of danger, and reassurance offers a quick way out of that discomfort. The relief is real but short. In the long run it can make the cycle of anxiety worse.
Self-Compassion Matters When You Have BPD
Anxiety creates a sense of danger, and reassurance offers a quick way out of that discomfort. The relief is real but short. And this pattern can make the anxiety cycle worse with time.
Why DBT Emphasizes Both Acceptance and Change
"Accept yourself as you are" and "work hard to change" can seem contradictory, but DBT is built on the idea that both are true at once, and that holding this truth is the path forward, rather than a problem.
Nervous System Reactions to Trauma: Hyper- vs Hypo- Arousal
Two nervous system reactions to trauma include hyperarousal (fight or flight) and hypoarousal (shutting down). You can learn strategies for caring for yourself during either reaction.
People-Pleasing as a Trauma Response
Understanding people-pleasing as a trauma response rather than a personality quirk changes how you relate to it and helps you understand what it takes to change it.
Why Depression Makes You Want to Isolate and How Connection Can Help
Depression depletes the cognitive and emotional resources that social interaction requires. So staying away from people is a natural impulse. Overcoming this urge and reaching out for connection is an important part of healing.
Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers, and What That Has to Do with PTSD
Animals face danger, but their stress lasts only as long as the danger does. Once the threat passes, their bodies reset.
People don't work that way, especially people living with PTSD.
Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents
Being raised my emotionally immature parents can have an impact on your experience of yourself, your emotions and your relationships in adulthood
When Depression Shows Up as Numbness
A significant number of people experience depression primarily as the absence of feeling. This presentation is common, well-documented, and often goes unrecognized.
How to Calm Down When You Feel Anxious
When anxiety is high, the thinking brain is less available. The more direct route at high activation is physiological: doing something that works on the nervous system without requiring clear thinking first.
What Is Quiet BPD?
Understanding the quiet presentation of BPD can help you have compassion for your experience and find effective therapy.
DBT for Highly Sensitive People Who Don’t Have BPD
If you are a Highly Sensitive Person, and your sensitivity has been a source of distress, has affected your relationships, or has led to patterns of behavior you'd like to change, DBT has something to offer you.
What to Do After a Flashback
After a flashback, grounding in the present, allowing your nervous system to regulate and approaching yourself with compassion are key strategies.
The Impact of Complex PTSD on Relationships
Trauma that happens in the context of relationships increases risk for developing Complex PTSD and impacts your current feelings in relationships.
What Is High-Functioning Depression?
High functioning depression is real and significant, but it can be invisible to others and even to you.
When Anxiety Shows Up as Irritability
Irritability is a common presentations of anxiety, and it can be misread by the people experiencing it and by others.
What Is Radical Acceptance and How Do You Do It?
Radical acceptance means fully acknowledging reality exactly as it is, without fighting it, without demanding it be different before you can function, and without the mental suffering that comes from refusing to accept what’s already true.
How to Ground Yourself When You Are Triggered
Grounding is an important skill to use after experiencing a PTSD trigger. You can practice some simple strategies to help.
How to Use the DBT Skill Opposite Action
The skill of opposite to emotion action is a powerful DBT emotion regulation skill. Here is an introduction to the reasoning behind it and how to get started practicing it.