Stress: Resources, Treatment, Symptoms, and More

What Is The Relationship Between Hormones and Anxiety?

By Jamie Wiebe, Contributor
August 9, 2019August 5, 2019

If you’ve ever felt confused by spiking anxiety shortly before your period begins, don’t worry: You’re not alone. Our hormones directly affect our anxiety levels. And it’s not just progesterone — a number of hormones can influence how stressed you’re feeling on any particular day, regardless of whether you have a uterus or not.

Here’s the rundown of the wild world of hormones inside our body — and info about how they can increase (or help!) your anxiety. Continue reading What Is The Relationship Between Hormones and Anxiety?

Are You Numbing Out On Self-Care?

By Elizabeth Su, Contributor
August 8, 2019August 5, 2019

A few weeks before my wedding, I caught a nasty cold.

I remember marching into my therapy appointment — head pounding and body aching — furious that I was sick. I was frustrated that being sick was getting in the way of what I thought I had to do to feel beautiful and relaxed on my wedding day. Things like: run every day, tone my arms, double-down on my skin regimen, cook homemade meals, get a haircut, drink green juice, and meditate regularly. I was overcome with guilt that I didn’t have the energy to do any of it.

“I’m just so tired,” I blubbered to my therapist in between sobs. Continue reading Are You Numbing Out On Self-Care?

How to Protect Yourself From Overthinking

By Jessica DuBois-Maahs, Contributor
August 3, 2019August 1, 2019

If you overthink, you obsess about mistakes that were made yesterday and feel distress about plans in your future. It can take shape as significant worry over performance at school or at work, as well as an invasive concern about how others perceive your actions and what you say. Often, this transforms relatively harmless conversations and interactions into endless loops of thinking, leading a person to experience distress, anguish and obsession. If this compulsion to overthink sounds familiar, continue reading for ways to reduce anxiety levels and contain some of these negative thought patterns. Continue reading How to Protect Yourself From Overthinking

5 Signs You’re Too Hard On Yourself

By Ladan Nikravan Hayes, Contributor
July 19, 2019July 17, 2019

For many people, it’s easy to forgive someone else, but a lot harder to forgive him of herself. Holding yourself to an impossible standard of perfectionism is a common cause of this inability to forgive yourself. Ignoring positives and solely focusing on the negatives during self-reflection can lead to wrong turns, missed opportunities, and mistakes. Of course, striving to be the best version of yourself and continuously improving yourself isn’t a bad thing, but if you’re constantly focusing on your own shortcomings and errors, it can take a toll on your mental health.

“The tone of your self-talk is the key,” said Amy Cirbus, a New York-based Talkspace therapist. “There’s a difference between saying ‘That didn’t work out, I think I might be able to do that better’ versus ‘I can never get this right, I’m such a failure.’ Continue reading 5 Signs You’re Too Hard On Yourself

Why Aren’t College Students Getting The Mental Health Support They Need?

By Elizabeth Su, Contributor
July 18, 2019July 17, 2019

college student with backpack walking out the door of a building

It was around 10pm when I got a knock on my freshman college dorm room. I probably had been up since 8am studying, squirreled away for most of the day in my favorite cubicle on the no-talking floor in the library. 12-hour study days were the norm for me. Monday through Sunday. No days off.

I heard the knock again and got up from my scratchy desk chair to open the door. My best friend from school was there, holding an Oreo cake in his hands.

“Come on,” he said, peeling me away from my textbooks. “It’s time to eat cake!”

It was my 18th birthday. Continue reading Why Aren’t College Students Getting The Mental Health Support They Need?

How Teens Can Deal With the Pressure to Succeed

By Tamara Stevens, Clinical Psychologist
April 26, 2019August 6, 2019

Life as a teen has never been easy, but today it’s a stressed out pressure cooker of grades, tests, and college admissions. According to a study from New York University in 2015, “youth experience high levels of chronic stress,” most of it related to the pressure to succeed. What’s worse, this stress and anxiety can actually lead to other mental health concerns. Continue reading How Teens Can Deal With the Pressure to Succeed

Why We Procrastinate (and How to Stop)

By Jamie Wiebe, Contributor
December 6, 2018February 12, 2019

When you’re looking down the barrel of a school midterm report or a major work project, finding inspiration should be easy. You’re on deadline, after all! But the urge to procrastinate strikes us all, and often at the worst times.

Procrastination takes many forms, and leans on avoidant traits that end up harming us in the long run.. Here are the main reasons we procrastinate — and how to stop. Continue reading Why We Procrastinate (and How to Stop)

6 Ways to Make Positive Change Before You Hit Rock Bottom

By Ashley Laderer, Contributor
November 29, 2018November 28, 2018

A man approaches the end of a ladder with a large drop beneath him

If you’ve hit rock bottom before, you know how much it sucks…and you probably want to make sure you never get to that point again. Maybe you remember the warning signs you felt the last time, and now you’re sitting here thinking, “Oh crap, I feel a breakdown coming on!” Well, that’s your sign that you gotta protect yourself and prevent that nervous breakdown from actually happening.

Unfortunately, it’s not so effective to just sit around and wish rock bottom away. When we feel ourselves declining, we have to be proactive and take steps to make positive changes and pick ourselves up — before the worst actually happens. Here are 6 ideas to get you moving in the right direction.

Continue reading 6 Ways to Make Positive Change Before You Hit Rock Bottom

6 Self-Care Secrets to Reduce Stress

By Jessica DuBois-Maahs, Contributor
July 30, 2018September 11, 2018

To be stressed is to be alive. And however uncomfortable it makes you, it is a universal feeling that is a part of the imperfect human experience. Stress saps your energy, causes fatigue, and increases negative thoughts that can contribute to anxious feelings. Fortunately, there are ways to build up a healthy response to stress that can even reverse the uncomfortable feelings over time.

The most basic and important way to mitigate stress is by taking care of yourself. It may sound simple, but your mind and body are connected in powerful ways and by maintaining your physical, emotional, and mental reserves, you can actually prevent and manage stress.

Continue reading 6 Self-Care Secrets to Reduce Stress