When most people think of ADHD, they think of children. A national parents survey in 2016 indicated that the estimated number of children ages 2 through 17 with ADHD was 6.1 million.¹ That’s a lot of children with ADHD. However, a NIMH study in 2017 of adults ages 18 through 44 indicated a current prevalence rate of 4.4% with ADHD.² The 2020 census counted 258 million adults in the U. S.³ If you assume that this rate is the same for all adults in the U.S., then there are 11 million adults in the U.S with ADHD. An article in JAMA Psychiatry in 2019 indicated that only 11% of adults were getting treatment.⁴ Thus, the odds are such that the partner(s) in a marriage with ADHD are probably not getting treated for it.

In a marriage where one or both partners have ADHD, predictable patterns are found. A person with ADHD will often promise to do something and later forget about it. Their non-ADHD partner, or the partner whose ADHD interferes less with their functioning, eventually stops believing the other’s promises. This occurs because we generally interpret another’s behavior based on how we would behave in given situation.

The non-ADHD partner thinks that they would keep their word if they were to make a promise. They assume that their partner with ADHD did not mean what they said when they made the promise. When this happens over and over again, the non-ADHD partner feels that the other can’t be trusted. This often contrasts with the intense focus that the person with ADHD gave to their partner in the beginning of the relationship. The partner without ADHD winds up believing that their partner doesn’t love or value them. They now feel that there is a void that never used to exist in beginning of the relationship.

Sadly, the patterns continue. Too many arguments ensue. The partner with ADHD might not listen well during a conversation. They get distracted and later don’t remember some, or a lot, of what they and their partner said. At times, the partner with ADHD fills in the gaps of what they don’t remember and gets caught lying. This leads to anger for both and grief at the loss of  the expectations they had about the relationship’s progress.

The partner without ADHD begins to see their ADHD partner as not able, or willing, to shoulder their responsibilities in the relationship. This person winds up doing more and more to manage the home, bills, and care of any children they have.  This person comes to regard their ADHD partner as less competent and often loses respect for them. But there is only so much one partner can do and eventually they wind up being and feeling overwhelmed.

At this point, either partner may look for comfort outside their relationship, whether it be with someone else or an activity that takes them away from the marriage. If an affair happens and is discovered, it can break through the denial as to how unhappy one or both of them are with each other.

However, another possible response to their unhappiness is that the couple can each realize the destructive effects caused by the untreated ADHD behaviors. They can decide to see those behaviors as what is driving them apart and then unify in working against those behaviors with the ADHD person getting treatment to increase their control of their unsuccessful behaviors.

Treatment for the person with the ADHD can include several types of intervention. The pharmaceutical industry is coming up with new medications that are helpful in reducing ADHD symptoms. These medications can also have side effects, though. The Functional Medicine approach in partnership with Specialized Therapy offers an alternative to medication. This is designed to restore the components of the brain chemistry that are required to maintain good focus and concentration. The Functional Medicine approach is also designed to remedy the root cause of the problem. In addition, it helps to reinstate normal functioning of that part of the brain’s chemistry.

In conjunction with STA, FxMed Centers also uses brain-based interventions to empower the person with ADHD. WE help our patients redirect and maintain focus and improve recall. This process suggests an alternative approach which identifies the biochemical factors producing the ADHD symptoms. In addition, it recommends natural substances that are the precursors to the neurotransmitters involved that help with eliminating ADHD.

Treatment on the biological level could be supplemented with helping the person with ADHD make behavioral adjustments to minimize the impact of their symptoms on their functioning. They can be helped to improve their focus, memory, organization, time management and emotional self-control. They can be helped to replace negative attributions about their lack of success with the expectation of being able to meet their realistic goals. These improvements generally lead to an improvement in their self-esteem.

Individual treatment can also help the non-ADHD partner. It can help them develop a realistic evaluation of their partner’s and their own strengths and weaknesses.This helps them clarify their own goals for self-improvement and enjoyment. Hopefully, helping them figure out how to develop a better work-life balance makes things better.

A person performing more successfully and feeling better about themselves is likely going to have a better attitude. They also have a better attitude towards working on their marriage problems. Thus, each partner can be helped to improve the marriage. The communication with each other can improve. They can be encouraged to find and use a more equitable distribution of the work to be done in the home and move away from unhealthy roles that they may have taken on as time passed. They can be encouraged to see each other again in the positive light that existed when they were first attracted to each other. Eventually their intimacy will improve, and each will have a clearer picture of the kind of life they want to have for themselves and to share with each other.

If you’re interested in reading about marriage and ADHD, you can check out www.ADHDmarriage.com. Knowing somebody with ADHD, please call us for help if needed. please call us! If you are determined to make changes to regain your happiness, we can help! Call STA at 201-488-6678 or call the Functional Medicine Centers at 201-880-8247.

References

1. Danielson, Melissa et al. Prevalence of parent-reported ADHD diagnosis and associated treatment among U.S. children and adolescents, Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 47:2, 199-212.
2. Kessler, RC et al. The prevalence and correlates of adult ADHD in the United States: results of the National Comorbidity Survey Replication. American Journal of Psychiatry. 2006 April: 163(4), 716-723.
3. Ogunwole, Stella et al. Population under 18 declined last decade, 8-21. Census.gov
4. Chung, Winston et al. Trends in the prevalence and incidence of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder among adult and children of different racial and ethnic groups, JAMA Psychiatry, 2 (11)
5. https://www.specializedtherapy.com/is-melatonin-safe/
6. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/marriage

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The post Focusing on your significant other: ADHD interfering in marriages appeared first on Specialized Therapy.

For example, while the spontaneity of someone with ADHD may be attractive to a potential partner, the ADHD person’s focus on the present and consequent lack of follow-through may become unwelcome to the non-ADHD spouse as time passes. A person with ADHD experiences the world in terms of now and not now. Being spontaneous is living in the now. Memory is about the past and planning is about the future, both not now. People with ADHD often excel at enjoying the present but have difficulty when it comes to taking care of things later on.

Each of the difficulties mentioned above for the ADHD person can contribute to problems in a marriage. What tends to happen it that the problematic behavior of the person with ADHD generates a response in the non-ADHD spouse that itself becomes a problem in the relationship. The person with ADHD promises their spouse to take care of a task later on, which is in the not now. When they make the promise, they do intend to carry it out later on. However, later on they are in a new present moment. When they made the promise is now in the past, the not now. They forget to do the task. Forgetting is something that happens to us all occasionally. But for the person with ADHD, the forgetting happens over and over.

The non-ADHD spouse gets tired of the forgotten promises and the undone tasks. They often tell themselves that if they don’t do it, it won’t get done. So, they often wind up doing more and more of the household tasks and wind up resenting it more and more. One thing we all do is generate attributions, or explanations, to ourselves for why things happen, particularly things that happen to us. The non-ADHD spouse winds up thinking negative things about their partner.  “They’re lazy, they don’t care, they think of me as their servant.” They can begin relating to their ADHD spouse as another child in the family who has to be taken care of.

In the meantime, the person with ADHD, who tries for a while to improve their behavior after being criticized by their non-ADHD spouse, eventually comes to believe that whatever they do is not good enough and they begin to think that their efforts won’t ever be recognized. The ADHD spouse often loses their motivation to keep trying. A vicious cycle of criticism and avoidance develops between the two spouses that can ruin the marriage if unrecognized and left untreated.

Melissa Orlov went down this spiral, but rather than let her marriage be destroyed, decided to change her responses to her ADHD husband and so she saved her marriage. She used what she learned the hard way and wrote two books to help couples, one or both of whom have ADHD, to save their marriage. The book titles are The ADHD Effect on Marriage and The Couple’s Guide to Thriving with ADHD. She also has a website, www.adhdmarriage.com, devoted to providing up-to-date information to couples struggling with ADHD in their marriage.

She states that the spouse with ADHD first needs to recognize that they have ADHD and then needs to seek treatment for it. The treatment is often medication but not always so. Then both partners need to change their incorrect attributions about the others’ behavior and trade their destructive responses to each other for positive methods to identify day-to-day problems and develop strategies to solve these problems. She acknowledges that this process is not easy but, based on the imperfect but happy marriage she now says she has, she encourages her readers to make the efforts to save their marriages too.

If you are the spouse with ADHD or the spouse without ADHD and you want to save your marriage, then you can start with checking out Melissa Orlov’s website, read one or both of her books or get personal help from one of the therapists at STA who specializes in helping people with ADHD. Call us at 201-488-6678 if you want help to make the changes that are likely to improve your marriage.

The post ADHD and Marriage: How to Manage the Two first appeared on Specialized Therapy.

The post ADHD and Marriage: How to Manage the Two appeared first on Specialized Therapy.

Glial cells are non-neuronal cells, that is, cells other than the nerve cells that conduct the messages throughout the brain and body. The glial cells were discovered in the nineteenth century. We’ve known throughout the twentieth century that certain glial cells search for and destroy pathogens and dead neurons. But until just nine years ago, it wasn’t clear to scientists how the brain got rid of its metabolic waste. A new “drainage” system in the body, in the brain specifically, was discovered by Dr. Maiken Nedergaard in 2012. Since it involves glial cells and acts like the lymphatic system, it was called the glymphatic system. Makes sense, right?

The glymphatic system consists of a tunnel around a tunnel. The inside tunnel consists of the arteries and arterioles in the pia. The pia is a membrane around the brain inside of the skull. Inside of this inner tunnel is where the blood is flowing. Astrocytes are a type of glial cell that looks somewhat like a star. They have feet that loosely wrap around all the small blood vessels in the brain to create the outer tunnel. Inside that outer tunnel flows cerebrospinal fluid (CSF).

The CSF flows out of the outer tunnel, flows past the neurons in the brain and flows into the local venues, and eventually out of the brain. Of course, it’s a bit more complicated than that. You can check out online the article The Glymphatic System: A Beginner’s Guide if you want the details. The flow of this fluid takes the metabolic wastes from the neurons out of the brain. The flow gets rid of pieces of beta-amyloid. These are broken pieces of protein that can build up over time and play a role in Alzheimer’s disease.

OK, here is the part I’ve been building up to. I hope you’re still with me. Norepinephrine is one of the neurotransmitters produced in the brain. When it’s produced, it wakes us up. It also inhibits the production of the CSF and causes swelling in cells of the glymphatic system. This swelling blocks the flow of the CSF through the brain when we are awake.

However, when we sleep, our brain cells don’t produce norepinephrine. More CSF is produced and the swelling in the cells of the glymphatic system goes down. The flow of the CSF through the brain is much more effective. This flow takes the neurotoxic waste products from the day out of the brain. So, when we’re asleep, the whole system is working to detoxify our brain.

So, how much sleep should we be getting so that our brain can clean itself? The World Health Organization and the National Sleep Foundation both recommend an average of seven to eight hours of sleep per night for adults. Too much sleep (like more than ten hours per day) isn’t good for us either, for reasons not relevant to this article.

I hope the take-home message for you from this blog is a greater understanding of how important getting a good night’s sleep is. For practical suggestions about getting a good night’s sleep, consult the book Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker, Ph.D. If you’re having problems sleeping, you might consider speaking to a therapist here at STA (call 201-488-6678) who can help you identify and remediate emotional issues that may be interfering with your sleep.

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The post Glymphatic System and Trying to Get Enough Sleep appeared first on Specialized Therapy.

How much do you think about the future? How much do you care about the future? Understanding a bit about how dopamine, one of the neurotransmitters in our brain, influences our behavior can help us understand our changing experience in a romantic relationship. In the book, The Molecule of More, authors Daniel Lieberman, M.D. and Michael Long explain how dopamine is the neurotransmitter in our brain firing the circuits that make us care about the future and how this changes in a romantic relationship.

How We Experience Pleasure

What is in our immediate grasp is our present; anything beyond that is in our future. Our peripersonal space contains what is in our grasp. Anything beyond that is in our extrapersonal space. The brain evolved two different circuits and neurotransmitters for these two separate parts of our experience.
Serotonin, oxytocin, endorphins, and endocannabinoids mediate our pleasure in the present. They are involved in our feeling good when we reach a goal and sit back to enjoy the fruits or of labor. In the 1950s scientists mistakenly thought that it is dopamine that helps us experience pleasure. Many people still think of dopamine that way.

However, now we know that dopamine cells fire when we react to the unexpected, to possibilities that the future might hold for us. It’s not about pleasure, it’s about anticipation. we’re not focused on what we have now and can enjoy. We’refocused on what we want to have in the future. We are wired to crave the unexpected. We are constantly making predictions about what the future holds for us. When it is better than what we expected, our dopamine cells fire, urging us to pursue that future. Dopamine drives the circuits in our brain that lead us to try to control the world so as to maximize our obtaining the resources we need from it in the future.

Long-Lasting Love

When someone meets another and is attracted to them, the other person often seems like the perfect person to them. The person imagines all kinds of wonderful experiences that they hope will happen with this new person. It’s all so new and exciting. Guess which neurotransmitter is producing that exciting anticipation. Right, it’s dopamine. That head-in-the-clouds feeling, that passionate love, lasts from twelve to eighteen months, according to Rutgers anthropologist Helen Fisher.

After that period of time, the novelty of the relationship fades. The dopamine cells aren’t firing anymore. Some people interpret this as falling out of love and think that it means that they have to move on. It doesn’t mean that love is over, only that the love they experience has changed to what is called companionate love. It’s not about what future fantasies will be realized with the one they love; it’s about loving that person in the here and now, mediated by those neurotransmitters and hormones mentioned above. The person is now satisfied with their present reality in an enduring manner. When a person is driven by dopamine, they aren’t satisfied for long. But someone who has made the transition to companionate love is on the road to long-lasting happiness.

Understanding how the neurotransmitters in our brains influence our behavior certainly helps us make sense of our experiences. Sometimes just understanding is not enough, though. Sometimes it’s helpful to talk to someone who knows about neurotransmitters but also knows a lot about helping someone navigate their way through the transitions that develop as the relationship progresses. If you’re experiencing the painful feelings that also can be a part of a relationship, then you might want to consider speaking to one of the knowledgeable and caring therapists at STA .  If so, give a call to 201-488-6678.

The post What’s love got to do with it?: Love and Dopamine first appeared on Specialized Therapy.

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Dealing with your child’s boredom during Covid-19 requires more than just screens.

Time weighs heavy on our hands. Everyone is bored with the restrictions we are observing during the Covid-19 pandemic.  Of course, social distancing and staying home are the right things to do. And we don’t even know how much longer all of the restrictions will stay in place. If you as a parent are bored, imagine how your kids must feel! They’re doing schoolwork for many hours of the day. Some for too many hours, from what I’ve heard. Yes, they still have their screens. Many are still spending too many hours on them. Some things haven’t changed during the Covid-19 pandemic. Thus here are some tips on dealing with your child’s boredom during covid-19.

Outdoor Activities

Yet you have the feeling that they could be making better use of their time. Kids, and adults too, need exercise. It does positive things for our brains, like enhancing learning. Is there a safe place where your kids can play outside? When is the last time you had a catch with your child, passed a football back and forth, or shot some hoops together? You could start a garden together if you have the space to do so. This is an activity that is life-affirming. It suggests that the future will have something positive to offer.

Are your children old enough and can you trust them enough to allow them to take a walk or ride a bike while maintaining social distance? How about driving them to a friend’s house where they can talk to their friend from the other side of the backyard or from within the car? The weather is getting too nice to let time outside slip by.

Indoor Activities

How about when your children are indoors and not on a screen? Or at least not on a screen where you and they are looking up something together or watching something educational. Are they interested in starting a hobby with material that is already in the house or that can be purchased online and delivered to your home? How about engaging with them in playing one of those old board games stuffed inside a closet? You and they could learn to meditate or do yoga together if you’re not already sharing these activities. Check out the many apps for mediation and/or yoga. If none of these suggestions sound interesting to you so far, why not check out a website where there are lots of ideas posted by creative people.

When you’re eating together, which I hope you are and which research shows have positive advantages for children, why not tell them about what your life was like when you were their age? Maybe about your parents’ lives at the same age too for a wider historical view. You could all plan a vacation trip for when the pandemic is over. You could plan a trip to some exotic place that would be a dream vacation someday or about which your children have been studying in school.

Perhaps your child is feeling more than upset by the restrictions imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic. Perhaps their emotions are interfering with their behavior toward you or their sibs or with their schoolwork. Maybe they have not been sleeping or eating well for multiple days. Then consider discussing your concerns with one of the therapists at STA who work with parents and children. You can give a call to 201-488-6678 to set up a teleconference intake to discuss your concerns and discuss solutions to try to make things better at home during this boring, and certainly stressful, time.

The post Dealing With Your Child’s Boredom During Covid-19 first appeared on Specialized Therapy.

The post Dealing With Your Child’s Boredom During Covid-19 appeared first on Specialized Therapy.

We have in our brains and throughout our bodies a neurotransmitter system that is involved in modulating pleasure, energy, and well-being and in helping our bodies maintain a state of homeostasis or balance. This system is found not just in human bodies, but in virtually every animal there is.
It turns out that there is one plant in the world that produces chemicals that mimic the molecules in the system mentioned above, called the endocannabinoid system. You guessed it. This is the hemp plant, which records show has been used by people since ancient history. It is the same plant grown by George Washington and Thomas Jefferson and on which the Declaration of Independence was written. It is also the same plant demonized, starting in the 1930s when it was called marijuana by the U.S. government and marijuana was (and still is) classified as a Schedule 1 drug.

Makeup of CBD

CBD is the most prevalent of the cannabinoids, of which there are more than a hundred currently identified and which come from hemp or cannabis. CBD is anti-psychoactive and is legal in all fifty states. Other compounds, called terpenes, also contribute healthful benefits and these are discussed in the relevant part of the book.

There are CB1 receptors, the greatest number of which are in the brain but they are also present throughout much of the rest of the body. There are also CB2 receptors, which are more prevent in the peripheral system. Two signaling molecules, anandamide, and 2-AG are present. There are five enzymes involved, two for the synthesis of 2-AG, one for the synthesis of anandamide, one for the breakdown of 2-AG and the other for breakdown of anandamide.

THC, the molecule responsible for the psychoactive effect of cannabis, works by directly binding to the endocannabinoid receptors. CBD works indirectly by inhibiting the enzyme that metabolizes anandamide. The details are in the book if you want them.

System Regulation

The system interacts with the endorphin system, the immune system and the vanilloid system (the system responsible for transforming pain from acute to chronic). The endocannabinoid system regulates inflammation, pain, bone health, the formation of new nerve cells, fat and sugar processing, mood, energy, brain health, and hormone levels. Again, more details in the book, another reason for reading it.
There’s a chapter about the various ways to ingest CBD products with a lot of helpful advice and three charts to help the reader determine the right microdose, standard dose, and macro dose, along with reasons to choose which type of dose to use. Then you get to the heart of the book.

Chapter 4 is an alphabetized list of 26 health issues that include, among others, anxiety, asthma, cancer, depression, migraine, pain, seizure disorders, skin conditions, and sleep disorders. For each medical issue, there is information about how to take the medicine, that is, dosage and delivery, as well as a discussion of CBD’s effectiveness based on the reviewed studies up to the date of publishing.
There’s a chapter on CBD’s usefulness for treating women’s health issues. This is the first book with a chapter on the veterinary use of CBD. There’s an alphabetized list of high-CBD strains, for those who live in a state where they can, or will be able to, plant seeds and grow their own. No matter what state you are in, you will probably want to learn more about CBD and this book will certainly accomplish that goal.

If you are interested in a more natural approach to treating illnesses, visit our sister company FxMedCenters.com or call 201-880-8246.

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Bullmore discusses recent research in immunology that has begun to demonstrate that inflammation often precedes depression. He acknowledges that there are probably several causes of depression. However, this book is about inflammation and depression. He notes that inflammation is strongly involved in almost all serious medical disorders. He also notes that when people have an inflammatory disease, they are often depressed. For example, when drugs are given to people with rheumatoid arthritis, their arthritic symptoms are reduced and their mood is improved.

Inflammation

Bullmore explains that inflammation occurs in the body when an injury allows bacteria to enter the body’s tissue. The inflammatory response dilates the local blood vessels, causing the symptom of heat. Inflammation makes blood vessel walls leakier. This allows more fluid to pass from the blood to the tissue, causing swelling. These are normal responses of the body to an injury.

The type of immune cell most widely distributed throughout the body is the macrophage. These cells protect the boundary between self and the outside world where the bacteria are. When the macrophages in the local area of an injury detect bacteria, they release chemical messengers called cytokines into the bloodstream. These messenger molecules attach to other macrophages and direct them to the site of the injury. Then, the macrophages join the battle to get rid of the invading pathogens. Our macrophages win the battle and we don’t get infected.

Cytokines

The cytokines in the bloodstream travel throughout our body. The blood vessels in the brain have epithelial cells. These cells are closely aligned with each other. They keep many molecules in the bloodstream out of the brain. These cells comprise what is called the blood-brain barrier.
Cytokines get through the blood-brain barrier. Inside the brain, they activate the brain’s version of macrophages which are called microglia. The mobilization of the microglia causes collateral damage to the surrounding nerve cells. When affected by the microglia, the nerve cells may shrink in size. They may have the synaptic connections between them rendered more rigid. Then they are less able to change with incoming information.

Normally the nerve cells make serotonin from tryptophan. The cytokines that have entered the brain can instruct the nerve cells to make other molecules instead of serotonin. This decreases serotonin’s availability for the nerve cells. These other molecules may also be toxic to the nerve cells. This can overstimulate them and decrease the effectiveness of their functioning.

There’s much more information in the book about these processes. Bullmore describes how there may have been an evolutionary advantage to the depression-like behaviors initiated by the effects of the cytokines in the brain.

The field of medicine tends to be conservative in accepting new ideas. Much of the field has not yet accepted this new way of thinking about inflammation as a cause of depression. However, an openness to new ways of understanding what causes depression is part of the orientation of Functional Medicine. Functional Medicine infuses our thinking at Specialized Therapy Associates. If you’re ready to investigate what therapeutic options are available to help decrease your depression, please call us at 201-488-6678 to schedule an intake.

The post The Inflamed Mind first appeared on Specialized Therapy.

The post The Inflamed Mind appeared first on Specialized Therapy.

Fear versus Worry

De Becker differentiates between fear and worry. Fear is a feeling that is occurring in the present. The person is perceiving aspects in the current environment that are signaling to some part of them that there is something dangerous about the current situation. It is the feeling that animals respond to. The gazelle doesn’t debate with itself about whether a nearby lion looks dangerous or not. It gets out of there!
Worry, on the other hand, is about an imagined future. Some worries are realistic and can lead to real action. Many worries are about situations that are too far off in the future to take corrective action in the present or are about situations we can’t control.

People interviewed after someone they know who committed a violent crime often say that there were no signs that anything bad was going to happen. De Becker says we can see the signs if we know what to look for. He identifies what he calls “pre-incident indicators” that occur before violent behavior. He discusses the contexts in which these indicators can occur. They include intimate relationships, occupational situations, threats to commit violence against a stranger, breaking up with someone, and adolescents who threaten their parents.

Techniques for More Safety and Less Fear

The book needs to be read in order to take in all of the information that De Becker has to offer. However, let me give you some specific examples of techniques that De Becker offers about how those with ill intent gain the trust of their intended victim.

Forced teaming is when the predator discusses how the victim and they are in the same boat in order to establish a false perception of closeness between the victim and themselves. However, the situation is not accidental; it is intentional and directed by the predator. The predator is trying to project a shared purpose or experience where none actually exists. The simple defense against this ploy is to make a clear refusal to accept the concept of partnership.

How many time have you heard someone say, “Of, but they were so nice (or charming)” and then later regretted it? De Becker points out that charm is almost always done intentionally to accomplish an unstated motive. He recommends thinking of charm, or niceness, not as a trait of the stranger, but as a way that they are behaving to gain the desired effect.

Here’s a third one of the several other techniques that De Becker discusses. He states that someone who wants to deceive you will at times give you too many details. The details serve as a distraction and are an attempt to get you to lose sight of the context in which the interaction is occurring. Defend against this by remaining aware of that context.

Now to Follow Up

I hope that this information has been helpful to you to avoid harm from future danger. Sadly, there’s no guarantee that even with the information from this blog or even from the whole book that a person won’t be a victim of violence. We all need to take personal responsibility for our safety.
However, if you have been involved with someone in the past in a way that was traumatic for you or is still involved with this type of person, then you might want to discuss this with one of the therapists at Specialized Therapy Associates. Please call us at 201-488-6678 to speak to our intake coordinator to set up an intake for yourself to further your healing process.

The post The Gift of Fear first appeared on Specialized Therapy.

The post The Gift of Fear appeared first on Specialized Therapy.

At the same time, prevalence rates for trauma are high. As pointed out by David Treleaven, Ph.D. in his excellent book Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness, an estimated 90 percent of the population are exposed to a traumatic event at some time in their lives. Eight to twenty percent of these people will develop a posttraumatic stress disorder. This is a book to raise the awareness and skill level of any teacher of mindfulness or any therapist recommending mindfulness as a technique to someone they are treating for trauma.

Many trauma treatment books focus on helping the individual overcome their trauma. Nothing wrong with that. However, Dr. Treleaven situates this treatment in a holistic approach. He says we must also factor in systems that extend beyond the individual. It is imperative for the therapist treating trauma to understand how these systems function and how they relate to trauma. He offers the example of looking at one bar which is in front of a bird. To a casual observer, the bird could just fly around the bar. However, if you look at all of the bars around the bird, you see that it is in a cage.

The two-edged sword of mindfulness

Mindfulness helps us learn how to pay purposeful attention, to be in the present moment and to be nonjudgmental toward what we are observing. We can be observant of external stimuli and also what is going on inside of us.

However, like someone practicing mindfulness, particularly during meditation, survivors often find it difficult to avoid attending excessively to reminders of their trauma. This typically takes the survivor out of their zone of tolerance or zone of optimal arousal. Instead of feeling safe during meditation, the person feels threatened by what they are experiencing inside and their emotional state worsens rather than improves.

Dr. Treleaven devotes a chapter to each of his five principles of trauma-sensitive mindfulness. He offers suggestions relevant to these principles. Dr. Treleaven offers suggestions about how to help the client stay within their zone of tolerance, to support their stability, to help the client maintain a safe sense of embodiment and utilize a system of support. He encourages the reader to become more aware of the social context of the relationship. We should also consider the likelihood of oppression being part of the context of the social identity of the client as well as the trauma they have experienced. He offers suggestions to become part of the solution to achieve more social equality and fairness.

It might come across to you as a meditation teacher or a therapist who treats trauma survivors that I think that you would greatly benefit from reading and learning from this book. If so, then I hope to have helped Dr. Treleaven spread his wise and kind thoughts to those who can then better help trauma survivors achieve a more satisfying life.

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The post Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness appeared first on Specialized Therapy.

Join us on January 26 to receive money management tips and begin your path towards a debt-free life.

We here at Specialized Therapy Associates (STA) thought we could offer help to those in need of better money management in the form of a FREE finance workshop. Dr. Gourdine will bring in a licensed stockbroker and
Edward Jones financial advisor, Richard Tandy, who has years of experience helping people better manage their finances. He will be joined by STA’s own Dr. Richard Drew, Ph.D., a licensed psychologist, who will help you understand the emotional factors that may impair your money management skills and increase your stress.

Financial problems may be caused by a lack of financial savvy. While growing up, not many people were taught how to spend and save money wisely. In fact, very few people today have properly planned for
retirement. According to a J.P. Morgan survey, 74 percent of Americans are behind on their retirement planning.

There are a lot of details to wise money management and it often takes a professional to know the ins and outs. At the same time, there are several businesses whose focus is to take your money from you. Credit card companies offer low or no interest loans up front that later blossom into severe drains on your bankbook. The advertising industry is designed to create desires to buy things that you may not need or may not need now. We’re bombarded by advertising messages every day that are designed to appeal to our emotional needs and fears.

In addition to the external forces trying to get us to spend more than we have, there are also internal forces. Buying things satisfies a number of our psychological needs. Who doesn’t love the special
attention we get from a friendly salesperson? Who doesn’t like the feeling that comes with a new purchase when we believe that we’re better off with it? With all of these external and internal pressures on us, is it any wonder that too many people are in debt? Once in debt, we often become stressed by it. In a 2018 Ramsey Solutions survey, 47 percent of respondents with consumer debt said their level of debt caused them to experience stress and anxiety in their lives.

Are you someone stressed and anxious about money? Getting the right information is the first step toward better money management. Join us Saturday, January 26 in Paramus for our first ever Financial Savings Workshop. Register here.

Richard Tandy will tell you what you need to know to make things better for yourself financially. Feel free to ask him questions and get the answers to better understand how to manage your money and get out of your debt. Richard Drew, Ph.D., will offer that something extra beyond the knowledge needed to make wise financial decisions, including those factors that keep people stuck in credit card debt. Many times in life we know what to do but don’t make the right decision anyway. In the workshop, Dr. Drew will describe an over-spenders counseling group that will begin meeting early in February and will meet on a weekly basis. The group will be intended to help people explore the emotional issues at stake in the maintenance of their excessive spending. It will be open to adults with a self-identified overspending problem. The group will focus on identifying behaviors that will be more successful in meeting the emotional needs of those in the group. We all want happiness and should be able to find some without having to buy things we think will get it for us.

The post Money Management and Credit Card Debt first appeared on Specialized Therapy.

The post Money Management and Credit Card Debt appeared first on Specialized Therapy.