New Year’s Eve is a time of celebration with friends and family. If you’re committing not to drink this year, then it can also be a challenging time. Just about everywhere you go, there is alcohol present during this festive occasion. Navigating the evening can be difficult. However, it is possible to have a sober …
Prescription opioid addiction is slashing and burning its way across the American landscape. Since the late 1990s, the rate of narcotic painkiller addiction (and overdose) has soared, and addiction treatment centers are now overflowing with men and women dependent on drugs like OxyContin, fentanyl, Vicodin and Percocet. The arrival of the 21st century has also …
The Relation Between Opioid Addiction and the Middle Class Read More »
Compulsive shopping, also known as shopping addiction, is an unofficial mental health disorder characterized by shopping or spending behaviors that function in roughly the same ways that alcohol or drug use function in substance addiction. It belongs to a larger of group of unofficial disorders known as behavioral addictions or process addictions. These addictions occur …
Just as developing strength and agility is crucial for physical fitness, the same is true for emotional fitness. In our culture, the strength part of the psychological equation is well understood, given that it’s often equated with having good coping skills and emotional resilience. But the perks of having emotional agility are not as widely …
Cultivating Emotional Agility: Six Small Changes That Will Help You Thrive Read More »
Specific phobia is a medical term used to describe a persistent, irrational fear-based reaction to things or situations that have a minor or nonexistent potential to cause harm. Various people can develop this type of response to almost anything. However, some phobic reactions occur much more frequently than others. Women and girls develop specific phobias …
A number of scientific studies have revealed the complex workings of our brain’s motivation and reward center and how neurotransmitters, often referred to as the brain’s “feel-good chemicals,” are released when we desire something or experience pleasure. Our brains produce numerous natural neurotransmitters that play critical roles in our health and how we feel. The …
Addiction and Dopamine Neurotransmitters: How Addiction Works Read More »
Schizoaffective disorder is a psychiatric condition characterized by a set of symptoms that combines features of schizophrenia with features of depression, mania, or some other form of mood disorder. Compared to most other mental illnesses, doctors know relatively little about schizoaffective illness. This is true, in part, because of the complex combination of symptoms that …
Relapse is more the rule than the exception in addiction recovery. In fact, relapse is considered a component of addiction, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), which says, “Addiction is a chronic, relapsing brain disease that is characterized by compulsive drug seeking and use, despite harmful consequences.” Instead of viewing relapse as …
Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) is a mental health condition marked by deep-seated insecurity hidden behind such things as outsized displays of arrogance, self-importance, and self-adulation. This condition affects a small but significant percentage of American adults. Both women and men develop NPD. However, the condition’s impact on women differs from its impact on men in …
As we welcome in a new decade of promise and possibility, the Promises Behavioral Health marketing team has decided to toss out the old meaning of New Year’s Resolutions and focus on a one word theme to live and work towards this year. This one word promise will be accomplished through thoughtful actions and by …