What can you do to take action? Join the fight to REMOVE the stigma!

Stigma is the major obstacle sufferers of mental disorders face every single day. Especially now that National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Week is coming, it is crucial for each and every one of us to speak out and DO something for children suffering from mental illness. There are as many as 1 out of every 5 young people quietly struggling today, too afraid to say anything until they are in crisis. Yet there are still a whole lot of people who ignore and believe that “emotional problems” simply go away.

How can we make a difference? Let’s open up conversations with our children, students, relatives, and friends. We should not be afraid to talk about mental illness. It does not have to be embarrassing or scary, because it’s an ongoing health concern. And based on the mind-body connection, if you’re not mentally healthy, your also won’t be physically healthy.

An effective method of talking about mental health disorders is through peer-to-peer communication. Schools are the places where youths interact most with other youths. For parents and teachers: let’s give kids the opportunity to make conversations about mental illness an ongoing possibility. Educate them early about mental disorders and talk about prevention. Give them tools to address mental illness among their peers, families, communities, and even within themselves. Help them feel supported, not bullied. Bullying is a form of stigma!

We hope that as National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Week approaches, all will choose to stand against the stigma. Spread the word about mental health disorders. Speak out and don’t be ashamed. Open up conversations and be a supportive force. For all the children struggling with mental illness, let us all take ACTION!

What is Anxiety?
Anxiety is the result when a person perceives danger. Anxiety, in and of itself, is not unhealthy or abnormal. This is an adaptive, innate response that keeps you surviving when faced with real threats. The problem occurs when a person misinterprets innocent situations, objects, or people as harmful. Whenever you perceive a threat, the brain’s alarm system responds and floods your body with hormonal chemicals to help you quickly react via fighting or fleeing. However, this natural “fight-or-flight” response cannot filter the difference between a real danger or a false alarm. It simply reacts to whatever threat you perceive. Anxiety becomes a disorder when a person consistently misinterprets these false alarms as real dangers. As a result, the anxiety sufferer perpetually avoids the falsely perceived threats and/or overreacts with fearful responses.

As you can imagine, “anxiety” is a very broad term, and there are many different conditions under this umbrella. Want to learn more about the differences amongst the various anxiety disorders common to children? Follow these links for specific details of each condition:

Separation Anxiety Disorder

Medical – Dental – Specific Phobias

Social – Performance – Sports Anxiety

Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

Panic Disorder

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

OC Spectrum Disorders

Signs of Anxiety in Children
Now that you have a basic understanding of the differences amongst the various anxiety disorders, here are some red flags that may signal excessive anxiety in your child. If these signs are present, it’s a good idea to have your child checked by an anxiety expert to determine the true nature of these symptoms and whether treatment is needed.

Effective Treatment for Anxiety Disorders
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is the evidence-based treatment for anxiety disorders. When combined with Family Systems Therapy, it is highly effective for treating childhood anxiety. This type of treatment is usually short-term and has long lasting effects. CBT is not simply the traditional talk therapy or play therapy. It provides the child with tools that need to be practiced in order for him/her to develop the necessary skills to defeat anxiety.

In CBT, children learn to identify negative thinking patterns that aren’t serving them. This allows them to change their perspectives about themselves and the world, so they can engage with the environment in healthier ways. Exposure therapy is a specific type of CBT that helps children confront fears in a stepwise manner in order to learn that the fears actually are not that threatening. CBT is essentially exercise for the brain. The more you flex those brain muscles, the stronger you become.

For childhood anxiety, CBT is the first route to take, especially when the young brain is still developing and growing, and there are so many negative side effects to medications. Only when a child’s symptoms are very severe are medications used as an adjunct. However, once symptoms lesson as the child is able to apply the CBT tools, the medication regimen is slowly reduced and eliminated. The ultimate goal is for sufferers to rely on their own skills, rather than depending on medications for the rest of their lives.

In Family Systems Therapy, the goal is to teach family members about anxiety and how to be supportive of the child without enabling the condition. Many symptoms of anxiety cause havoc on the whole family by interfering with healthy family dynamics and boundaries. When symptoms are chronic, family members wind up inadvertently expressing emotions in negative ways harmful to the relationship with the child. As such, Family Systems Therapy helps to reduce family conflict, re-establish healthy boundaries, and improve effective communication.

Most importantly, even if symptoms are currently minimal, it doesn’t hurt to see an expert early on and begin learning the tools to defeat anxiety before it becomes overwhelming and uncontrollable. Without treatment, anxiety tends to persist into adulthood, and generally becomes more severe and difficult to manage in the long run.

Awareness enables parents to identify and recognize the signs of OCD in their child, and thus, allow them to seek treatment early on when symptoms are more amenable to change. Symptoms that have endured for years on end are more stable and resistant to change. Parents can increase their awareness about OCD and take action by consulting articles available online, books, and other media sources that focus on Pediatric OCD. For further resources or to speak with a pediatric OCD expert, parents can refer to our website: http://www.renewedfreedomcenter.com/resources/.

Journal of Psychiatric Research 47 (2013)

Mindfulness is not relaxation. In fact, to cultivate a state of mindfulness, you must be alert and focused in the present moment. Many mindfulness practices instruct you to refocus your attention onto the breath. However, this doesn’t mean to use breathing as a relaxation exercise. Breathing is simply a target to bring your awareness back to the present, since the present is where the breath occurs. Although you will “feel” more relaxed over time through mindfulness practice, the relaxation comes as a result of your focused attention versus merely your breaths. This brings us to the second point.

Mindfulness is not ‘full of mind’. It isn’t rumination on thoughts, sensations, or emotions. It isn’t “mindlessness” either. A better phrase for the purpose of this mental state is ‘watchful or attentive mind’. When your mind is attentive to the present moment, you foster awareness of reality absent of confusion or delusion. This reality-based awareness minimizes those negative emotions triggered from faulty perceptions that often spiral out of control. Cultivating an attentive mind keeps you grounded in the present, so you experience reality for what it is rather than where your insecurities and defenses take you.

Mindfulness is not a capture of thoughts. It is not a state of obsession or holding onto experiences. It is observing thoughts as they come and go without appraising them with significant meaning. People often attach excessive importance to trivial thoughts and experiences. However, thoughts are just that… thoughts. Nothing more, nothing less. Having this awareness allows you to let go of troubling thoughts, emotions, or sensations that have no basis or evidence for their existence.

On the other hand, mindfulness is not thoughtlessness. The goal is not to be without thoughts. That is an impossible task unless you’re brain dead. Some mindfulness practices instruct you to “empty your mind.” This doesn’t necessarily mean to be mentally blank. Rather, the goal is to have focused intentions in order to remove yourself from distracting, pointless thoughts. In other words, purposefully attend to the moment without judging your experience. This includes your emotions, sensations, AND thoughts.

Mindfulness is not solely to keep focus on the presence. It is also about learning and remembering the practice of being with an open heart for the future. This doesn’t mean to keep your mind focused on the future. Cultivating a state of mindfulness itself requires training and remembering for the future. In fact, the Chinese character for mindful is 念 (niàn), which when translated, literally means to study and remember.

Mindfulness is not rigid or critical. As you think, “I should be more mindful of this or that…” you are already forgetting the true nature of just “being” without adding unnecessary judgments of good or bad value. Dichotomous thinking keeps your mind imprisoned to unconstructive evaluations of your experiences. In reality, whatever it is, it just is. You have no control of the past, and there is no point in getting caught up in one negative thought after another. Remember the lesson in this moment and move on to the next.

Mindfulness is not just about letting go. It is more about remembering the needlessness of holding on. Whatever emotion or thought you are experiencing, whether positive or negative, over time, has to pass. Every moment is moving toward the next. No one thing can ever be static. Everything evolves and passes. Holding on to what is actually beyond your control is a futile effort and goal. Remember, time is valuable and cannot be recycled.

Most importantly, mindfulness in its purest sense is not religion or philosophy; nor is it psychology or a type of science. It is not a new trend, and it is not to be admired, esteemed, or worshipped. Neither is there a need to despise or scorn it. The concept of attentive mind is simply a way and view of life. And there is never a “right” or “wrong” way of living.

For specific mindfulness training strategies, check out www.RenewedFreedomCenter.com/blog-mindfulness/

Have you ever felt like you were not in the driver’s seat when strong emotions take hold of a situation? If the answer is yes, this is actually good news. Cultivating awareness is the first step to taking control of the only thing you can control: your perspective. A change in perspective is a change in your experience of reality. In order to achieve this shift, you must first become mindful of what you want.

When faced with various obstacles, most people tend to allow their emotions to dictate their behaviors. When this occurs, it is as if you are stuck in a storm. As emotions increase, the blizzard of your thoughts can be disorienting, much like driving in the middle of a snowstorm. If you value your safety, you will pull over. Taking some time to let the storm pass may be all that is needed to successfully navigate such situations.

Depending on your ability to monitor and keep a balanced perspective, anything can potentially activate an emotional storm, from a traffic jam to a serious illness. However, you can be equipped to handle even the most challenging obstacles if you gain the tools to stay present and keep your cool in such situations. How do you keep your cool to avoid stormy weather? TAKE A VACATION! Just being aware that you have a choice each and every moment is a tremendous feat. To do this, you must first be able to recognize the beginning stages before the emotional storm hits. Having this skill will increase your ability to define your own reality.

CHECK-IN: Any vacation requires you to “check-in.” First, check in with your body. You can do this by starting with a simple body scan.

1. Start at your feet, and move slowly towards your head making regular stops to observe each part of your body.
2. If you identify a tense area, simply breathe into that body part and visualize it slowly softening and releasing.
3. Remember, this is not a time to demand. Simply become aware of the state of your physical body by locating the tension and mindfully choosing to let it go.

While you are scanning, also tend to your breathing. Breathing is a constant anchor that you can turn to as a first line of defense. One method to incorporate mindfulness of breath with the body scan is to use guided imagery:

1. Picture that you are breathing-in a warm and healing light through imaginary holes at the bottoms of your feet.
2. Visualize this warm light soothing and softening your body as it slowly travels up until it is finally exhaled through an imaginary hole at the top of your head.
3. At this point, let the warm healing light shower your entire body until it reaches back down to the bottoms of your feet
4. Repeat the process for as long as it feels comfortable.

A helpful trick to maintain focus is to visualize this light as each of the seven colors of the light-spectrum. Another way to retain focus on breathing is to reverse the breath cycle. People are often focused on inhalation. Instead of focusing on the in-breath, focus on the out-breath. Try this now: breathe out for a count of eight and discover what happens. Did you automatically inhale? This is like being on a sailboat and letting the wind do most of the work. You can let go of control, and your lungs will automatically fill with a deeper intake of air. Continual practice will help you learn that by letting go of control, the work will be done for you.

Next, tune in to your sens0ry world. What does this mean? Better to show you than to explain it. While reading this paragraph, did you notice a zero in the first sentence instead of an “o”? Why do you see it now when you didn’t notice it before? It was because you didn’t mindfully attend to your visual awareness. This is what tuning in to a sensory modality is all about. Like it or not, let’s face it, life isn’t all about us. When we tune out of our inner world, we have a chance to see a different view of reality. Beauty frequently goes unnoticed because we are too involved in what is going on in our heads to see it.

You can use your senses in many ways to achieve a different perspective. Next time you go for a walk, try to notice each color of the light-spectrum. As you read this, take a moment to identify any sound in the room. Now that you are mindful of sound, you will likely hear noises that you were not aware of just moments ago. There are infinite choices of what you can attend to. You can also simply let each of the 5 senses naturally arise and transition to the next organically. This is called “choiceless awareness” and is a great way to practice attending to and letting go of whatever comes up.

With all this awareness work, you will inevitably begin to notice uncomfortable feelings. The best way to deal with these is not to run, but to sit with and accept them. Explore these feelings with a gentle curiosity much like a child enjoying a new toy. When the feelings are aversive, you can still try to discover through curiosity where these feelings are strongest in the body. You can regain some control by willingly adopting a playful stance while attempting to shift these sensations. You may be pleasantly surprised that they are often drowned out by the curiosity itself. This does not mean that aversive situations will cease to arise. After all, life is unpredictable, and anything can happen at a given moment.

Practicing these tools will provide you with a more productive way of handling yourself when faced with unwelcomed events. It is important to remember that, like the weather, our emotions and circumstances are constantly changing. So is your ability to adaptively cope. Who says vacation has to only be two weeks long? Utilize and practice these tools, and you will be on your way to a permanent vacation from letting strong emotions dictate your perspective.

1. Trust: Just as our patients trust our therapists, trust is critical in any team. Each person in the team has a relationship with another team member. A relationship without trust is not really a relationship at all. Trust is the basis for creating a healthy work environment. It is the foundation for conflict resolution, collaboration, and effective communication between team members.

2. Conflict Resolution: Our therapists work with patients and their families to resolve conflicts caused by anxiety. In the RFC team, conflict management minimizes the friction and discord between team members. Its objective is not to ignore issues, however instead, address conflict in a proactive manner that produces a peaceful resolution. Through conflict, different ideas, values, and beliefs are exposed that, when respected, can generate more effective communication and understanding among team members.

3. Collaboration: It is always important to work well with others or their input in any team. The collaborative mindset is characterized as active participation versus being a mere passive observer. Much like how our therapists collaborate with patients to develop hands-on, tailored treatments, collaboration within the RFC team result in the advancement of various creative strategies that improve treatment success.

4. Effective Communication: Constructive communication reduces the chance of conflicts in a team setting. Communicating mindfully improves the relations among team members and enhances overall team effort, which transcends to the quality care provided to our patients.

Recently, the RFC Team delightfully savored the unique Team Building Event at FoodStory. [FoodStory, founded by Yoko Issasi, is an event planning firm committed to presenting educational and entertaining workshops through the art of Japanese Cooking]. Our staff enjoyed a privately tailored team building workshop that fits in line with our treatment approach. Check out the pictures below to see us working in teams, to present our ‘OCD Monster’.

For more information about FoodStory’s Team Building Events, visit http://ifoodstory.com/

We’ve all heard the term positive thinking or positive affirmations. Many of you have even been advised to practice more of it. However, to attain healthy, realistic thoughts, positive thinking won’t get you there. Positive thinking is not the same as optimistic thinking. Let’s compare two scenarios of a positive versus an optimistic thinker to illustrate the difference.

The positive thinker wakes up in the morning with affirmations saying, “Today is going to be a wonderful day and everything will go smoothly. I am strong and confident. I choose to be happy. I am worthy, and joy overflows in my life. People respect and admire me. I only have positive mental thoughts. I love and accept all parts of myself. I deserve to succeed. My wealth is increasing more and more. My future looks great.”

So what is wrong with the positive thoughts? For one, they’re too dichotomous and delusional to be based in reality. Unless you are looking to be a narcissist, the affirmations are not substantiated and only give a false sense of reality. When your beliefs are distorted in this categorical black & white fashion, they do not prepare you to deal with life in the real world.

In fact, what will happen to the positive thinker if all hell breaks loose on this “wonderful day” where everything was supposed to go smoothly? Since the positive thinker did not make room for life to happen, chances are he did not expect hell to break loose on this wonderful day. As such, he also is unlikely to be prepared to deal with any unforeseen situations. When you fall short unexpectedly, it has a negative impact on your self-esteem and confidence to manage future obstacles effectively. This lack of self-assurance only reinforces your need to further rely on a false reality. And so, this vicious pattern recycles.

On the other hand, the optimistic thinker wakes up saying, “I am grateful to awake to another day where I am given the opportunity to meet life’s challenges. When I fall, I know how to get back up, because I have failed and triumphed over many obstacles in my lifetime. I do not know what the future holds. However, I know I have the strength to tolerate and overcome whatever life has to offer.”

How is this different from the positive thinker? The optimistic thinker does not have to rely on a false reality to feel confident. He anticipates the uncertainty of life and believes in his own capacity to deal with life’s curve balls. He lives in the grey of not knowing what the future holds, and is prepared to face challenges that naturally come with life. Moreover, he accepts that there will be failures as well as successes, and is open to learning from the failures to be better equipped to manage future obstacles.

If you regularly practice optimistic thinking taking reality into account, then you will begin to feel better about yourself and your world. Rather than kid yourself with a false reality that you do not truly believe in anyways, be true and honest with yourself. The sooner you can accept your failures AND successes, the sooner you can free yourself from the constraints of fabricated beliefs.

Applying this to your New Year’s resolutions, be honest and accept that you will not likely meet all of your regimens 100% every single week. Just because you exercised 3 out of the 7 days this week does not mean you have failed and should get off the wagon completely.

Most importantly, any change including mind training takes time. Expecting overnight change is the first delusional thought to correct.

Happy New Resolution!

• Reward yourself: Reinforce yourself for working toward your goal, and make the experience as enjoyable as possible. Remember, your reward can be anything, so be creative. For example, if your behavior is to exercise more often, you can try listening to your favorite music or watching your favorite show while you exercise. Or reward yourself with a delicious smoothie afterward.

• Don’t give up if you mess up: Go into your behavior change with realistic expectations – sometimes we forget about our new habits, while other times we just get busy. Try and remind yourself that forgetting is a part of the process. Make sure that if you mess up, you don’t give up on the behavior change all together. Instead, recognize that forgetting or ‘messing up’ provided you with some valuable information: your reminders or rewards may not be effective enough. Begin the next day by problem solving some ways to avoid forgetting in the future.

• Start small: It’s admirable to be ambitious, but it is easier to make smaller change than drastic change. Try setting a larger goal, such as lowering your cholesterol. However, support it with smaller goals, such as eating an extra serving of fruit each day instead of dessert.

• Setting goals: The most effective way to set goals is to set smaller, short term goals as well as bigger, longer term goals. When writing these goals, be sure to be specific! Instead of “I want to exercise more,” try, “I want to exercise 6 days a week by the end of the year.” A supporting short term goal could be, “I want to go to the gym once a week,” followed by a goal of “I want to go to the gym twice a week” in a month, and subsequently increasing the frequency each month until the long-term goal is reached.

• Set reminders: Using visual cues to remind you about your new behavior change is a great way to make sure you follow through. A common reason for not making a positive change is simply that we forget about it in the hustle and bustle of our daily lives. Try placing a post-it in a spot where you will notice it, or even schedule a reminder on your phone to help create a trigger for your new habit.