Burnout Prevention and Treatment If constant stress has you feeling helpless, disillusioned, and completely exhausted, you may be on the road to bumout. Learn what you can do to regain your balance and feel positive and hopeful again. Stress VS Burnout What is burnout? Burnout is a state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress. It occurs when you feel overwhelmed, emotionally drained, and unable to meet constant demands. As the stress continues, you begin to lose the interest and motivation that led you to take on a certain role in the first place. Burnout reduces productivity and saps your energy, leaving you feeling increasingly helpless, hopeless, cynical, and resentful. Eventually, you may feel like you have nothing more to give. The negative effects of burnout spill over into every area of life -including your home, work, and social life. Burnout can also cause long-term changes to your body that make you vulnerable to illnesses like colds and flu. Because of its many consequences, it's important to deal with burnout right away. Are you on the road to burnout? You may be on the road to burnout if: Every day a is a bad day. Caring about your work or home life seems like a total waste of energy. You're exhausted all the time. The majority of your day is spent on tasks you find either mind-numbingly dull or overwhelming. You feel like nothing you do makes a difference or is appreciated. Signs and symptoms of burnout Most of us have days when we feel helpless, overloaded, or unappreciated-when dragging ourselves out of bed requires the determination of Hercules. If you feel like this most of the time, however, you may be burned out. Stress vs Burnout Burnout is a gradual process. It doesn't happen ovenight, but it can creep up on you. The signs and symptoms are subtle at first, but become worse as time goes on. Think of the early symptoms as red flags that is something is wrong that needs to be addressed. If you pay attention and actively reduce your stress, you can prevent a major breakdown. If you ignore them, you'll eventually bum out. Physical signs and symptoms of burnout Feeling tired and drained most of the time. Lowered immunity, frequent illnesses. Frequent headaches or muscle pain. Change in appetite or sleep habits. Emotional signs and symptoms of burnout Sense of failure and self-doubt. Feeling helpless, trapped, and defeated. Detachment, feeling alone in the world. Loss of motivation. Increasingly cynical and negative outlook. Decreased satisfaction and sense of accomplishment. Behavioral signs and symptoms of burnout Withdrawing from responsibilities. Isolating yourself from others. Procrastinating, taking longer to get things done. Using food, drugs, or alcohol to cope. Taking out your frustrations on others. Skipping work or coming in late and leaving early. The difference between stress and burnout Burnout may be of the result of unrelenting stress, but it isn't the same as too much stress. Stress, by and large, involves too much: too many pressures that demand too much of you physically and mentally. However, stressed people can still imagine that if they can just get everything under control, they'll feel better. Burnout, on the other hand, is about not enough. Being burned out means feeling empty and mentally exhausted, devoid of motivation, and beyond caring. People experiencing burnout often don't see any hope of positive change in their situations. If excessive stress feels like you're drowning in responsibilities, burnout is a sense of being all dried up. And while you're usually aware a of being under a lot of stress, you don't always notice burnout when it happens. Causes of burnout Burnout often stems from your job. But anyone who feels overworked and undervalued is at risk for burnout, from the hardworking office worker who hasn't had a vacation in years, to the frazzled stay -at-home mom tending to kids, housework, and an aging parent. But burnout is not caused solely by stressful work or too many responsibilities. Other factors contribute to burnout, including your lifestyle and personality traits. In fact, what you do in your downtime and how you look at the world can play just as big of a role in causing overwhelming stress as work or home demands. Work-related causes of burnout Feeling like you have little or no control over your work. Lack of recognition or reward for good work. Unclear or overly demanding job expectations. Doing work that's monotonous or un-challenging. Working in a chaotic or high-pressure environment. Lifestyle causes of burnout Working too much, without enough time for socializing or relaxing. Lack of close, supportive relationships. Taking on too many responsibilities, without enough help from others. Not getting enough sleep. Personality traits can contribute to burnout Perfectionist tendencies; nothing is ever good enough. Pessimistic view of yourself and the world. The need to be in control; reluctance to delegate to others. • High-achieving, Type A personality. Dealing with burnout Whether you recognize the warning signs of impending burnout or you're already past the breaking point, trying to push through the exhaustion and continuing as you have been will only cause further emotional and physical damage. Now is the time to pause and change direction by learning how you can help yourself overcome bumout and feel healthy and positive again. Dealing with burnout requires the "Three R" approach: Recognize. Watch for the warning signs of burnout. Reverse. Undo the damage by seeking support and managing stress. Resilience. Build your resilience to stress by taking care of your physical and emotional health. The following tips for preventing or dealing with bumout can help you cope with symptoms and regain your energy, focus, and sense of well-being. Dealing with burnout tip 1: Turn to other people When you're burned out, problems seem insurmountable, everything looks bleak, and it's difficult to muster up the energy to care, let alone take action to help yourself. But you have a lot more control over stress than you may think. There are positive steps you can take to deal with overwhelming stress and get your life back into balance. One of the most effective is to reach out to others. Social contact is nature's antidote to stress and talking face to face with a good listener is one of the fastest ways to calm your nervous system and relieve stress. The person you talk to doesn't have to be able to fix" your stressors; they just have to be good listener, someone who'll listen attentively without becoming distracted or expressing judgment. Reach out to those closest to you, such as your partner, family, and friends. Opening up won't make you a burden to others. In fact, most friends and loved ones will be flattered that you trust them enough to confide in them, and it will only strengthen your friendship. Try not to think about what's burning you out and make the time you spend with loved ones positive and enjoyable. Be more sociable with your coworkers. Developing friendships with people you work with can help buffer you from job burnout. When you take a break, for example, instead of directing your attention to your smartphone, try engaging your colleagues. Or schedule social events together after work. Limit your contact with negative people. Hanging out with negative-minded people who do nothing but complain will only drag down your mood and outlook. If you have to work with a negative person, try to limit the amount of time you spend together. Connect with a cause or a community group that is personally meaningful to you. Joining a religious, social, or support group can give you a place to talk to like-minded people about how to deal with daily stress--and to make new friends. If your line of work has a professional association, you can attend meetings and interact with others coping with the same workplace demands. Find new friends. If you don't feel that you have anyone to turn to, it's never too late to build new friendships and expand your social network. The power of giving Being helpful to others delivers immense pleasure and can help to significantly reduce stress as well as broaden your social circle. While it's important not to take on too much when you're facing overwhelming stress, helping others doesn't have to involve a lot oftime or effort. Even small things like a kind word or friendly smile can make you feel better and help lower stress both for you and the other person. Tip 2: Reframe the way you look at work Whether you have job that leaves you rushed off your feet or one that is monotonous and unfulfilling, the most effective way to combat job burnout is to quit and find a job you love instead. Of course, for many of us changing job or career is far from being a practical solution, we're grateful just to have work that pays the bills. Whatever your situation, though, there are still steps you can take to improve your state of mind. Try to find some value in your work. Even in some mundane jobs, you can often focus on how your role helps others, for example, or provides a much-needed product or service. Focus on aspects of the job that you do enjoy, even if it's just chatting with your coworkers at lunch. Changing your attitude towards your job can a help you regain a sense of purpose and control. Find balance in your life. If you hate your job, look for meaning and satisfaction elsewhere in your life: in your family, friends, hobbies, or voluntary work. Focus on the parts of your life that bring you joy. Make friends at work. Having strong ties in the workplace can help reduce monotony and counter the effects of burnout. Having friends to chat and joke with during the day can help relieve stress from an unfulfilling or demanding job, improve your job performance, or simply get you through a rough day. Take time off. If burnout seems inevitable, try to take a complete break from work. Go on vacation, use up your sick days, ask for a temporary leave-of-absence, anything to remove yourself from the situation. Use the time away to recharge your batteries and pursue other methods of recovery. Tip 3: Reevaluate your priorities Burnout is an undeniable sign that something important in your life is not working. Take time to think about your hopes, goals, and dreams. Are you neglecting something that is truly important to you? This can be an opportunity to rediscover what really makes you happy and to slow down and give yourself time to rest, reflect, and heal. Set boundaries. Don't overextend yourself. Learn how to say "no" to requests on your time. If you find this difficult, remind yourself that saying "no" allows you to say "yes" to the commitments you want to make. Take a daily break from technology. Set a time each day when you completely disconnect. Put away your laptop, turn off your phone, and stop checking email or social media. Nourish your creative side. Creativity is powerful antidote to burnout. Try something new, start a fun project, or resume a favorite hobby. Choose activities that have nothing to do with breathing work or whatever is causing your stress. Set aside relaxation time. Relaxation techniques such as yoga, meditation, and deep activate the body's relaxation response, a state of restfulness that is the opposite of the stress response. Get plenty of sleep. Feeling tired can exacerbate burnout by causing you to think irrationally. Keep your cool in stressful situations by getting a good night's sleep. Boost your ability to stay on task If you're having trouble following through with these self-help tips to prevent or overcome burnout, Rediscover joy and meaning that make work and life worthwhile. Increase your overall health and happiness. Tip 4: Make exercise a priority Even though it may be the last thing you feel like doing when you're burned out, exercise is a powerful antidote to stress and burnout. It's also something you can do right now to boost your mood. Aim to exercise for 30 minutes or more per day or break that up into short, 10-minute bursts of activity. A 10-minute walk can improve your mood for two hours. Rhythmic exercise, where you move both your arms and legs, is a hugely effective way to lift your mood, increase energy, sharpen focus, and relax both the mind and body. Try walking, running, weight training, swimming, martial arts, or even dancing. To maximize stress relief, instead of continuing to focus on your thoughts, focus on your body and how it feels as you move: the sensation of your feet hitting the ground, for example, or the wind on your skin. Tip 5: Support your mood and energy levels with a healthy diet What you put in your body can have huge impact on yourmood and energy levels throughout the day. Minimize sugar and refined carbs. You may crave sugary snacks or comfort foods such as pasta or French fries, but these high -carbohydrate foodsquickly lead to a crash in mood and energy. Reduce your high intake of foods that can adversely affect your mood, such as caffeine, unhealthy fats, and foods with chemical preservatives or hormones. Eat more Omega-3 fatty acids to give your mood a boost. The best sources are fatty fish (salmon, herring, mackerel, anchovies, sardines), seaweed, flaxseed, and walnuts. Avoid nicotine. Smoking when you're feeling stressed may seem calming, but nicotine is a powerful stimulant, leading to higher, not lower, levels of anxiety. Drink alcohol in moderation. Alcohol temporarily reduces worry, but too much can cause anxiety as it wears off. Authors: Melinda Smith, M.A., Jeanne Segal, Ph.D., and Lawrence Robinson

Too Much Closeness: Learning to Say "No" in Relationships Why is it important to say "no"? It means setting a limit to protect yourself in relationships. For example, "If you show up with coke, I'm leaving," or "Unless you stop yelling at me, I'm walking out." Saying "no" is an important skill for setting boundaries. At a deeper level, setting boundaries is a way of conveying that both people in relationship deserve care and attention. It is a healthy a way of respecting your separate identity. a man and women holding a large yellow marker SITUATIONS WHERE YOU CAN LEARN TO SAY "NO" Refusing drugs and alcohol. Pressure to say more than you want to. Going along with things that you do not want to do. When you're taking care of everyone but you. When you do all the giving in a relationship. When you make promises to yourself that you do not keep. When you're doing things that take your focus away from recovery. EXAMPLES: SAYING "NO" IN SUBSTANCE ABUSE AND PTSD With Others; With Yourself Substance "No thanks; I don't want any now." Abuse "Drinking is not allowed on my diet." "I need you to stop talking to me like that." PTSD "Please don't call me again." "Self-respect means no substances today." "If anybody offers me drugs at the party, I need to leave." "Working as a prostitute is making my PTSD worse; I need to stop." "Seeing war movies is triggering my PTSD; need to stop." Learning to Say No - Setting Boundaries HOW TO SAY "NO" * Try different ways to set a boundary: Polite refusal: "No thanks, I'd rather not." Insistence : 'No, I really mean it, and I'd like to drop the subject." Partial honesty : "I cannot drink because I have to drive." Full honesty: "I cannot drink because I'm an alcoholic." Stating consequences: "If you keep bringing drugs home, will have to move out." * Remember that it is a sign of respect to say "no." Protecting yourself is part of developing self-respect. Rather than driving people away, it helps them value you more. You can be vulnerable without being exploited. You can enjoy relationships without fearing them. In healthy relationships, saying "no" appropriately promotes closeness. How Do Approach the Situation * How much or how little you say is up to you. if however, if you can comfortably provide an explanation, this can make it easier on the other person. * You will find the words if you are motivated to say "no." Once you commit to protecting your needs, the how will present itself. * Take care of yourself; let others take care of themselves. You can only live your life, not theirs. * If you are afraid of hurting the other person, it remember that it may take repeated work, both with the other person and within yourself. Over time, you will realize that healthy people can tolerate hearing what you think and feel. * You can set a boundary before, during, or after an interaction with someone. Try discussing a difficult topic beforehand (e.g., discuss safe sex before a sexual encounter), during an interaction (e.g., try saying "no" to alcohol when it is offered), or afterward (e.g., go back and tell someone you did not like being talked to abusively). *Be careful about how much you reveal. PTSD and substance abuse are sensitive topics, and discrimination against these disorders is very real and harmful. You can never take back a statement once it has been said. You do not need to be open with people you do not know well, people in work settings, or people who are abusive to you. **Be extremely careful if there is a possibility of physical harm. Seek professional guidance. ROLE PLAYS FOR SAYING "NO" * Try rehearsing the following situations out loud. What could you say? With Others You are at a holiday party and your boss says, "Let's celebrate! Have a drink!" - Your partner says you should "just get over your trauma already." A friend tells you not to take psychiatric medications because "that's substance abuse too." -* Your sister wants to know all about your trauma, but you don't feel ready to tell her. Your partner keeps drinking around you, saying "You need to learn to deal with it." - Your date says, "Let's go to my place," and you don't want to. -› Your boss gives you more and more work, and it's too much. You suspect that your uncle is abusing your daughter. With Yourself - You want to have "just one drink." - You keep taking care of others but not yourself. -You promised to stop bingeing on food but keep doing it. - You are working too many hours, with no time left for recovery activities. Source: Therapist Aid (2023)

One of my most favorite philosophers Sir Alan Watts. Alan Wilson Watts (6 January 1915 – 16 November 1973) was an English writer, speaker and self-styled "philosophical entertainer",[2] known for interpreting and popularising Japanese, Chinese and Indian traditions of Buddhist, Taoist, and Hindu philosophy for a Western audience. Born in Chislehurst, England, he moved to the United States in 1938 and began Zen training in New York. He received a master's degree in theology from Seabury-Western Theological Seminary and became an Episcopalpriest in 1945. He left the ministry in 1950 and moved to California, where he joined the faculty of the American Academy of Asian Studies.[3] He has such an amazing perspective on life and how to deal with adversity.

Freud may justly be called the most influential intellectual legislator of his age. His creation of psychoanalysis was at once a theory of the human psyche, a therapy for the relief of its ills, and an optic for the interpretation of culture and society. Despite repeated criticisms, attempted refutations, and qualifications of Freud’s work, its spell remained powerful well after his death and in fields far removed from psychology as it is narrowly defined. If, as the American sociologist Philip Rieff once contended, “psychological man” replaced such earlier notions as political, religious, or economic man as the 20th century’s dominant self-image, it is in no small measure due to the power of Freud’s vision and the seeming inexhaustibly of the intellectual legacy he left behind. Here are shocking facts about Sigmund! Here is facts about the "father of psychoanalysis" that will confuse. Cocaine addiction?? Top 10 Insane Facts About Sigmund Freud Who is Dr. Sigmund Freud? Sigmund Freud , (born May 6, 1856, Freiberg, Moravia, Austrian Empire [now Příbor, Czech Republic]—died September 23, 1939, London, England), Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis. Freud may justly be called the most influential intellectual legislator of his age. His creation of psychoanalysis was at once a theory of the human psyche, a therapy for the relief of its ills, and an optic for the interpretation of culture and society. Despite repeated criticisms, attempted refutations, and qualifications of Freud’s work, its spell remained powerful well after his death and in fields far removed from psychology as it is narrowly defined. If, as the American sociologist Philip Rieff once contended, “psychological man” replaced such earlier notions as political, religious, or economic man as the 20th century’s dominant self-image, it is in no small measure due to the power of Freud’s vision and the seeming inexhaustibility of the intellectual legacy he left behind. Early life and training Freud’s father, Jakob, was a Jewish wool merchant who had been married once before he wed the boy’s mother, Amalie Nathansohn. The father, 40 years old at Freud’s birth, seems to have been a relatively remote and authoritarian figure, while his mother appears to have been more nurturant and emotionally available. Although Freud had two older half-brothers, his strongest if also most ambivalent attachment seems to have been to a nephew, John, one year his senior, who provided the model of intimate friend and hated rival that Freud reproduced often at later stages of his life. n 1859 the Freud family was compelled for economic reasons to move to Leipzig and then a year after to Vienna, where Freud remained until the Nazi annexation of Austria 78 years later. Despite Freud’s dislike of the imperial city, in part because of its citizens’ frequent anti-Semitism, psychoanalysis reflected in significant ways the cultural and political context out of which it emerged. For example, Freud’s sensitivity to the vulnerability of paternal authority within the psyche may well have been stimulated by the decline in power suffered by his father’s generation, often liberal rationalists, in the Habsburg empire. So too his interest in the theme of the seduction of daughters was rooted in complicated ways in the context of Viennese attitudes toward female sexuality. In 1873 Freud was graduated from the Sperl Gymnasium and, apparently inspired by a public reading of an essay by Goethe on nature, turned to medicine as a career. At the University of Vienna he worked with one of the leading physiologists of his day, Ernst von Brücke, an exp onent of the materialist, antivitalist science of Hermann von Helmholtz. In 1882 he entered the General Hospital in Vienna as a clinical assistant to train with the psychiatrist Theodor Meynert and the professor of internal medicine Hermann Nothnagel. In 1885 Freud was appointed lecturer in neuropathology, having concluded important research on the brain’s medulla. At this time he also developed an interest in the pharmaceutical benefits of cocaine, which he pursued for several years. Although some beneficial results were found in eye surgery, which have been credited to Freud’s friend Carl Koller, the general outcome was disastrous. Not only did Freud’s advocacy lead to a mortal addiction in another close friend, Ernst Fleischl von Marxow, but it also tarnished his medical reputation for a time. Whether or not one interprets this episode in terms that call into question Freud’s prudence as a scientist, it was of a piece with his lifelong willingness to attempt bold solutions to relieve human suffering. Freud’s scientific training remained of cardinal importance in his work, or at least in his own conception of it. In such writings as his “Entwurf einer Psychologie” (written 1895, published 1950; “Project for a Scientific Psychology”) he affirmed his intention to find a physiological and materialist basis for his theories of the psyche. Here a mechanistic neurophysiological model vied with a more organismic, phylogenetic one in ways that demonstrate Freud’s complicated debt to the science of his day. In late 1885 Freud left Vienna to continue his studies of neuropathology at the Salpêtrière clinic in Paris, where he worked under the guidance of Jean-Martin Charcot. His 19 weeks in the French capital proved a turning point in his career, for Charcot’s work with patients classified as “hysterics” introduced Freud to the possibility that psychological disorders might have their source in the mind rather than the brain. Charcot’s demonstration of a link between hysterical symptoms, such as paralysis of a limb, and hypnotic suggestion implied the power of mental states rather than nerves in the etiology of disease. Although Freud was soon to abandon his faith in hypnosis, he returned to Vienna in February 1886 with the seed of his revolutionary psychological method implanted. Psychoanalytic theory of Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud Freud, still beholden to Charcot’s hypnotic method, did not grasp the full implications of Breuer’s experience until a decade later, when he developed the technique of free association. In part an extrapolation of the automatic writing promoted by the German Jewish writer Ludwig Börne a century before, in part a result of his own clinical experience with other hysterics, this revolutionary method was announced in the work Freud published jointly with Breuer in 1895, Studien über Hysterie ( Studies in Hysteria ). By encouraging the patient to express any random thoughts that came associatively to mind, the technique aimed at uncovering hitherto unarticulated material from the realm of the psyche that Freud, following a long tradition, called the unconscious. Because of its incompatibility with conscious thoughts or conflicts with other unconscious ones, this material was normally hidden, forgotten, or unavailable to conscious reflection. Top 10 Insane Facts About Sigmund Freud Difficulty in freely associating—sudden silences, stuttering, or the like—suggested to Freud the importance of the material struggling to be expressed, as well as the power of what he called the patient’s defenses against that expression. Such blockages Freud dubbed resistance, which had to be broken down in order to reveal hidden conflicts. Unlike Charcot and Breuer, Freud came to the conclusion, based on his clinical experience with female hysterics, that the most insistent source of resisted material was sexual in nature. And even more momentously, he linked the etiology of neurotic symptoms to the same struggle between a sexual feeling or urge and the psychic defenses against it. Being able to bring that conflict to consciousness through free association and then probing its implications was thus a crucial step, he reasoned, on the road to relieving the symptom, which was best understood as an unwitting compromise formation between the wish and the defense. Source: Britannica (2023)

Self acceptance is defined as "an individual's acceptance of all of his/her attributes, positive self- or negative.' It includes body acceptance, protection from negative criticism, and believing in one's capacities. Self Acceptance Many people have low self-acceptance. There can be many reasons for this, but one widely accepted theory is that because we develop our self-esteem, in part, from others appreciating us, people with low self-acceptance may have had parents who lacked empathy during their childhood. Consequently, in their adult lives, they may need much stronger affirmation from others than most people do. In other words, ordinary levels of approval do not "move the needle" on their self-esteem. Some people with low self -acceptance try to bolster it by accomplishing great things. But this only helps your self-esteem for a while. That's because achievement is a poor substitute for intimacy. In addition, these people are often under the impression that "taking it" when suffering is the main reflection of their value. It's hard for them to believe in genuine caring, and when it does come their way, they are suspicious of it. Of course, self-acceptance (or lack thereof) does not exist in a vacuum it actually has profound effects on your physical and psychological health. For that reason, it is worth understanding what these effects are, and what you can do about it. The emotional and physical consequences of low self-acceptance. Without self-acceptance, your psychological well-being can suffer, and often, beneficial interventions are less helpful for you than for others with higher self-acceptance. For example, practicing mindfulness can help many people reduce the impact of stress. But when you cannot accept yourself, it becomes less effective. Also, if you have a physical illness such as rheumatoid arthritis, not accepting yourself can make you more anxious about your body. In this context, your automatic negative thoughts increase. In addition, if you feel negatively about yourself, the brain regions that help you control emotions and stress have less gray matter than someone with a greater degree of self-acceptance - that is, these regions actually have less tissue to "work with." This lack of gray matter may also appear in regions of the brainstem that process stress and anxiety. Stress signals from these latter regions, in turn, disrupt the emotional control regions. So, poor self-acceptance may disrupt emotional control in two ways: directly, by disrupting the brain regions that control it, and also indirectly, by increasing stress signals in your brain that subsequently disrupt these regions. How to bolster your self-acceptance There are three ways to increase self-acceptance: 1. self-regulation 2 self-awareness 3 self-transcendence. Self-regulation involves suppressing negative emotions such as self-hatred, refocusing on the positive aspects of yourself, and re-framing negative situations so that you see the opportunities in them. For example, looking for ways in which negative criticism can help you grow constitutes re-framing. However, self-control may be less powerful than we think. The lack of self-acceptance can be deeply unconscious that is, it can exist at a level beyond our conscious control. Also, when you do not accept or forgive yourself, 'you" are still split from "yourself" you do not feel "together." Both of these parts - the one that needs to forgive, and the one that needs to be forgiven are at odds with each other. In this situation, self-transcendence can be helpful. When you are "self-transcendent," you rely less on things outside of yourself to define you. Instead, you turn to an unforced sense of connectedness with the world. You can achieve this by contributing to work, family, or the community at large. The goal is to seek unity with some system in a way that is heartfelt and authentic. Any of the methods I've described in this post may also contribute to self-transcendence. Fortunately, just like self-acceptance, self-transcendence also engenders physical changes in the brain. It has been associated with increased serotonin transporter availability in the brainstem. As mentioned earlier, this same region impacts self-acceptance. Transcendental meditation is another potential tool to consider for self -transcendence. It decreases cortisol and reduces your stress response. Meditation as a path to self-acceptance Self-acceptance can also be achieved by two other kinds of meditation: mindfulness meditation and loving-kindness meditation. Mindful attention to emotions involves not "judging," but observing, your emotions when they arise. This can lower your brain's emotional. A response to anxiety and distress. It effectively "calms down" your amygdala. Having more compassion toward yourself appears to be helpful in increasing self-acceptance. Loving-kindness meditation can help you achieve this state by changing the activity in regions of the brain that perceive and process emotions. For example, people previously numb to praise may be able to become more accepting of it. It is also associated with greater connectivity within the brain. This makes sense, as lack of self-acceptance has been associated with excessive right-hemisphere activity in the brain. Loving-kindness meditation provides a potential way to correct this.

What is a defense mechanism? It is how we deal with emotions, feelings, which is broken down into immature defense mechanism and mature defense mechanism. “Anna Freud | Child Psychoanalysis | Defense Mechanisms Here is the complete list. The complete list was developed by Sigmund Freud, Dr. Anna Freud who helped revolution of the field of psychoanalysis which was created by psychiatrists. Later splitting into the field of psychology. A common misperception is that psychiatrists are pill push driven by the pharmaceutical industry. Some of the best therapists are psychiatrists. Who is Dr. Anna Freud? Anna Freud | Child Psychoanalysis | Defense Mechanisms Anna Freud , (born Dec. 3, 1895, Vienna—died Oct. 9, 1982, London), Austrian-born British founder of child psychoanalysis and one of its foremost practitioners. She also made fundamental contributions to understanding how the ego, or consciousness, functions in averting painful ideas, impulses, and feelings. The youngest daughter of Sigmund Freud, Anna was devoted to her father and enjoyed an intimate association with developing psychoanalytic theory and practice. As a young woman she taught elementary school, and her daily observation of children drew her to child psychology. While serving as chairman of the Vienna Psycho-Analytic Society (1925–28), she published a paper (1927) outlining her approach to child psychoanalysis. Publication of Anna Freud’s Das Ich und die Abwehrmechanismen (1936; The Ego and Mechanisms of Defense, 1937) gave a strong, new impetus to ego psychology. The principal human defense mechanism, she indicated, is repression, an unconscious process that develops as the young child learns that some impulses, if acted upon, could prove dangerous to himself. Other mechanisms she described include the projection of one’s own feeling into another; directing aggressive impulses against the self (suicide being the extreme example); identification with an overpowering aggressor; and the divorce of ideas from feelings. The work also was a pioneer effort in the development of adolescent psychology. In 1938 Anna Freud and her father, whom she had cared for during a number of years of his terminal illness, escaped from Nazi-dominated Austria and settled in London, where she worked at a Hampstead nursery until 1945. During World War II she and a U.S. associate, Dorothy Burlingham, recounted their work in Young Children in Wartime (1942), Infants Without Families (1943), and War and Children (1943). Anna Freud founded the Hampstead Child Therapy Course and Clinic, London, in 1947 and served as its director from 1952 to 1982. She viewed play as the child’s adaptation to reality but not necessarily as a revelation of unconscious conflicts. She worked closely with parents and believed that analysis should have an educational influence on the child. A summation of her thought is to be found in her Normality and Pathology in Childhood (1968). Source: Brittanica (2023)

Who is Dr. Carl Jung ? Carl Gustav Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. Jung's work has been influential in the fields of psychiatry, anthropology, archaeology, literature, philosophy, psychology, and religious studies. He worked as a research scientist at the Burghölzli psychiatric hospital, in Zurich, under Eugen Bleuler. Jung established himself as an influential mind, developing a friendship with Sigmund Freud, founder of psychoanalysis, conducting a lengthy correspondence, paramount to their joint vision of human psychology. Jung is widely regarded as one of the most influential psychologists in history. Freud saw the younger Jung not only as the heir he had been seeking to take forward his "new science" of psychoanalysis, but as a means to legitimize his own work: Freud and other contemporary psychoanalysts were Jews facing rising antisemitism in Europe, and Jung was Christian. Freud secured Jung's appointment as president of Freud's newly founded International Psychoanalytical Association. Jung's research and personal vision, however, made it difficult to follow his older colleague's doctrine and they parted ways. This division was painful for Jung and resulted in the establishment of Jung's analytical psychology, as a comprehensive system separate from psychoanalysis. Scholar Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi believed Jung's later antisemitic remarks may be a clue to the schism. Among the central concepts of analytical psychology is individuation—the lifelong psychological process of differentiation of the self out of each individual's conscious and unconscious elements. Jung considered it to be the main task of human development. He created some of the best known psychological concepts, including synchronicity, archetypal phenomena, the collective unconscious, the psychological complex and extra-version and introversion. Jung was also an artist, craftsman, builder and prolific writer. Many of his works were not published until after his death and some remain unpublished. The World Within - Carl Jung, MD in His Own Words Source: Wikipedia (2023)

Alan Wilson Watts (6 January 1915 – 16 November 1973) was an English writer, speaker and self-styled "philosophical entertainer" , [2] known for interpreting and popularising Japanese, Chinese and Indian traditions of Buddhist, Taoist, and Hindu philosophy for a Western audience. Born in Chislehurst, England, he moved to the United States in 1938 and began Zen training in New York. He received a master's degree in theology from Seabury-Western Theological Seminary and became an Episcopalpriest in 1945. He left the ministry in 1950 and moved to California, where he joined the faculty of the American Academy of Asian Studies. [3] He has such an amazing perspective on life and how to deal with adversity.

Getting Started with Mindfulness Mindfulness Meditation Jon Kabat-Zinn --a leader in the field of mindfulness and health--has defined mindfulness as "paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgementally." This means consciously paying attention to our senses, and to our feelings, without further judgment. For example, mindfulness could be practiced by focusing on the sensation of water rushing over your hands as it falls from a faucet, or by feeling and accepting sadness without trying to push it away or to evaluate it. Research has linked mindfulness meditation with reduced anxiety , more positive emotions , and, with enough practice , permanent structural changes in the brain that sustain these benefits . Before beginning, know that meditation is a skill that requires practice. In the beginning it might seem as if unwanted thoughts constantly intrude your mind and the serenity associated with meditation might be brief. With time your ability to meditate, and to control your focus, will improve. Listed below are instructions to help you begin mindfulness meditation. Planning For the best results meditation should be a daily exercise. Meditating for 30 minutes a day might be a great goal, but it might not be realistic for your life. If 30 minutes doesn't seem doable, try to start with 10 to 15 minutes a day. Create a schedule that you can stick to, rather than one that you will give up on in a week. Posture How you sit isn't too important--just make sure you are comfortable, but not so relaxed that you will doze off. It will be OK to sit on the floor, in a chair, and with your legs either crossed or straight. Keep your spine upright and find a pose that you can maintain without too much discomfort. Thoughts Allow your thoughts to come and go. The more you try to control them, the more invasive they will become. Like our senses, thoughts are a normal part of our existence. Acknowledge your thoughts and let them pass naturally. Breathing Focus on your breathing . Take full but gentle breaths through your nose and notice the rising and the falling of your belly. Notice how your body changes as air enters and then leaves your lungs. This is the key to mindfulness meditation. Focusing on the sensation of your breathing will quickly bring you into the present and connect your mind with your body. Summary Plan to devote 10 to 15 minutes to meditation each day, and more if you think you can. Find a relaxing posture and begin to focus on your breathing. Pay attention to each breath and the sensations in your body. Allow thoughts to enter your mind and then fade away without judgment or resistance. After they have passed return your focus to breathing. Continue this process for the duration of meditation.

Investigation by BMJ Questions Antipsychotic's Approval for Agitation in AD How the FDA approved an antipsychotic that failed to show a meaningful benefit but raised the risk of death The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the antipsychotic drug brexpiprazole (Rexulti) for agitation due to Alzheimer’s disease despite questionable efficacy data and a known higher risk of death, alleges a new investigation in the BMJ . Journalist Robert Whitake r took a deep dive into the safety and efficacy data soon after the FDA approved the new indication for the drug in May of this year. After sifting through the data and watching the agency's April 14 advisory panel meeting, he concluded that brexpiprazole presented no advance, despite winning the backing of both the advisory committee and the FDA. The advisory panel meeting "just seemed like a rubber-stamp exercise rather than a probing of really what are the risks and benefits of this drug," Whitaker told Medscape Medical News . Whitaker wrote that "no benefit was seen at the US sites in the one study that provided the primary evidence for approval." And yet, the lack of efficacy in the US was never discussed by any of the advisers, he told Medscape . Brexpiprazole , along with other antipsychotics such as aripiprazole , risperidone , and olanzapine have long been used off label to treat dementia-related agitation. But in 2005, the FDA warned against this use, noting that older patients were at higher risk for death, primarily due to strokes and other cardiovascular events. Indeed, all the antipsychotics — including the new label for brexpiprazole — carry boxed warnings on the increased risk of death. Whitaker reported that the mortality risk with brexpiprazole was four times higher than with placebo. Meanwhile, the US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has campaigned against the inappropriate use of antipsychotics in nursing homes at least since the start of an initiative in 2012. Not 'Statistically Persuasive' Still, Otsuka and Lundbeck , the manufacturers of brexpiprazole , decided to pursue FDA approval for agitation. Such an approval would allow the companies to essentially rebrand the medication and specifically market it for agitation — at an estimated monthly cost of $1400, noted Whitaker in his article. Whitaker reported that the FDA was skeptical of the manufacturers' first two pivotal controlled studies, telling them in a 2017 meeting that the agency did not consider a 3.8-point reduction in symptoms on the Cohen-Mansfield Agitation Inventory (CMAI) scale with the 2-milligram dose when compared with placebo to be "statistically persuasive." An international group determined in 2021 that a "minimal clinically important difference" on the CMAI scale was 17 points, Whitaker reported. The FDA ordered Otsuka and Lundbeck to conduct a third trial. In that study, there was a maximum 5.3-point improvement over placebo on the 174-point CMAI, far short of the 17 points considered to be clinically important, Whitaker noted. And yet, in its approval, the FDA wrote that "patients who received 2 mg or 3 mg of Rexulti showed statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvements in total CMAI scores compared to patients in the placebo group at week 12." Whitaker told Medscape that he asked FDA why the results were considered "clinically meaningful." First, the agency said it could not respond in time for his deadline. It later told him that he would have to file a Freedom of Information Act request to get answers. The reporter also said he received no response to multiple requests for comment from Rajesh Narendran, MD , a professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and the chair of the FDA advisory committee that weighed the approval. Lon Schneider, MD , a professor of psychiatry, neurology, and gerontology at the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine, Los Angeles, told Whitaker that brexpiprazole was no different than other antipsychotics. It offers the "same small points of difference on the CMAI scale," and "the same level of side effects, the same black box warning," he said. The FDA has a "lower standard of approval" than it did two decades ago, Schneider told the BMJ reporter. FDA: Drug Fills Unmet Need But in a response to Medscape Medical News , the FDA defended the approval process. The agency granted brexpiprazole a fast-track approval — signaling that it was an advance over existing therapies and that it fills an unmet medical need. The agency also gave it a priority review. "Both fast track and priority review are programs intended to help ensure that therapies for serious conditions are approved and available to patients as soon as it can be concluded that the therapies' benefits justify their risks," an FDA spokesperson told Medscape . "The clinical benefits of Rexulti are stated in the prescribing information," he added. " This submission was discussed at an advisory committee meeting on April 14; the overwhelming majority of the advisory committee members agreed with FDA's conclusion that the drug is effective and that the benefit risk assessment was favorable for the use of Rexulti in the treatment of agitation in patients with dementia due to Alzheimer's disease ," said the spokesperson. Whitaker said the approval " is going to open the floodgates for the use of this antipsychotic," adding that "the FDA is saying this drug is different from the drugs that are being prescribed off label right now. That's the message to the prescribing population and that's exactly the message that Otsuka and Lundbeck are going to market their drug with." The BMJ reporter also noted that a number of patient advocacy groups — including the Alzheimer's Association, the Alliance for Aging Research, Leaders Engaged on Alzheimer's Disease, and Us Against Alzheimer's — have backed brexpiprazole. Many of these organizations also receive funding from Otsuka and other drug makers, Whitaker reported. Medscape sought comment from Otsuka but received no response. Medicare Coverage a Given A CMS spokesperson told Whitaker that the agency still posits that, "Antipsychotic medications are especially dangerous among the nursing home population because of their potentially devastating side effects, including death," and that the agency would "continue its efforts to reduce the prescribing of unnecessary antipsychotics in nursing homes." However, the spokesperson also told Whitaker that Medicare already covers brexpiprazole. Part D drug plan formularies must include brexpiprazole since it was previously FDA-approved for schizophrenia , the spokesperson said. The drug plans can, however, "add limits to this medication to prevent inappropriate use," the spokesperson told Whitaker. A CMS spokesperson confirmed to Medscape Medical News the quotes given to Whitaker.

An Engineered Human-Antibody Fragment with Fentanyl Pan-Specificity That Reverses Carfentanil-Induced Respiratory Depression Anti Fentanyl “We expect this antibody to be a valuable new weapon for fighting the opioid crisis.” Human Anti-body that targets carfentanil, Fentanyl and related opioids reverses overdose effects in preclinical study A study found that an anti-fentanyl antibody reversed the signs of carfentanil overdose. In the study, the investigators developed an antibody in single-chain fragment variable format that binds with very high affinity to several variants of fentanyl, including carfentanil—the most dangerous variant. They designed the antibody to enter the bloodstream quickly via intramuscular injection and to persist in the body in order to offer long-term protection. 1 Upon administering the antibody to rodents in the study, the investigators found that administration shortly following an overdose of carfentanil reverses the signs of the potentially deadly respiratory depression caused by carfentanil overdose. 1 The investigators concluded that these results show that the antibody has the potential to be a more powerful and longer-lasting treatment for synthetic opioid overdose. “We expect this antibody to be a valuable new weapon for fighting the opioid crisis,” said study senior author Kim D. Janda, PhD, the Ely R. Callaway, Jr. professor of chemistry at Scripps Research, in a press release. 1

This is an amazing video about how to find the underlying real you. Most often many live their life with a lack of awareness. Our priorities are all mixed up. Our wants are our needs and our needs are our wants. What imprint do you want to live in this world when we return to the ground? Who are you? Why do you exist? What is the point of your breath and life? How do you affect other people lives? One of the most inspiring people that I have gained the most awareness is Alan Watts, who an amazing English philosopher who pretty much knows most religions of the world. He can literally quote from each religious textbook. One of the fundamental principles is be God's plan through your action not because of fear of God. The truth of God is there that exist without one belief in him/her and there those are devout followers. Where does freedom of choice come from? Can we stop feeling hungry? We is a devout Buddhist after learning about all different types of religious which is a why of life or perspective on life, trying to reach enlightenment. Source: Alan Watts