Category Archives: Happiness

Mental Health, Well-Being, and Responsibility

More about personal responsibility in regards to mental health and well-being…

Have you noticed how often people talk about things they do as if they were events that happened. It’s as if “stuff happened,” and they were just hapless victims of circumstances. Note, I am talking about the things people actually DO – not things that really do happen to them.

“I got to work (or class, or church, or wherever) late.” A more accurate description would be, “I decided to do (some category of activity) rather than leave on time.” Maybe it was staying in bed, maybe it was “one more chore,” but the person decided to do something and thus the lateness.

Someone complains, “I woke up with a hangover,” when, of course, the reality is, “I decided to drink to a point where I knew I would feel lousy today but last night it seemed like a really good idea.”

“The (whatever task – homework, a chore, etc.) didn’t get done.” What really happened? The person decided to do something else, or a whole bunch of something elses, rather than that pesky task.

So, one way to improve one’s well-being is to simply start taking responsibility for choices. I might decide to have a brownie ice cream sundae for breakfast, and if so, I should say I am deciding to have this instead of scrambled egg whites with cheese. The brownie sundae, in all its wonderful deliciousness, will not just happen to me by accident, without warning.

I can decide to sit and stew about something that bothers me or I can decide to try to focus on some other activity and decide that I will figure out what to do about a particular problem when I’m in a better frame of mind. I get to decide; an hour spent stewing is something I can choose, or maybe I can choose to do something else instead.

You can decide to be in a relationship with someone who is toxic and mean, or not.

You can decide whether to seek help in parenting strategies, or throw up your hands in despair, or try the consequence-of-the-week approach except for when you’re too tired to argue.

You can decide whether to join a grief support group or suffer in silence and loneliness.

The act of owning a decision gives a greater sense of control, because if you decided one thing today, you might decide something else in five minutes, or tomorrow, or next week. If stuff just happens to you, you have no control, and thus must sit around being helpless, hoping for better luck next time.

Luck is an iffy plan.

It would be better to decide.

 

 

Dr. Lori Puterbaugh

© 2016

Posts are for information and entertainment purposes only and should not be construed to be therapeutic advice. If you are in need of mental health assistance, please contact a licensed professional in your area.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: So Much More than Positive Thinking

It’s more than just positive thinking

A smart, thoughtful person mentioned the other day, in conversation, that Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) seems to be just “the power of positive thinking.” That’s probably what it sounds like when it gets boiled down to a sound bite…but in reality, it’s so much more. There are many excellent resources out there, so I won’t attempt to tackle the whole topic here. A brief example, though, on the difference between CBT and simple positive thinking, might help.

In CBT, we are indeed looking for patterns of negative thinking. These are identified, and then we dig down to the underlying thoughts. From there, the challenging and reforming of particular thoughts begins. Then comes the hard work of rehearsing those new thoughts.

Consider, for example, an adult who is very anxious about grades in college. This student is up late studying, preoccupied with grades, and anxious to the point of headaches and nausea before tests. The student feels terrible, of course. The top layer of thinking probably includes themes such as, “I have to do well,” or, “This is too important to fail.” The level of distress the client feels, though, seems out of proportion; the client is sick and nauseated over A- or B+ grades. Digging deeper, the client turns out to have buried beliefs such as, “Perfect or failure – no in-between,” or, “Hero or zero,” or, “No one loves a loser.” Thus, the A- feels like a failure and even a threat to love and security. Those aren’t conscious thoughts: no reasonable grownup thinks, “Oh, no one can love me because I got an A-!” It’s more of a personal belief, often acquired early in life, which became the background to many experiences.

You can see that trying to be “positive” about the top layer thoughts might seem silly: “Oh, it’s fine to fail,” or, “It’s OK for me to not do well.” The client cannot buy into that. However, a deeply held belief – that one is either perfect or a complete and utter failure – merits serious attention, and probably underlies many difficulties for this client. Thus CBT starts it work – which is much more complex than presented here – by seeking the foundational troubling beliefs that are leading to the negative thinking.

As I noted – this is a cursory glance at one aspect of CBT. It is a well-researched method of treating anxiety, OCD, depression, and other difficulties. If it seems as if it might be helpful for you, please see appropriate professional guidance.

Dr. Lori Puterbaugh

© 2016

Posts are for information and entertainment purposes only and should not be construed to be therapeutic advice. If you are in need of mental health assistance, please contact a licensed professional in your area.

Review: The Collapse of Parenting: How We Hurt Our Kids When We Treat Them Like Grownups, by Leonard Sax, M.D., Ph.D.

A friend recommended this book and this past weekend I read a large portion of it. It’s aimed at parents and others who are directly involved in raising children, and cites some pretty striking research about the negative outcomes of giving children more freedom and flexibility than they can handle. Children being given the control over their lives that ought to be reserved for responsible adults are far more likely to develop anxiety, depression and obesity; they have less attachment to their families and adults in general, and are more likely to turn to peers for advice. Their peers, of course, are not apt to know any more than them about making wise choices about life.

It’s a conundrum for some: after all, kids have to learn how to make choices, but they can’t handle the full variety of options that many parents want to give them. Learning how to present a narrow, fair range of choices is, apparently, a challenge for parents who are desperate to be liked. This craving for their children’s approval underlies a lot of dysfunctional, but seemingly well-intended, parenting. I described a parent’s style as a “democracy” (the children are school age) and the parent took it as a compliment…as if being democratic with children, where no one is really in charge and knows best, was a good plan.

Do kids need choices? Absolutely. Do they need – or can they even handle – the full range of options that an adult might handle? Absolutely not.

For parents, teachers, grandparents and others who work with children, this book is a friendly, accessible but thoroughly footnoted guide.

Dr. Lori Puterbaugh

© 2016

Posts are for information and entertainment purposes only and should not be construed to be therapeutic advice. If you are in need of mental health assistance, please contact a licensed professional in your area.

…and still more decisions!

Decisions, decisions!

Our nephew and his wife are considering relocating. Given their jobs, they are employable just about anywhere – so the choices are as vast as these United States. They’ve created a spreadsheet to rate the places they are considering on a variety of factors: climate, culture, length of commute, ease of accessing travel to family back home…we’re looking forward to seeing how they narrow their choices as they visit cities and rate them across variables.

It’s a useful way of making difficult choices where there isn’t an obvious “right” or “wrong” choice to make. Take the job that makes less money but is more satisfying and allows for more flexibility, or take the higher-paying job that provides better long-term financial security? Take a second job or scale back on expenses? Move far from family or stay close? The problem, of course, is even ranking how important the factors are, really, in the first place.

Maybe deciding on a job isn’t the right example for you. Perhaps you have to decide on whether to downsize or stay put, or which school to attend. Whenever there are multiple factors to compare, weighing the factors in importance to you can help narrow the choice. Writing it all down – in a chart, or listing – can help, because then it’s in front of you, not rattling around in your head, where it keeps butting into whatever else you’re trying to manage in life.

Then, too, sometimes making decisions is complicated by stress and fatigue. If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed and too hungry to pick something to eat, you’ve been in this state. Likewise, trying to figure out what task to handle first, when everything seems overwhelming. Just doing something – even if you change your mind and revert to a different task – is better than paralysis.

Some people are able to make decisions quickly and easily; for others, the fear of making the wrong decision impacts even minor choices where “wrong” would be, at best, a minor disappointment. If you’re the kind of person who gets stuck in decision making, experiment with some other ways to organize the choices: a spreadsheet or simple paper and pencil chart or list, or focus on what is most important to you as a factor, or, for minor issues, take action and see if that is the better option or if starting in the wrong direction helped you discern, quickly, the right path to take.

Of course, if anxiety is interfering with basic decision-making, please consult a professional.

 

 

 

Dr. Lori Puterbaugh

© 2016

Posts are for information and entertainment purposes only and should not be construed to be therapeutic advice. If you are in need of mental health assistance, please contact a licensed professional in your area.

Decisions, decisions!

Choices are good, right? Until they’re bad.

Too many choices becomes overwhelming. We can see the results of seemingly endless choices and information when we, or someone we know, gets lost in hours/days/weeks-long process of sorting through online reviews and information in the attempt to make a decision that might have been made over a dinner conversation twenty years ago. Grownups have problems with this, and yet so many parents inflict too many choices on their children.

It’s important for children to learn to make choices and endure the consequences in small, safe, age-appropriate doses. It’s also important for children to feel like the grownups are running the show. Offering opportunities to make choices – within defined parameters – and then sticking with those choices, are great learning experiences for children.

Consider asking a five-year-old:

“Would you like applesauce or yogurt for a snack?” versus, “What would you like for snack?”

What are the odds the child isn’t going to go for fruit or low-fat dairy and will instead choose something the parent wasn’t planning to provide? With so many modern parents afraid of upsetting their children and overly eager to have their children’s approval, children are left without anyone big and safe to place limits around their world. Temper tantrums, anxiety, and entitlement are often the results.

Children benefit from parameters and calm grownups being in charge. A calm, in-charge grownup can offer safe, appropriate opportunities to learn decision-making skills and learn to live with the consequences.

Dr. Lori Puterbaugh

© 2016

Posts are for information and entertainment purposes only and should not be construed to be therapeutic advice. If you are in need of mental health assistance, please contact a licensed professional in your area.

Thoughts on Lent…

It’s Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the Christian 40-day period of spiritual boot camp. For a few weeks, the normal, daily practices of various forms of prayer, fasting/self-denial and almsgiving are supposed to be kicked up a notch. The point of such actions, as Thomas Merton wrote, is not to become a “spiritual athlete” but to push aside trivial things and focus on Who, and what, ultimately matters.

For Christians, the increased on focus on prayer highlights our need to grow in faith. Fasting and other forms of self-denial teach us to trust God – to have hope, rather than an inflated notion of self-reliance. Almsgiving pushes us to love others without conditions or recognition.

All pretty hard stuff, actually.

What if you’re not Christian, or a Christian from a denomination that isn’t particularly engaged in the Lenten season? What about you? Is it still useful to have some sort of extended period of intensive work on bettering yourself in whatever areas you could use a little boost? No doubt a loved one, or perhaps your coworkers, physician, or dental hygienist have suggestions for your improvement. Odds are, the answer for most of us is, yes – sometimes ramping things up for a set period of time is enough to break a bad habit, start a good habit, and have a target date in mind for a shift in perspective to take hold.

Have a Lent that is a season of growth or, if not Lent – have a personal boot camp.

 

Dr. Lori Puterbaugh

© 2016

Posts are for information and entertainment purposes only and should not be construed to be therapeutic advice. If you are in need of mental health assistance, please contact a licensed professional in your area.

Way 31/Day 31: Make it a great year: Ask for feedback…and use it

Some of us remember former NYC Mayor Ed Koch, who would famously ask, “How am I doing?” and get loud feedback from everyday people nearby. That seems useful for someone who is a public servant. For most of us, just randomly asking strangers how we’re doing seems more irrational than reasonable.

We all have people close to us, though, who do have a sense of how we’re doing, and perhaps more than we do. “Jane” thinks she’s doing fine, and managing well, but her husband “Joe” sees that she is frazzled, irritable, and apt to burst into tears of helpless frustration every couple of days. Meanwhile, “Joe” thinks his Ironman training is going fantastically – and doesn’t realize that he is nodding off mid-conversation, grouchy and distracted during what little time he does find for family. The conversation is likely to become pretty unpleasant, very quickly, if they decide to sit down and tell each other what they need to do differently or what seems “wrong with you.”

It’s hard to do, but asking someone for honest feedback – someone whom you can trust to describe what they observe without slamming you or criticizing you – can be a real insight into how we seem to be doing. It’s information, after all, and, if you trust the source, it merits careful reflection – not immediate rejection. If Jane comments, gently, on Joe’s tendency to be exhausted and grouchy, he might tend to imagine he’s hearing a death-knell for his Ironman dream. No, he’s hearing that something about the balance of training, work, and home life is leading to his being so tired that the people who love him miss his (awake, ungrouchy) presence. How can he get some of that back for all of them, including himself? If Joe expresses concern about Jane’s seeming awfully stressed out these days, she is apt to hear still more criticism and feel defensive, when she’s really hearing concern.

Find one, or two, or three, people whose feedback you can trust to be in your best interest and fairly accurate…and at least take it into consideration. Better yet, sincerely try it on and see if it fits, and if so…use it.

Make it a great year!

Dr. Lori Puterbaugh

© 2016

Posts are for information and entertainment purposes only and should not be construed to be therapeutic advice. If you are in need of mental health assistance, please contact a licensed professional in your area.

Way 30, Day 30: Make it a great year: Let go of having to have an opinion on everything

A lot of us grew up hearing well-intentioned grownups say things like, “Stand up for yourself! Your opinion is as good as anyone else’s!” This was supposed to build up self-esteem but it can end up creating narcissism or, if not to that level of pathology, a very disagreeable arrogance.

An opinion, after all, is supposed to be based on knowledge. It’s different than a preference, which is more a matter of liking something. So I might have an opinion that one kind of food is healthier (based on facts) but have a tremendous preference for another (based on its taste).

In Toxic Mythology (© 2015), I addressed this for a full chapter. You have no doubt encountered people who have opinions on everything, even if they have no real knowledge on which to base that opinion. An opinion, after all, is supposed to be based on knowledge and expertise. Its value (to others) comes from that knowledge and expertise.   I suspect that a lot of people feel anxious about not having an opinion, as if it means they are foolish, uninformed, or wishy-washy. If it’s something critical to your life, then you probably ought to be doing the homework to develop an informed opinion. If it is something about which you have no interest and no need for interest, why do you care? Is your insecurity about being judged leading you to pass judgment on things and situations about which you have insufficient information?

Punt on having an opinion when you’re lacking information. It’s easier than you might think:

“I don’t know enough about that topic to have an opinion. What are your thoughts?”

“I haven’t looked it into sufficiently to really have a full picture. What sources would you recommend?”

See, that was easy.

Dr. Lori Puterbaugh

© 2016

Posts are for information and entertainment purposes only and should not be construed to be therapeutic advice. If you are in need of mental health assistance, please contact a licensed professional in your area.

Way 29/Day 29: Make it a great year: Get better at recognizing trouble

In Toxic Mythology (© 2015), I spent one chapter discussing the difference between someone being “antisocial” and someone being introverted, quiet, or reserved. The terms are used interchangeably in non-psychology circles. Someone wants to stay home with a book instead of going out to a party, and their friends or family accuse them of being, “antisocial,” or, perhaps worse, a “Loner,” as if being naturally quiet was a dangerous character flaw leading, ineluctably, to pathology and dysfunction. Not so much.

As many of you know, “antisocial” is the newer term for what used to be called sociopathy or psychopathy. It means a person who is against (anti) society. The antisocial person (ASP, for short, here) feels no remorse or empathy and views others as merely a means to the ASP’s ends. Quiet/introverted people usually have very close relationships – with a few people. They like people, and they recharge their batteries via quiet times and discussions with one or a few, rather than many. An extrovert recharges by being around people. These traits are on a continuum; on one end is the rare, very highly introverted person; on the other, the rare, extremely extroverted person. We find most people closer to the middle, with a preference in one direct or the other. This is a biological trait, not something people pick.

Because ASPs can be charming, outgoing and generally fun to be around, a lot of people get fooled – and burned. Do some homework; learn to identify the warning signs that someone may be not as nice as they seem, and learn to differentiate between the kind, quiet person in your world and the person who is troubled and, possibly, troublesome.

That could make it a very, very good year!

Dr. Lori Puterbaugh

© 2016

Posts are for information and entertainment purposes only and should not be construed to be therapeutic advice. If you are in need of mental health assistance, please contact a licensed professional in your area.

Way 28/Day 28: Make it a great year: Corral those bup-ponies.

Oh, admit it.

You’ve got bup-ponies.

You don’t think so?

Ask a little kid about why they did something wrong. You’ll hear things like,

“Yeah, bup-pony, he hit me first.”

“Bup-pony, she started it.”

“Bup-pony, it’s too hard to (clean my room, do my homework, feed the cat, etc.).”

Well, grownups have bup-ponies but we think ours are all very sensible and realistic, not like those imaginary bup-ponies that kids have. We have reasons, not excuses; we are rational, not defensive…Bup-pony, sometimes our reasons are not as powerful as we imagine. They are fears and excuses playing dress-up.

So make it a great year; get a lasso on those bup-ponies.

Dr. Lori Puterbaugh

© 2016

Posts are for information and entertainment purposes only and should not be construed to be therapeutic advice. If you are in need of mental health assistance, please contact a licensed professional in your area.