• Just a Busy Household or Emotional Neglect: What to Pay Attention To

    Most families juggle a lot every day. There’s work, school, errands, dinner, and cleaning, just for a start. The days fly by. Everyone’s doing their best to keep things running. That’s just life, right? Sometimes, in the middle of all the busyness, it’s easy to miss something important: how your child is feeling. Emotional neglect isn’t always what we think it is, and doesn’t only mean yelling or being mean to a kid. It happens when a child’s need [...]

  • Anger at the Wheel: Signs of an Anger Issue

    Sometimes, the small things can be indicators of bigger things to come, and what seems innocuous can turn out to be problematic later. Signs of an anger issue might be small or subtle, but they shouldn’t be ignored. When the space shuttle Challenger had an issue with small rubber O-rings (simple circular seals around the diameter of a coin), it led to disaster for the entire crew. Similarly, anger can overthrow a person’s life, causing a lot of damage. [...]

  • Are You Emotionally Unavailable? A Man’s Guide to Understanding Your Fear of Intimacy

    As a man, chances are you’ve probably been told you’re emotionally unavailable at some point or another. If you’ve wondered why relationships feel distant or confusing, it’s worth asking yourself some honest questions. Fear of being emotionally available doesn’t mean you don’t care. It might be a sign that something deeper is blocking closeness. This article is for men who want to understand that fear and take the first step toward change. What Does Emotionally Unavailable Even Mean? Emotional [...]

  • Is It Love or Control? Protecting Teen Mental Health and Wellbeing In The Face of Rising Dating Abuse

    When you’re young and in a new relationship, we all know how amazing it feels to have someone who wants to be around you all the time, texting constantly, and checking in on what you’re doing. But is this good for teen mental health and wellbeing?At first, that kind of intensity feels like love, like proof that you matter. For many people, this is true. But here’s the tricky part: sometimes what seems like intense love can really be unhealthy [...]

  • Feeling Lonely: Practical Ways to Build Real Friendships

    In elementary school, you could walk up to someone on the playground and ask, “Do you want to play?” and by the time the bell rang, you’d have a new friend. In college, proximity did most of the work for you. Because you lived, went to school with, and sometimes worked alongside people on campus, you naturally grew into friendship with them without much effort. But there comes a point in adulthood when you realize that friendships don’t come as automatically [...]

  • Is it Justified Guilt or Shame?

    Guilt and shame have been a part of the human experience from the dawn of man. After both Eve and Adam ate the fruit in the Garden of Eden, one of the first emotions they felt was described as what we know today as shame. “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.” (Genesis 3:7, NIV) Because sin entered the world, [...]

  • Understanding a Mother with Borderline Personality Disorder

    Understanding a mother with borderline personality disorder can be immensely perplexing due to her unpredictable behavior and lack of consistency. She lacks the emotional tools to provide stable parenting, and whereas to other people, she may seem like a kind, likable, normal person, at home, it is a different story. At home, the borderline mother tends to be a whirlwind of unpredictable reactions, unable to provide solid emotional rapport to her child. One moment she may be loving, empathetic, [...]

  • Cognitive Distortions: How to Identify Unhealthy Thinking

    What are cognitive distortions? Everyone uses cognitive distortions at some time while trying to make sense of life events. Cognitive distortions are known by other names such as faulty thinking, mistaken beliefs, core beliefs, and thinking errors. Cognitive distortions are a person’s misinterpreted perceptions that support their personal belief system about themselves, others, and the world around them. In Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), a personal belief system is a deep-lying acceptance of ideas that are usually rooted in a [...]

  • Signs of Bipolar Disorder in Women That Make You Feel Like You’re Living Two Lives

    For many women, the signs of bipolar disorder have never been explained to them in a relatable way. From the outside, your life may look steady; you go to work, care for your family, and keep up with responsibilities. Yet, inside you might feel like you’re living two different lives. One version of you is full of energy, ideas, and confidence. The other version struggles with sadness, fatigue, and doubt. Moving between these extremes leaves you wondering why things [...]