According to a HealthDay report published this week by IndyStar, a poll of 700 women “found that 79 percent said they’d go on a shopping spree to give themselves an emotional boost.” The survey author, Karen Pine, refers to it as “compensatory consumption,” and says, “it serves as a way of regulating intense emotions.” The… Read More »
Peter Dreier, Professor of Politics at Occidental College, focuses on the human costs of economic downturns in an article published March 10 at HuffingtonPost.com. Drier points to Dr. Harvey Brenner, a sociologist and public health expert at Johns Hopkins University, who has calculated that for every 1% increase in the unemployment rate (1.5 million people),… Read More »
Our January 3 blog entry, “The Road to Resilience” was inspired by a seven page brochure from the American Psychological Association and the Discovery Health Channel that includes a series of questions to ask yourself and describes ten ways to build resilience. An article published this week by McClatchy (the third-largest newspaper company in the… Read More »
Dr. Judith Orloff, an Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at UCLA, has written a new book, “Emotional Freedom: Liberate Yourself From Negative Emotions and Transform Your Life.” She describes the book as “a guide to staying brave and positive during stressful times.” Dr. Orloff says, “Emotional freedom is being able to transform negative emotions into… Read More »
Two days ago, Cox Newspapers published an article with the headline, “Emotional defense mechanisms can go awry“. Hap LaCrone, a clinical psychologist in Texas, writes: “Defense mechanisms are strategies or manners in which we behave or think to protect or “defend” ourselves from painful thoughts or feelings. We all use them periodically in an attempt… Read More »
Free crisis counseling services are available to residents in 34 Texas counties in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike. Disaster-related crisis counseling services are funded by FEMA and administered by the Texas Department of State Health Services. In a related news item, the Associated Press reports that crisis counseling helps people understand that their emotional reactions… Read More »