Emotions: Five Ways Parents Can Fight Facebook Depression | Therapy Soup

Five Ways Parents Can Fight Facebook Depression | Therapy Soup: (pls click site for more info)

"The solution to Facebook depression (as well as online safety issues for kids) isn’t rocket-science. We identify five simple things parents can do.

1. Spend more time—a lot more time—with your kids. Don’t feel you have to plan something special: just spending time together, one on one, and showing them that you are willing to talk about what’s important to them is what counts. Even activities like baking cookies, playing a sport, or going for a walk are fine. Even doing chores together is something you can do.

Some research shows that the quantity of time you spend with your kids can be more important than the quality. Half an hour a week of one-on-one bonding is nice, but spending several hours each evening together as a family can have an even greater impact.

In traditional cultures and even in some Western families today, children are taught that their relationship with their parents is the most important relationship in their lives (at least until they become adults, and form new primary relationships). This takes effort on the part of parents."

2. Create a family tech-room. Computers are the new TV. Remember playrooms and family rooms? All computers, cell-phones, Ipods must be used in a public family space, just like the televisions of what I guess now is yesteryear. You can have a homework quiet time rule if necessary. If you have the room, this is a truly amazing preventative (we know a family who does this). You will not only be able to keep an eye out for your kids’ safety, you’ll send the subtle message that being together is what’s really important and that family comes first. Parents: Your kids do NOT need privacy online. You can help them establish safe privacy and safe personal boundaries in other areas of their lives.

3. Get a strong Internet safety filter. Parental controlled Internet filters can help you do your job. You’re the parent so you get to make the decisions that will keep your kids safe. Can kids bypass filters? Some of them, yes. Comparison shop.

4. Set curfews and time-limits. Just like bedtimes (hey, even adults need bedtimes), setting curfews and time-limits for non-school related computer use is essential. If you aren’t ready for solution number 5, below start by limiting social media use. For example, no non-school related computer use after 7:00 for younger pre-teens and 9:00 for teens is one way to go. Plus, limit non-school related computer use to 30 minutes. That might seem draconian from your teen’s standpoint, but if your kids have after-school lessons, sports, homework, chores, and are spending time with family and friends, there won’t be much time left over for social media.

5. Rethink and restructure your family culture. Ban social media!Don’t worry, you’re not the only parent doing this—there are many local groups of parents doing this. Schools are asking parents to ban social media, too. Get together with your kids’ friends’ parents. Many of them feel exactly the same way you do.

Banning it will be difficult. But will it be worth it? Do a cost-benefit analysis of the use of social media.What are the benefits? What are the problems (and potential dangers)? Is it time well spent?

It’s best to begin building values obviously, when children are young. We love the idea of showing children what’s wonderful about life, but we also believe that it’s good to openly tell children (at an appropriate age), the things that are dangerous or not consistent with your values. We know this goes against the conventional wisdom, and we know it’s important for your children to have friendships, however, if the medium in which those friendships take place is social media, safety should be your number one priority. How to prevent the problems of social media’s impact on your preteens and teens is up to you.

*Diagram of social media by Khalid Albaih.

Richard Zwolinski, LMHC, CASAC is the author of Therapy Revolution: Find Help, Get Better, and Move On Without Wasting Time or Money and is an internationally licensed psychotherapist and addiction specialist with over 25 years experience as well as a consultant to organizations and companies in the fields of mental health and addiction. Learn more about Richard here.

Emotions: 5 Ways to Silence Your Inner Critic | World of Psychology

5 Ways to Silence Your Inner Critic | World of Psychology:

"1. Monitor your thoughts.

Jotting down your self-critical judgments — I’m a loser, I’m stupid, I’m ugly — in a journal or a personal-digital assistant is the first step to mastering them: That process alone may decrease the intensity and frequency. Also note the situations in which these feelings occur and see if you can spot patterns.

2. Evaluate your judgments.

Define your terms and examine whether your standards are arbitrary or fair. If you think you’re a “bad person,” are you a bad person all the time? Are there times when you are adequate? Dr. Muller says patients often find that their views are internally inconsistent. “I’ll ask, ‘What does a loser look like to you?’ The patient is picturing a guy in sweatpants sitting around the house drinking beer. I say, ‘Is that what you did yesterday?’ And he’ll say, ‘Well, no.’ ”"

3. Collect objective data.

Challenge negative thoughts with hard facts. Keep a short list of your achievements on a note card and pull it out when your self-criticism threatens to overwhelm you. Or look back at your own CV and review what you’ve accomplished. “Focus on the fact that you made it as a scholarship student — not that nobody asked you to dance for two years,” says Dr. Legato.

4. Conviction or condemnation?

Recognize the difference between thoughts that are critical and those that are constructive, suggests Therese J. Borchard, whose Beyond Blue blog on Beliefnet.com often deals with such issues. If you overeat at a picnic, thinking “I am a fat pig” is a condemnation, she says, whereas thinking “I’ll try to start eating better tomorrow” is a conviction. Dr. Leahy agrees: “Your goal should be improvement, rather than putting yourself down.”

5. Re-evaluate your values.

Make sure that whatever you are beating yourself up about is worth striving for. Some goals, like kindness, integrity, and being self-disciplined, enhance the meaning and quality of life, whereas others only feed into your sense of defectiveness, Dr. Leahy says. “Some people think, ‘I can get Botox and then I’ll be lovable.’ But the way to be lovable is to do lovable things,” he adds.

Therese J. Borchard is Associate Editor at Psych Central, where she regularly contributes to World of Psychology. She also writes the daily blog, Beyond Blue, on Beliefnet.com. Therese is the author ofBeyond Blue: Surviving Depression & Anxiety and Making the Most of Bad Genes and The Pocket Therapist. Subscribe to her RSS feed on Psych Central or Beliefnet. Visit her website or follow her on Twitter @thereseborchard.

Emotions: Postural Problems a Sign of Bipolar Illness? | Psych Central News

Postural Problems a Sign of Bipolar Illness? | Psych Central News: "

Areas of the brain that are critical for motor control, mainly the cerebellum, basal ganglia and brain stem, also aid in mood regulation and are areas where abnormalities often are found in people with bipolar disorder.

Postural sway — a measure of the endless adjustments people make in an attempt to stand still — is considered a sensitive gauge of motor control that likely is affected by these abnormalities.

In the study, participants who had bipolar disorder displayed more postural sway, particularly when their eyes were closed, than study participants who had no psychological disorders. The troubles, which involved the study participants’ proprioception, or ability to process non-visual sensory information related to balance, were not affected by their mood or the severity of their disorder.

“It appears that people with bipolar disorder process sensory information differently and this is seen in their inability to adapt their movement patterns to different conditions, such as eyes open vs. eyes closed or feet together vs. feet apart,” said Hong, whose research focuses on how humans control motion. “The different conditions will cause people to use the information their senses provide differently, in order to allow them to maintain their balance.”"