It's something you do every day, but how often do you actually deliberately think about breathing? Back when I was struggling with PTSD I never thought about my breath - or would have even believed that it could help me feel better almost instantly. Recent research, however, proves that focusing on your breath can dramatically impact and reduce PTSD symptoms.

Biting nails. Popping zits. Picking blisters. Scratching scabs. Who can honestly say they have not done any of the above? If you said you haven’t, I do not believe you. We are all human and we all have little habits we do, sometimes without even realizing it. Some people will spend fifteen minutes in the mirror just picking at the pimples or zits or blackheads on their face. Before a big test, people tend to bite their nails and hangnails, sometimes until they bleed. Surprise, surprise – these are self-harming behaviors.

There is something I have noticed about my busy bipolar brain. I’ve noticed that it seems obsessed with multitasking. It almost seems to not allow me to do one thing at once. If I sit down to watch TV, for example, I can’t stop myself from also picking up my computer or playing a game on my cell phone. When I sit down to write an article, I have to constantly also be checking in on my social media at the same time. People always wonder how I can be everywhere at once. That’s easy. I’m everywhere at once because my brain is everywhere at once.

It’s that time of year again, time for the mentally ill in our midst to pack up the dysfunctional family and set out on what it known, with charming imprecision, as “the summer vacation”. These excursions into extravaganzas of unfulfilled expectations, simmering like gumbo on a sultry Louisiana evening before appearance as fully-formed resentments destined to plague psyches for decades to come, always seem to begin with an air of insouciance and breezy optimism based necessarily on our ability to forget what happened last year. We sally forth, armed to the gills with digital devices which, we believe, will simplify our lives rather than dominate them with unintended and unnecessary complexity, as they actually do; the very opposite of what one imagines for a vacation since the word, simply, means to remove one’s self from the pressures of normal reality – not take it with you.

Ever thought to yourself, "I'm so stressed out that I can't see straight?" Yup, that's where I am right now and have been for the past few months. I am stressed out due to a combination of things - work, Bob, Bob's schoolwork, summer plans, writing, bills, etc. I'm sure there are a few more to add, but I'm so fried I can't list all of them here. I want to do the best job that I can with everything I do. But, my tendency to overachieve gets me stressed out.

Bipolar moods vary in duration by person but typically, an untreated bipolar mood can last months or even years. All a bipolar disorder diagnosis requires is the presence of one manic/hypomanic mood episode and one depressed mood episode. This means that a person could be in a year-long depression and have only experienced one week of mania, a year ago, and still qualify for a bipolar diagnosis. This is much to the surprise of many as there is a pervasive belief that bipolar disorder is about frequent “mood swings.” However, simply “being moody” is not indicative of bipolar disorder.

Therapist and Blogger Emily Roberts gives three tools to help reduce anxiety and build confidence in kids.

It is like me asking you if you are human in the Western world today. Yes! Much of our anxiety comes from comparing ourselves to others. We think that we are not smart enough, skilled enough, cool enough. Not enough, not enough, not enough! And if we are not enough, then maybe we can't manage things, or have people stay with us. This can shoot anxiety through the roof! Watch this video to see why we do this and what to do about it!

Back in February, I wrote a post called "Are You Sensitizing Your Amygdala?", which was all about how your amygdala (the instinctual threat center of your brain) gets highly sensitized in PTSD and then finds and seeks threat constantly - even when there really isn't anything to feel threatened by. Recent advances in neuroscience have proven that while the amygdala changes to a sort of hyper-function in PTSD, it can change again in recovery.

Have you ever sat in front of the computer screen or pad of paper, wishing the words to magically come forth from your fingertips so you could finally meet your deadline? Do you hope that you won’t have to go through the chaos and stress of it being late or not completed at all? Yet no matter how long you sit there, or stare out the window, or surf the internet or hit your head on the desk…nothing happens. It’s not that you aren’t motivated or that it’s not important to you, but literally it’s like you have no idea of where to start or what words to use…you’re blank.