Author: alex

Mental health is a growing concern. Since the pandemic, mental health issues have reached a tipping point. But the main problem is that people are reluctant to seek help and are afraid to talk about their mental health issues or admit they have them. Why are people reluctant to talk about such an important topic as mental health? You must search Clinical Psychologists Near Me in Los Angeles to seek help if you are an LA resident.

The Stigma around Mental Health

Stigma prevents people from seeking support for their mental health problems because they are ashamed or fear the reaction of others. It doesn’t have to be that way. It is possible to end stigma and promote better mental health:

• Let people know that they are not alone in dealing with these challenges, have nothing inherently wrong, and are not alone.
• Encourage them to talk about their experiences by helping them recognize that their mental health is as important as their physical health.
• Normalize the conversation.

Shame and isolation contribute to poor mental health. However, talking about your difficulties and being in contact with other people can help relieve anxiety, concerns, and fears.

Openly expressing your feelings reduces their hold. Talking about mental health should be as common as talking about physical health. Unfortunately, society still considers it taboo. This needs to change: at the individual, educational, and work levels because millions of people feel unable to talk about mental health issues for fear of being stigmatized.

Prejudices and Misconceptions about Mental Health Issues

Misconceptions about mental health issues are another barrier to seeking help. These include the idea that:

• Mental health is a weakness
• A simple change of mentality can be enough.
• Mental health problems only affect certain types of people. But it affects people from all walks of life.

Fear of Being Seen As Weak

Another reason people don’t talk about their mental health issues because they think others will look down on their suffering. Or that they will see it as a sign of weakness. However, mental health problems are neither a weakness nor the result of bad choices.

Mental illness can affect anyone, regardless of age, gender, race, or socioeconomic status. And it doesn’t just affect those who look like they are “having a bad day.” Many people with a smile suffer from mental health issues beneath their happy appearance, just like many celebrities.

Mental health issues are still a source of stigma in our society, and this means that people with mental illness often suffer in silence because they are afraid to speak up and seek help. As a result, many mental health issues go untreated, and this can lead to serious consequences (loss of employment, homelessness, addictions, and even suicide).

Fear of Being Treated Differently

Coping with the day-to-day realities of mental illness is hard enough, and feeling obligated to keep it a secret only worsens things. When people don’t talk about their mental health, it perpetuates the stigma around these illnesses and prevents others from seeking help. This silence also reinforces the idea that mental health is something to be ashamed of instead of a real medical problem needing treatment. Speaking openly about our experience can help break down these barriers and make it easier for others to access the support they need.

Feeling of Helplessness

When someone is experiencing a mental health issue, it can be difficult to know where to start. He/ she may feel like nothing can be done, there is no cure, and talking won’t change anything. But talking can help. It also makes it easier for people with mental health problems to get professional help. Talking about mental health is useful for people who suffer from it; it is also important for relatives and friends who support them in this difficult time.

Societal Pressures

Society exerts pressure to make us happy and successful, increasing reluctance to seek help for mental health issues.

People are constantly bombarded with messages about the perfect job, partner (and family), and the best home. Additionally, there is pressure within your social group to conform to standards of behavior and appearance. People often feel they have to conform to this ideal and feel judged by others when they don’t. It is then difficult for them to admit that they are not up to it.

Society needs to help people feel empowered to take action to improve mental health care. It’s important to talk about your experiences with mental illness, seek treatment if needed, and not feel like society looks down on people who do. This conversation has been suppressed for too long, with catastrophic consequences.

Dr. Wendy M. O’Connor is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist with a private practice in Los Angeles, California. If you are looking for a Psychotherapist in Los Angeles, visit The Traffic Light Center website for more information.

We can think of emotions as warning signs that let us know when something is happening that can have positive or negative consequences.

Usually, these are transient states, but they can become something much more lasting. Sometimes, especially if they are negative emotions, they can cause suffering, which is why it is important to know them and learn to give them the right weight. If you are facing such emotions and you are a resident of LA, you must consult a Psychotherapist in Los Angeles.

Awareness of Negative Emotions

Some emotions are perceived more strongly, making them more intrusive and able to influence us. When this occurs as a result of negative emotions, the consequence can be undue fear and excessive anxiety. Let’s consider emotions as sentinels that alert us to what is happening to prepare us to respond in the most appropriate way. It is easy to understand that it is more useful for our survival to be aware of potentially dangerous situations. Only situations that can make us happy.

The problem is not so much feeling negative emotions as what these emotions can cause.

We may also find that we often feel more drawn to bad news than good news. This is also apparent from the increased space the media devotes to negative news as an obvious response to public demands and demands. According to a study conducted by the American psychologist John Cacioppo, which confirms what has just been mentioned, it would be the negative effect explained by evolutionary reasons related to our survival, for which ignoring negative information would be much riskier than ignoring a positive one.

Ignoring a cyclone’s arrival can be much more dangerous than ignoring a story with a happy ending. Despite this, most people claim to prefer good news to be bad and say they would rather hear more news with a happy ending.

We may also notice that our culture often leads us to try to avoid sadness, to relegate it to a corner, to hide it or mask it because it is seen as negative, a sign of weakness. Experiencing sadness is the only way to learn how to deal with it. The first step is admitting to ourselves and others that we are vulnerable. One of the main functions of sadness is to make our loved ones understand that we need them, their support, and their comfort in difficult times. It also helps us reflect and deeply analyze what is happening to us to find meaning in our mood. Therefore, it helps process unpleasant events and acts as a stimulant to induce change.

Conclusions

It will only be when the little girl manages to accept her sadness that she will be able to cry, and this will open the eyes of the parents, until now oblivious to her discomfort.

From them will come the comfort that will bring back serenity, and the acceptance of sadness will give rise to new memories and to the awareness (necessary for each of us) that life is also made up of frustrations, greater or lesser, that we must overcome so as not to remain trapped and be able to focus on new objectives.

Dr. Wendy M. O’Connor is among the famous Relationship and Marriage Counseling Therapists in Los Angeles, California. If you are looking for the Best Family Therapist in Los Angeles, visit The Traffic Light Center website for more information.

Phobias are the most common anxiety disorder. This article will give you a better understanding of what specific phobias are. So, continue reading the article and don’t go anywhere.

What Is A Phobia?

A phobia is an intense and debilitating fear of a specific situation, object, or creature. The most common phobias are fear of heights, fear of flying, fear of snakes, and fear of needles. You may know some phobias by their Latin names, such as arachnophobia, which refers to the fear of spiders, but this name is rarely used by psychologists, who instead refer to them as “specific phobia of spiders.”

Phobias cause high levels of distress and incapacity in those diagnosed, who often have to go to great lengths to avoid those things they fear. Fortunately, phobias can be treated. Some treatments can effectively eliminate the symptoms of fear in just a few hours of work.

Definition of Specific Phobia

A phobia is an intense fear of a particular situation or object (called “phobic stimulus”). Phobias can relate to almost anything, but many of them fall into one of four categories:

• Animal phobias – fear of snakes, spiders, dogs, etc.
• Environmental phobias – fear of heights, thunderstorms, the ocean, etc.
• Situational fear: fear of specific situations such as flying or being in an enclosed space, fear of dying.
• Blood, disease, and injury – fear of needles, medical procedures, blood, disease, etc. 

Many people fear some of these situations – like spiders, snakes, and emptiness. These things are, after all, a certain level of threat. But not all of these people meet the criteria for phobia.

Diagnosis of Phobia

To be diagnosed as a phobia, the fear the person feels must be considered excessive or unreasonable, given the actual level of danger.

Most people would experience some trepidation seeing a large spider running across their living room floor. Still, someone with a specific fear of spiders might experience such uncontrollable anxiety that they would be forced to leave the room. Then be so frightened by the experience that she would refuse to enter the room again without checking every square inch for any signs of the presence of spiders.

Effects of Phobia

A phobia also causes extreme distress or impairment. A person with a phobia may be constantly on edge and live in fear of the next encounter with the phobic stimulus. His fears can prevent him from going to certain places or disrupt his life considerably. For example, a person who develops a fear of heights may be forced to move if they live in a building. A person with a phobia of confined spaces may have to walk to work rather than drive or take public transportation.

Dr. Wendy M. O’Connor is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist with a private practice in Los Angeles, California.