The Lifeworks Group, Inc.

By: Christine Hammond LMHC The first couple of therapy sessions with Trina were rollercoaster rides. One second she was excited about a new job and all of the possibilities it presented. The next she was anxious and overwhelmed from being a caretaker to her mother. Then she was nervous and depressed over the thought that her long-time partner might leave her. Despite several attempts to help her regulate the extremes of her emotional responses, she continued to experience intense reactions. The initial thought of the therapist was that she had Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). But after further assessment, Trina was missing some necessary ingredients. She did not have an intense fear of abandonment as demonstrated by her ten years of living without a partner. She also had no history of suicidality or self-harming behaviors. And while she did occasionally overindulge with alcoholic beverages, this behavior was not nor had never been done at addictive levels.

By: Megan Brewer IMH Burnout. You’ve probably heard the word before. Maybe you read about it once in an article or know someone affected by it. Perhaps you have experienced it yourself or are afraid of heading towards it if something doesn’t change soon. Most likely, you are probably thinking burnout will never happen to you. I have a feeling that everyone who has burnout experience was thinking the same thing until it happened. We tend to talk about burnout as if it is something that happens suddenly and without warning. But burnout is actually an accumulation of stress that can manifest in a variety of places in your life. When your body and brain are exposed to long seasons of stress without the chance to rest and return to a state of neutrality, stress stores up until your system can no longer handle the pressure. When this happens over a prolonged period of time, it burns out your system’s ability to continue functioning. So what makes it so easy for burnout

By: Christine Hammond LMHC Angel came into counseling knowing that something was wrong but not knowing what it was. After being married for seven years, he noticed his wife became more secretive and distant. Money from their savings account was missing and unaccounted for, his wife would disappear frustrated and return weirdly happy, and she seemed to get angry very easily over insignificant matters. At first, he thought she was having an affair. But after looking at her phone and locations, he ruled that out. So he sought the advice of a therapist. Oftentimes when a spouse is hiding the severity of an addiction, the only evidence of it is the way they talk about it. An addict lies to themselves and others in order to justify continuing in their addiction. Here are some examples of addict speak. 1.        “It’s not that bad.” At the first sign of confrontation, an addict will minimize their addiction by claiming it isn’t that bad. They might even say they were far

By: Christine Hammond LMHC At first glance, Megan appeared to have ADHD. She couldn’t sit still, struggled to focus, was easily distracted, and frequently forgot things. She even convinced a doctor that she had ADHD and took some medication which only made matters worse, not better. Frustrated and confused, she became worried that she had a more severe mental disorder and thought she was losing her mind. One of the commonly overlooked areas in mental health is sleep disorders. A person can appear to have depression, anxiety, ADD/ADHD, thyroid problems, and chronic fatigue syndrome when actually they have a sleep disorder. This was true for Megan who actually had narcolepsy and not ADHD. When she took the stimulant medication, this made her sleep patterns worse resulting in an increase of her symptoms. To help sort through the possible sleep disorders, it is best to be evaluated by a sleep expert. Their analysis is far more thorough through use of a sleep study and