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Showing posts with the label #psychotherapy

When Domestic Abuse is Psychological

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By: Megan Brewer, LMHC   Did you grow up in a home with psychological abuse? For as long as Jane could remember, she struggled with depression and anxiety. After carrying her struggles on her own for years, she decided to seek the help of a counselor. As Jane began to explore her feelings and the stories attached to them, she and her counselor started talking about the kind of home she remembered growing up in. “My home life was OK,” she said. “We were never physically abused or anything like that, and my parents provided for what we needed.” But as Jane continued to explore and unpack the relational dynamics of her childhood home, a different story began to emerge. While her father was involved in different areas of her life, she remembered being afraid of him most of the time. She remembered fragments of memories about how her dad used to treat her mom, and it never seemed right. It often felt confusing to think about. No one outside of the family seemed to really know abou...

Understanding Borderline Personality Disorder

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 By: Brian Murray, LMHC, NCC Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is a mental disorder characterized by difficulty with interpersonal relationships. Common symptoms include conflict, addictions, self-harm, impulsive and reckless behavior, and they frequently feel suicidal. Most individuals experience a rapid shift in mood ranging from good to bad to angry to fear of abandonment and rejections from others. The feelings experienced in BPD are usually caused by a tendency to see things in terms of black and white thinking while contributing to conflicting views of the self-known as dichotomous thinking. They are highly sensitive people and dependent on how others view and treat them in their relationships. People with BPD struggle to manage their emotions and lose functionality when feeling upset, sometimes with explosive anger. People with BPD can be seemingly high functioning and educated in the workplace and social settings. However, it is their personal life where they str...