Tag archive: stress

It’s World Mental Health Day 2018. Many people, organisations and governments mark today with different events, activities and social media posts to draw attention to how important our mental health is. The UK government has just announced a minister for suicide prevention to tackle the stigma around and prevent suicide. Our mental health is important….

Health Anxiety is characterised by a preoccupation with having a drastic and serious illness. It can be a form of obsessive compulsive disorder. People who suffer with it believe they are or will at some point experience a serious life threatening or debilitating condition. They tend to find little or no reassurance from doctors, believing…

Erectile dysfunction (ED) is often associated with physical causes like circulatory problems. However there are also emotional and psychological problems associated with the condition. The dysfunction can not only cause emotional distress, but emotional factors can contribute to the dysfunction when the penis is capable of erection. The fear of ‘failing’ leads to an embarrassment…

Perfectionism is striving for something that is often unobtainable. If you are a perfectionist you probably don’t acknowledge your success even if you do reach it. In fact you’re already looking for somewhere to improve. Another way of looking at perfectionism is a fear of making mistakes. This can involve spending hours going over the same…

Ok so it’s World Mental Day. What does that mean? What is your mental health? Hang on, isn’t mental health only something that happens to other people? I say that because I remember many years ago when studying counselling an old woman in her seventies, following me around the place I worked in talking at…

A traumatic event is a shocking experience for which our normal ways of processing and coping become overwhelmed. Reactions to such events vary from person to person but often lead to feelings of confusion and fear. Usually unsettling thoughts and feelings dissipate over a few weeks as the brain begins to make sense of and…

Cognitive Dissonance is an uncomfortable feeling of anxiety that comes when we hold two conflicting thoughts at the same time. The level of this tension varies depending on how important the subject is. It also depends on the strength the opposing thoughts are and how able we are to rationalize the conflict. Carl Rogers referred to…

What do we mean by dissociation? Often our reality is often shaped by perceptions and beliefs. When these perceptions get a bit disconnected our sense of reality becomes uncertain and even blurred. For example sometimes we may be reading a book and forget what we’ve just read. Other times we may be having a conversation…

Dissociation can be different from person to person. How we see the world around us determines our reality. Our life experiences, thoughts and feelings certainly contribute to these perceptions. However there are times when we may feel disconnected from what has happened or what is happening. Our perceptions of reality may become blurred, along with our…