Tag Archives: Therapists in Fresno California

Depression Season – 8 Ways To Beat It.

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By David Joel Miller, MS, Licensed Therapist & Licensed Counselor.

Depressed person

Depression.
Photo courtesy of Pixabay.com

Beat the depression season.

We are coming up on depression season. Did you know it has its own season? Like the rainy season or strawberry season, there is a definite season for depression, and it is fast approaching. While there are lots of reasons people might get depressed for the holidays there are things you can do to prevent or reduce depression this time of year so please stay tuned to the end for the solutions.

You have seen or will see shortly see lots of stuff about Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). A great many people suffer from a specific disorder which causes them to get depressed this time of year. Some people with SAD are OK during the winter but get depressed in the summer. A few unlucky ones get depressed summer and winter. These issues mainly have to do with changes in the hours of daylight and the weather. That’s not the only reason people will be getting depressed soon.

People with mood disorders, those who experience depression or bipolar disorder, are at extra risk to fall into depression this time of year.  There are all kinds of reasons for people with mood disorders to have episodes of depression and this time of year has. The season has lots of stressors that may trigger a bout of depression. Sure seasonal changes are one reason but as severe as they may be, loss of light and cold weather are not the only reason people fall into depression this time of year.

One reason for a winter depression season, which I believe is significant, is the increased occurrence of colds and flu. When someone is under the weather, they get grumpy and want to be left alone. When humans are sick we tend to push others away. This is especially true of children. We see a lot of kids that were essentially well-behaved most of the year but suddenly during the winter months they get into fights with their caregivers and end up in emergency psychiatric facilities. Often these emergency admissions, in kids and in adults, will begin sniffling and sneeze within hours if not minutes of admission. They got into conflicts and were unable to manage their emotions in part because they were fighting off an illness.

There are a lot of family get-togethers during the fall holiday season. Events like these cause stress. Even good events can be stressful. But how often has a holiday get together ended in arguments and fights? What was supposed to be a happy get together has turned into a depressing occurrence?

Some people become especially depressed during the holiday season for the opposite reason, they have little or no family. That is not the way we picture a holiday get together. On T. V and in the store ads holiday meals are a large group of people all laughing around a table full of tempting food. Imagine eating a bowl of Top Ramen by yourself for your holiday meal? I am getting bummed out just writing about this.

Increased consumption of alcohol and drugs in the wintertime also results in an increase in depression. People with mental illnesses are at increased risk to use drugs and alcohol to try to feel better. They also smoke the majority of the cigarettes consumed in America. Add a full ashtray and an empty bottle of booze to that bleak alone Christmas table and see how the picture looks now.

People with substance abuse problems, of course, get really depressed, at the holidays or any other time for that matter. Alcohol is a depressant, plain, and simple. Lots of us missed school the day they taught that. So the more you drink the more depressed you will probably get. Remember the twenty percent heaviest drinkers will drink eighty percent of the alcohol this holiday. They will also get arrested the most and they are fifty-five times more likely to attempt suicide when drunk.

People who do stimulants such as Methamphetamine will not be happy for Christmas either. Stimulant abuse does not make for happy people, just “wired” people. And when those drugs wear off and the user crashes, add them to the depressed.

So it does not much matter whether you have one problem, two problems, or many. It is not important which came first, the mood disorder or drug use. Lots of people are at risk for a bout of depression, from mild to severe, this holiday season.

So what can you do to avoid or reduce depression during the holidays?

A few simple steps, these are especially important if you know you are at risk.

1. Avoid alcohol and abusing drugs.

2. If you take meds stay on them and take them as prescribed. If you experience a severe episode of depression you may need to talk to your doctor or psychiatrist about your medication needs.

3. Spend as much time as possible in brightly lit places. A few hours a day of sunlight is great if possible. And definitely, avoid dark gloomy places.

4. If you have a spiritual or religious faith, practice it like your life depends on it. If you have severe depression your life just might depend on it.

5. Do not stay at home alone. Find places to go and people to be around. This is an area where alcoholics, drug addicts, and other recovering people just may have an advantage if they chose to use it. All across this country and beyond, twelve-step groups will have increased meetings during the holiday season. Many have potluck dinners. Some groups will hold Alco-thons and marathon meetings, around the clock 24 hours meetings of recovering people who encourage and support each other. For more information check your appropriate fellowship on-line or call the local central office.

6. Make use of your support system. Call someone you care about. Call someone who cares about you. If you have no support system – see point 5 above.

7. Plan to do something for someone else. Any minute you are thinking about someone else is a moment you are not worrying about yourself.

8. Don’t hesitate to call or seek professional help. They are lots of local helplines. Please use them. The time to look up those numbers, like the time to develop a support system, is before you need them.

Hope you all avoid the depression season and have the happy life you deserve.

Staying connected with David Joel Miller

Seven David Joel Miller Books are available now!

My newest book is now available. It was my opportunity to try on a new genre. I’ve been working on this book for several years, but now seem like the right time to publish it.

Story Bureau.

Story Bureau is a thrilling Dystopian Post-Apocalyptic adventure in the Surviving the Apocalypse series.

Baldwin struggles to survive life in a post-apocalyptic world where the government controls everything.

As society collapses and his family gets plunged into poverty, Baldwin takes a job in the capital city, working for a government agency called the Story Bureau. He discovers the Story Bureau is not a benign news outlet but a sinister government plot to manipulate society.

Bumps on the Road of Life. Whether you struggle with anxiety, depression, low motivation, or addiction, you can recover. Bumps on the Road of Life is the story of how people get off track and how to get your life out of the ditch.

Dark Family Secrets: Doris wants to get her life back, but small-town prejudice could shatter her dreams.

Casino Robbery Arthur Mitchell escapes the trauma of watching his girlfriend die. But the killers know he’s a witness and want him dead.

Planned Accidents  The second Arthur Mitchell and Plutus mystery.

Letters from the Dead: The third in the Arthur Mitchell mystery series.

What would you do if you found a letter to a detective describing a crime and you knew the writer and detective were dead, and you could be next?

Sasquatch. Three things about us, you should know. One, we have seen the past. Two, we’re trapped there. Three, I don’t know if we’ll ever get back to our own time.

For these and my upcoming books; please visit my Author Page – David Joel Miller

Want the latest blog posts as they publish? Subscribe to this blog.

For videos, see: Counselorssoapbox YouTube Video Channel

Mindfulness on a full brain

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By David Joel Miller, MS, Licensed Therapist & Licensed Counselor.

Waterlily

Mindfulness and meditation.
Photo courtesy of Pixabay.com

What is all this mindfulness stuff?

And how can I possibly include that in with my cognitive behavior therapy?

Problem-solving in mental health as in life has always been pretty straightforward for me. If we are applying the wrong formula to a problem then we keep getting the wrong answer. Once we learn an improved formula all we need to do is turn the crank and out comes an answer.  Get a head change, a new way of seeing things and the problem changes from unsolvable to a manageable size. So we work on core schemas, automatic thoughts, irrational or dysfunctional beliefs. And we work on acceptance – radical acceptance. So the whole mindfulness thing troubled me—until-

There have been a lot of articles recently on mindfulness. Now I feel that this has its uses. Religious and spiritual practices have their place. And I am as much in favor of candles and herbal scents as the next person. All this has its time and place. And we know that if the client believes in something it will probably help. But do mindfulness techniques have a place in modern scientific, best practices, forms of treatment. Then I read some things that made me think.

Siegal has written and talked about mindfulness and recently I happened to read some things he had written on the subject. They made sense to me from a logical rational perspective.  Let me try to explain this as I get it and hope not to do too much violence to the science.

Scientists have discovered mirror neurons in the brain. Now if all they did was see someone else doing something and result in us knowing how to do the same thing that would be the end of it, one more way to learn stuff.  But these mirror neurons detect patterns that allow us to infer why someone is doing what they are doing. Learning these patterns makes our world a more secure and predictable place. This has a lot to do with understanding attachment theory.

If when we reach for more food at the table we get slapped – we learn to not reach but ask which may be a valuable learning experience for a young unsocialized child. But if the response varies depending on the amount of alcohol mom has consumed, what we may learn is the pattern that the world is a scary and inconsistent place. The pattern of asking may be adaptive and is quickly forgotten if we encounter a situation where it is not expected. The pattern of seeing the world as a frightening place is likely to last a lifetime.

So the mirror neurons help to explain how we learn basic core ways of relating to the world.

But there is more.

Mindfulness teaches the practice of paying attention to how we feel inside. As we come to recognize how we are feeling it becomes easier to recognize feelings in others. This is sometimes called the “expert” effect. If you are an expert on antiques you will spot them and probably will notice the cheap reproductions also. If you are not an antique expert you will see things you like or don’t like but lots of stuff will go unnoticed in the piles of other stuff. Same thing with feelings and empathy.

Seeing people express love will teach you the pattern of love.  But if the people you live with don’t show love or show it inconsistently then you may be unable to recognize the pattern and to replicate it. This does not mean that people whose early caregivers did not love them as much as they wanted will be unable to love. What it does mean is that it may be harder to recognize and express love in later life.

Lots of people in recovery, from drugs, alcohol, mental illness, or dysfunctional caregivers report they have difficulty with trust issues. Most came from situations where it was not safe to trust on a regular basis so they never learned the pattern.  Some recovering people have spent so much time being deceitful to cover up and continue their addiction they no longer recognize the truth when they hear it. Their mirror circuits have not had trust images to reflect back and incorporate into their catalog of patterns.

So how will mindfulness techniques help someone who has trust issues, attachment problems, or dysfunctional behaviors? How might these approaches help counselors in helping clients?

By becoming aware of our inner feelings and thoughts we can begin to dispute dysfunctional beliefs. We can learn new more functional patterns of meaning in life. We can recognize our feelings of anger, mistrust, and fear and test these feelings to see if they have a basis in reality. And we can learn from recognizing our own feelings to have empathy for others.

Counselors can especially benefit from mindfulness techniques by becoming better able to present an empathetic other who can participate in a corrective emotional experience with the client.

More to come as I research for that book I am writing on resilience.

Wishing you all the mindfulness you care to have. Hope to hear from some of you.

Staying connected with David Joel Miller

Seven David Joel Miller Books are available now!

My newest book is now available. It was my opportunity to try on a new genre. I’ve been working on this book for several years, but now seem like the right time to publish it.

Story Bureau.

Story Bureau is a thrilling Dystopian Post-Apocalyptic adventure in the Surviving the Apocalypse series.

Baldwin struggles to survive life in a post-apocalyptic world where the government controls everything.

As society collapses and his family gets plunged into poverty, Baldwin takes a job in the capital city, working for a government agency called the Story Bureau. He discovers the Story Bureau is not a benign news outlet but a sinister government plot to manipulate society.

Bumps on the Road of Life. Whether you struggle with anxiety, depression, low motivation, or addiction, you can recover. Bumps on the Road of Life is the story of how people get off track and how to get your life out of the ditch.

Dark Family Secrets: Doris wants to get her life back, but small-town prejudice could shatter her dreams.

Casino Robbery Arthur Mitchell escapes the trauma of watching his girlfriend die. But the killers know he’s a witness and want him dead.

Planned Accidents  The second Arthur Mitchell and Plutus mystery.

Letters from the Dead: The third in the Arthur Mitchell mystery series.

What would you do if you found a letter to a detective describing a crime and you knew the writer and detective were dead, and you could be next?

Sasquatch. Three things about us, you should know. One, we have seen the past. Two, we’re trapped there. Three, I don’t know if we’ll ever get back to our own time.

For these and my upcoming books; please visit my Author Page – David Joel Miller

Want the latest blog posts as they publish? Subscribe to this blog.

For videos, see: Counselorssoapbox YouTube Video Channel

Thanks – I think

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By David Joel Miller, MS, Licensed Therapist & Licensed Counselor.

Counselorssoapbox.com

Thanks – I think

Even when I don’t agree with someone I appreciate their interest in my blog. Links are even better. I think it was La Guardia that said, it does not matter what you say about me, just spell the name right, or in this case get the link right. But still – something that happened today shows how easy it is to be misleading when you quote someone else. In this case, they were sort of quoting me.

My blog about our tendency to take the easy way out and give kids lots of meds instead of the personal connections they need to develop was quoted on a website about Medicare. That was nice, only the picture they ran with my blog post did not come from my blog which might make it misleading.

Just so everything is clear, I am very much in favor of parity laws. Paying as much to treat mental illness and drug addiction as we do for physical illnesses is an idea whose time has come. I am also in favor of anything that makes sure health care coverage is available to all.

People who do not have health care end up at free county hospitals and most of the time they don’t get to the emergency room until they are critical. People with untreated mental illnesses are clogging up our jails and prisons and medical hospitals. We pay for all this treatment whether the people have insurance or not. So some form of national healthcare preregistration just makes the system more efficient and manageable.

It seems clear that the country cannot retreat to the days of family farms and paying the doctor with chickens. Our future also does not involve making more things for cheaper prices. Our future as a country does depend on developing minds. We need more Ph.D.’s not more press wood furniture.

Some people seem to think that teachers, especially college ones are a waste of resources. They don’t want to pay for medical services for anyone but themselves. If this country is to stay a world leader we need more teachers, more doctors, and more professionals who work in mental health and substance abuse. We also need more engineers and scientists. Developing these specialties requires easily accessible education as well as physical and mental health care.

All of these things, like the military and the coining of money, are things that need to be undertaken by the government for the good of all. The majority of promising candidates for the service industry do not come from the rich. The best and brightest minds come from among the ninety-nine percent and they need the government at all levels to promote the growth of the service industries and education.

The future is in the areas of ideas and services. The government needs to take the lead in growing these sectors. I am not opposed to businesses having a large role in this effort. Non-profit companies are especially good at efficiently providing these services. But the mentally ill, the drug addicts, and the homeless don’t have money to pay for their care and we all pay for it one way or another.

So the association of a picture of President Obama superimposed with a communist flag was not my sentiment. If anything, I think this administration has been too conservative in accommodating the role of large businesses in the economy.

We made progress in the space race because the administration at that time led the country into a new area. Hopefully, our leaders will lead again into the new service-oriented economies of the next few centuries.

The one bright spot in all this, to my way of thinking, is that at least a couple of Republican candidates for our highest office are now sounding like they are more liberal than the current administration. Maybe this veer in the liberal direction will get our nation back on track.

The hummingbird picture came from Wikimedia. It has nothing to do with this post but then the picture someone attached to my last post quoted on their website had nothing to do with my post. So now things are about even.

Hoping you all have a happy and mentally healthy holiday season.

David Miller, LMFT, LPCC

Staying connected with David Joel Miller

Seven David Joel Miller Books are available now!

My newest book is now available. It was my opportunity to try on a new genre. I’ve been working on this book for several years, but now seem like the right time to publish it.

Story Bureau.

Story Bureau is a thrilling Dystopian Post-Apocalyptic adventure in the Surviving the Apocalypse series.

Baldwin struggles to survive life in a post-apocalyptic world where the government controls everything.

As society collapses and his family gets plunged into poverty, Baldwin takes a job in the capital city, working for a government agency called the Story Bureau. He discovers the Story Bureau is not a benign news outlet but a sinister government plot to manipulate society.

Bumps on the Road of Life. Whether you struggle with anxiety, depression, low motivation, or addiction, you can recover. Bumps on the Road of Life is the story of how people get off track and how to get your life out of the ditch.

Dark Family Secrets: Doris wants to get her life back, but small-town prejudice could shatter her dreams.

Casino Robbery Arthur Mitchell escapes the trauma of watching his girlfriend die. But the killers know he’s a witness and want him dead.

Planned Accidents  The second Arthur Mitchell and Plutus mystery.

Letters from the Dead: The third in the Arthur Mitchell mystery series.

What would you do if you found a letter to a detective describing a crime and you knew the writer and detective were dead, and you could be next?

Sasquatch. Three things about us, you should know. One, we have seen the past. Two, we’re trapped there. Three, I don’t know if we’ll ever get back to our own time.

For these and my upcoming books; please visit my Author Page – David Joel Miller

Want the latest blog posts as they publish? Subscribe to this blog.

For videos, see: Counselorssoapbox YouTube Video Channel

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Am I a quart low on serotonin?

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By David Joel Miller, MS, Licensed Therapist & Licensed Counselor.

Depressed person

Depression.
Photo courtesy of Pixabay.com

Low on Serotonin?

There has been a lot of talk about the way in which neurotransmitters affect the brain. Some of this has been helpful in understanding mental illness and some have not helped at all. On common expression has been that someone had a “chemical imbalance in the brain.” I wanted to talk about that and some other issues related to psychiatric medication in today’s blog. Please keep in mind that this is a highly simplified explanation. Remember I am a therapist and counselor, not a doctor so I need to find simple explanations for clients and myself without misleading them. If you have a background in biochemistry or research skip this blog now. If the doctor has told you to do or not do something please follow the doctor’s instructions or at the least talk with your doctor about these issues. The rest of you let me know if this helps explain things.

The expression chemical imbalance is a bit misleading. The frequent use of that expression has resulted in a lot of people coming in and asking to be tested to see if they have a chemical imbalance and if so what chemical do they need more of.  They get quite upset when we say that we can’t do that kind of test. Here are some of the problems with that approach.

Thoughts in my brain and yours also, are carried from one nerve (brain) cell to another by chemicals. So when I think something, anything, my brain sends out chemicals to carry that message. Once the thought has come and gone the chemicals are broken down and reused or disposed of. So as fast as I can think of something my brain chemistry is changing.

Now different brains may make, transport, and use chemicals at varying rates but we all use chemicals to move thoughts. This is why talk therapies like Cognitive Behavior Therapy can help to change someone’s thinking which results in a change in their brain chemistry. Now medication can also help and research seems to show that doing both medication and therapy for your problems can result in changes that are more rapid and longer lasting than either treatment alone.

Most everyone has heard of anti-depressants. So they think that if I am short on a brain chemical I should be able to take a pill, replace the missing chemical, and – presto – I am cured. Wish it was that simple. Let me give you one exaggerated example of how an antidepressant might work.  The most well known and widely prescribed antidepressants right now are ones called SSRI. SSRI stands for Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors. This has resulted in a lot of people thinking that the reason they are depressed is a shortage of Serotonin. Let me try to explain how this works. You will need to unpack your imagination for this one.

I once drove a car that had a leaky radiator. At the time money was tight, still is a lot of the time but that is another story. So I kept putting water in the radiator. This is sort of like the way my brain might try to keep putting serotonin into use. But as fast as I filled the radiator the water kept leaking out. So my engine overheated. When I get low on Serotonin my brain overheats (not really don’t get the thermometer to check for depression) and then I get depressed.

So every few miles I had to find a place to stop and put water in the radiator and still it didn’t last long, kept overheating.

So this friend of mine tells me there is this thing you can get at the auto store that stops the radiator from leaking. I get some, put it in the radiator and the leak slows down. A second dose and the radiator stops leaking altogether, well almost stopped but at that point, I only have to put water in the radiator once a week, not every day.  So it wasn’t the amount of that stop leak stuff that mattered. I didn’t need to fill the radiator up with it. It just helped me get more use out of the water I had already put in my radiator.

The SSRI works that way on our brains. It doesn’t put more serotonin in the brain but it slows down the leak so we get more miles or smiles out of the serotonin we already have.

Now, let’s say for illustration purposes here, I am bragging to my friend about what a great job that stops leak stuff did and he doesn’t believe me. So I do a demonstration. I get my trusty old shotgun out. Point it at the radiator and let it rip. Now the radiator starts to leak again. So out comes a can of stop up the radiator stuff and I pour it in. Only this time the stuff doesn’t work. The radiator keeps right on leaking.

This is exactly what happens to the brains of people who are on SSRIs or other antidepressants and then they drink alcohol. Alcohol, remember, is a depressant substance. Why we so rarely call it a drug is beyond me, given that it causes more problems with abuse, dependence, and suicide than all the other drugs. But that is just the way it is.

So the point of this story is that the problem for most people is not that the brain is low on serotonin but that the things we do to our brains use up the serotonin way to fast.  A good diet, plenty of sleep, avoiding drugs, and alcohol can all help you produce more serotonin. So can changing your thinking because happy thoughts release more neurotransmitters into the brain. But calling this problem a chemical imbalance shouldn’t take away the responsibility to get our thinking and our living fixed.

Staying connected with David Joel Miller

Seven David Joel Miller Books are available now!

My newest book is now available. It was my opportunity to try on a new genre. I’ve been working on this book for several years, but now seem like the right time to publish it.

Story Bureau.

Story Bureau is a thrilling Dystopian Post-Apocalyptic adventure in the Surviving the Apocalypse series.

Baldwin struggles to survive life in a post-apocalyptic world where the government controls everything.

As society collapses and his family gets plunged into poverty, Baldwin takes a job in the capital city, working for a government agency called the Story Bureau. He discovers the Story Bureau is not a benign news outlet but a sinister government plot to manipulate society.

Bumps on the Road of Life. Whether you struggle with anxiety, depression, low motivation, or addiction, you can recover. Bumps on the Road of Life is the story of how people get off track and how to get your life out of the ditch.

Dark Family Secrets: Doris wants to get her life back, but small-town prejudice could shatter her dreams.

Casino Robbery Arthur Mitchell escapes the trauma of watching his girlfriend die. But the killers know he’s a witness and want him dead.

Planned Accidents  The second Arthur Mitchell and Plutus mystery.

Letters from the Dead: The third in the Arthur Mitchell mystery series.

What would you do if you found a letter to a detective describing a crime and you knew the writer and detective were dead, and you could be next?

Sasquatch. Three things about us, you should know. One, we have seen the past. Two, we’re trapped there. Three, I don’t know if we’ll ever get back to our own time.

For these and my upcoming books; please visit my Author Page – David Joel Miller

Want the latest blog posts as they publish? Subscribe to this blog.

For videos, see: Counselorssoapbox YouTube Video Channel