23
Sep 21

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Have you been in a situation where you experienced an unpleasant event that left you traumatized for the rest of your life? Well, that is considered post-traumatic stress disorder in which an unpleasant event or incident happened that might cause life threatening injuries to a person. Although some are not life-long, many might be for a while and cause a person to fear his life. Symptoms, like nightmares, irritation, anxiety, depression and many more, should be shown before giving a person this diagnosis. An example of PTSD is riding a roller coaster in which I give an example explaining it more in depth below. Some treatments that would help with PTSD are cognitive processing theory and medications. PTSD is a psychological disorder that relates to other mental health disorders that we discussed in class like anxiety and depression.

Post-traumatic stress disorder is a psychological disorder in which an incident or event happened that caused a person to constantly stay afraid or traumatized afterwards. Some reasons that a person might experience post-traumatic stress disorder is either experiencing an unpleasant event or going through something. For example, if someone has a fear of roller coasters and rides it one time or even sees on the news that a roller coaster stops midair for hours this would cause a person’s anxiety levels to increase causing a person to develop PTSD. It would also cause a person to fear riding a rollercoaster ever again. Not only does it cause a person to stress about it, but it might cause a person to have other symptoms. Other symptoms are like not being able to sleep, causing mental health problems, hyper vigilance, depression, nightmares and many more.

This might even cause a person to stress about it while only thinking and talking about remembering the bad experience. Some might experience it for a long time while others might only experience it for a short period of time. There are treatments that a person can go through which would help them with solving the problem. An example is cognitive processing theory in which the process changes the way that a person might think by changing their attitude resulting in a change in their feelings. Another treatment is medications in which stress relievers are given to a person to help calm down their nerves. As well as exposure therapy is a beneficial treatment because it helps with “Repeated confrontation of traumatic memories, often through detailed recounting of the traumatic experience” (3 Jonathan). These are only a few treatments for PTSD. Connecting it to the example of a roller coaster, PTSD is considered as a rollercoaster because of the ups and downs that it causes a person to go through. Consider yourself a psychologist or even a student pursuing psychology, how would you approach a person with PTSD? 

Post-traumatic stress disorder connects to the textbook reading in which it connects to different psychological disorders like anxiety and depression. PTSD is a form of anxiety in which as the levels of PTSD increases, more anxiety is caused. PTSD is considered a psychological disorder and to find treatments for these disorders, “social psychologists who work in this area study factors that might bias the process of identifying the nature of a client’s difficulty. They also study the impact on the client’s welfare of giving a diagnostic label to a client” (Gruman 99). Many disorders can be treated after researchers’ work with patients and finding the reason behind the diagnosis. An issue that is present in most physiological disorders is the labeling effect in which a person’s identity might be influenced by words that describe a person. There are other issues in psychological disorders which are present in the textbook like stereotypes, anchoring, and the confirmation bias (Gruman 124). Even though there are issues related to PTSD, it can be treated through different formats. 

Experiencing a traumatic incident or event that might cause a person to injure themselves is considered as post-traumatic stress disorder. There are many symptoms in which a person goes through to consider themselves having PTSD like constant fear, anxiety, lack of sleep, mental health problems, and many more. After diagnosing someone with PTSD, there are some treatments in which a person can go through to help with their mental disorder like cognitive processing, medications, and exposure therapy. Post-traumatic stress disorder connects to other psychological disorders discussed in the textbook like anxiety and depression. Even though there are treatments for PTSD, I think there should be more treatments and solutions to post-traumatic stress disorder. One question to keep you thinking is, how would you approach a person with PTSD?

Here is a link to another example of PTSD if you are interested.

https://youtu.be/YMC2jt_QVEE 

References:

Bisson, J. (2007, April 12). Post-traumatic stress disorder. Retrieved September 23, 2021, from https://www.bmj.com/content/334/7597/789

Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., & Coutts, L. M. (2017). Applied social psychology: Understanding and addressing social and practical problems. SAGE.


16
Sep 21

The affects of short-term temptations in the American Culture: Obesity.

Overeating has been a major problem in America, “an estimated 60% of adults in the United States and Britain are currently overweight or obsess and they are becoming so at an earlier age than ever before (Davis 929). Overeating is caused by the human’s temptation towards food, alcohol, smoking, and many more. Overeating is a form of social traps in which they pleasure people in the short-term but affect them in the long term in a negative way instead. The choice of a person relates to their want for immediate pleasure in the short term, like eating junk food, or by waiting for the reward of the long term and staying healthy. What are some factors that cause people to overeat in their daily lives? Some factors that might cause overeating are like stress, body shame, and social media and the internet. While there are many factors that influence obesity, there are ways in which we can solve this problem.

Overeating is a major loss of control over what a person’s body is craving. There are many factors that cause obesity to happen, and recently the percentages of obesity have been increasing at a younger age as well. One factor is stress which causes many to keep eating without even realizing to express their feelings and their emotions through food. When someone is stressed, a way of coping with it is by grabbing anything they can find and eat it. Also, body shame is a way that people who do not like the way that they look try to deal with it either by cutting out all food or by overeating. Someone might be angry about the way that they look and not want to be very skinny anymore, for example, so they start eating more and their body is not used to it. Over time, continuing to eat large amounts of food will cause the person to become obese without even realizing. One large factor in what causes obesity is social media and the use of the internet. Many children, teenagers, and adults use the internet daily 24/7, causing them to eat while they are sitting on a desk or in bed on the internet. Using the internet distracts a person from realizing what they are eating and continues to let a person overeat without noticing and repeating this overtime will cause a person to become obese.

Obesity connects to social traps in which we learned in class. Social traps are the involvement of a person in choosing to have the short-term pleasure or waiting long term for the gain of something, according to the textbook (Gruman 354). This idea might not relate to everyone because some might overeat and not become obese while others will eat normally and still gain weight. This is frustrating to people that gain from the slightest things like eating past ten o’clock at night, while others might eat at twelve o’clock at night and not gain anything. This really depends on a person’s body and how it reacts to food. Not wanting to wait for the long term, many eat as much as they want but causing them to end up with some problem in their body like high blood pressure, high levels of sugar, obesity, acne, and many more. Others that wait for the long term are benefited with staying fit and not having to deal with any problem in their body. I experienced a short-term situation in which I was stuffed full after dinner on a Sunday afternoon, and I couldn’t have dessert, so I saved it for later. Still being full, I realized that I did not eat my dessert, but I ended up eating it at twelve o’clock at night even though I was full.

There are many ways that obesity can be solved and minimized in the American culture. One way of minimizing obesity is by eating more healthy food instead of processed food. The easiest thing to cook is processed food in which it would be ready in ten minutes or less. Especially in college, many students don’t take their time in cooking a healthy meal but instead find processed food. Junk food is a major factor of obesity and getting rid of it with health options will help a person see a positive outcome. Another way to minimize overeating is by having a time frame for the time of meals and knowing when you ate the last meal and not eating too late. These ways might be able to help with obesity.

In conclusion, overeating has been a major factor in the American culture caused by many factors like stress, anxiety, body shame and internet use. It is important to realize the effects that obesity can have on a person whether they are young or adults. Overeating relates to social traps in which most of the time aim for the short term instead of the long term. While some might argue that it is a human normal phase in which people fall into this trap, in my opinion there should be ways in which we solve obesity. To find ways to solve overeating, we should strive to find better replacements that will have an increase in human health and weight.

References: Davis, C., Levitan, R. D., Muglia, P., Bewell, C., & Kennedy, J. L. (2004). Decision-Making Deficits and Overeating: A Risk Model for Obesity. Obesity Research, 12(6), 929–935. https://doi.org/10.1038/oby.2004.113

Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., & Coutts, L. M. (2017). Applied social psychology: Understanding and addressing social and practical problems. SAGE.


09
Feb 19

Animals: A Cure to End All Ills?

There has been plenty of research to support the idea that pets do have health benefits for their owners such as: lowering blood pressure, regulating heart rate, decreasing stress and anxiety, lower rates of depression, and increasing social support (Casciotti & Zuckerman, 2017). Because animals are known to help with stress, anxiety, and depression, there has been a recent interest in pet therapy in our country, especially in regards to students at college. According to a recent study, “over the previous six years, the number of students seeking counseling services increased by 29.6% and the total number of counseling appointments increased by 38.4%” (Green, et al., 2017, p. 50). There is a mental health crisis on college campuses, but maybe pet therapy could help.

Counseling services on campus aren’t enough to combat the rise of mental health issues in students, especially since many students do not feel comfortable using these services due to the stigmas surrounding mental health (Green, et al., 2017, p. 52). Colleges have found that Animal-Assisted Therapy (AAT) has helped in the regard as animals are known to help reduce stress, anxiety, and depression and most students are in favor of having pet therapy programs on campus (Green, et al., 2017, p. 52). Several studies have shown that having interactions with dogs significantly decreased stress in college students and in one study, results were seen after only ten minutes of interacting with the dog (Green, et al., 2017, p. 54).

There are some potential drawbacks of relying on animals for psychological health though. Stressful situations can occur at any time, but an animal may not be available for support at that time (Green, et al., 2017, p. 54). Many students have taken to having emotional support animals (ESAs) with them in their dorms, but ESAs do not have public access in the way that service dogs do, so the problem of accessibility remains. There are also the problems of phobias and allergies in regards to animals in public places and so schools must learn to balance the psychological needs of some students while respecting the fears and allergies of other students.

There may not be any perfect solution in regards to the mental health crisis on college campuses, but emotional support animals and pet assisted therapy could be good ways to start. In fact, some colleges are already implementing innovative therapy dog programs for their students. The Yale Law Library has started a pilot program where students can “check out”  Monty, the library’s new therapy dog, for 30 minute play sessions (Allen, 2011). The program started in 2011 and was a great success, so much so that other libraries are following suit and looking into getting their own library therapy dogs (Xu, 2015). Many of these universities, such as the University of San Francisco and Cornell, are bringing in dogs only on occasion, such as before final exams, instead of having the dog there for students all the time (Xu, 2015). No matter what the set up of the program though, the therapy dog programs have been well received by students who wait in lines to get a chance to interact with the dogs (Xu, 2015).

 

References:

Allen, J. (2011, March 24). Checking Out Monty: Yale Law Students Can Reduce Stress With Therapy Dog. Retrieved from https://abcnews.go.com/Health/StressCoping/checking-monty-yale-law-students-reduce-stress-therapy/story?id=13206568

Casciotti, D., & Zuckerman, D. (2017, March 31). Animals play an important role in many people’s lives and often help with therapy, rehab, etc. Learn more about the possible benefits of pet companionship. Retrieved from http://www.center4research.org/benefits-pets-human-health/

Green, McEwen, S., Wrape, A., & Hammonds, F. (2017). The Mental Health Benefits of Having Dogs on College Campuses. Modern Psychological Studies, 22(2), 50–59. Retrieved from http://0-search.ebscohost.com.library.wvm.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=130798576&site=ehost-live

Xu, Q. (2015, December 9). Yale’s therapy-dog program spreads. Retrieved from https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2015/12/09/yales-therapy-dog-program-spreads/


21
Sep 18

It might as well be German

You’re sitting in class full of people you aren’t familiar with.  You open your textbook to find the entire thing is written in German.  This isn’t new to you, you’ve explained before that despite trying to be taught German you still don’t understand it.  The teacher starts to teach and everyone around you is reading out loud, they all have “caught on” as you stare at the page in front of you, unable to make any sense of the symbols on the page.  It’s your turn as you hear your name called, your breaths come faster, there’s a feeling in the pit of your stomach, your palms slide against your desk, sweating.  You feel as if every eye is on you, your anxiety is at its peak….

This seems like an unrealistic situation, but my son says it is very real.  Dyslexia affects twenty percent of the population; my son is in that twenty percent. 2 Anxiety is one of the leading emotional symptoms reported by adults with dyslexia. 2 In 2013, the US National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health, published a study on the Neuropsychological comorbidity in learning disorders. 1  They found that in cases of a specific learning disability, which dyslexia falls under3 , anxiety was present in nearly 30% of the cases. 1  

My son was diagnosed at age six with Dyslexia, it only took two years for the diagnosis of anxiety to follow.  He started school with as much excitement as any child does, but it didn’t take long for the excitement to turn to dread.  During first grade there were tears and talks of being stupid, asking me if he would ever get it.  The anxiety kept building, he was chewing on his clothes, on his toys, having panic attacks, and eventually it was hard to even get him out of bed.  The stress of facing a system that seemed stacked against him had taken its toll.  At eight years old he was put on a low dose anxiety medication after cognitive behavioral therapy didn’t entirely alleviate his symptoms.   He is now ten, in the fifth grade and we’ve come a long way from those emotional first years of school.  With his medication, a strong support system at school and at home, he’s now a B honor roll student and he’s starting to like school again.

Because individuals with Dyslexia, especially when there is little understanding of their disability, feel many things are out of their control.  School can pose a serious stressor and without the proper supports, they may give up on it altogether.  People with Dyslexia can learn to read, if given the intervention early on, remediation can take only a few years.  But without those accommodations, without the proper instruction it can result in anxiety that goes far beyond just school.

My son told me recently that giving him a 5th grade level book to read is basically like asking him to read German.  He is at a 3rd grade level, something to be incredibly proud of with where we started.  But even now there are situations that arise that I hadn’t foreseen.  Book fairs, where he comes home with books far beyond his reading level just so he wouldn’t feel so out of place with his friends.  Timed tests, standardized tests, it seems as if these stressful situations will keep popping up.  He deals with his stress better now, the medication helps, but anxiety will always be a part of his life.

So, imagine yourself in that situation, staring at a page full of words that might as well be in another language.  You’re expected not only to decipher what it says but also know what it means.  By the time you get to the end of a paragraph you feel like you’ve mentally ran a mile.  Everyone else around you have finished the first three pages and you feel like you’ve failed before you even started.  Imagine now, experiencing this at only six years old.

 

References

  1. Margari, L., Buttiglione, M., Craig, F., Cristella, A., Giambattista, C. D., Matera, E., . . . Simone, M. (2013, December 13). Neuropsychopathological comorbidities in learning disorders. Retrieved September 21, 2018, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3878726/Parents. (n.d.). Retrieved September 20, 2018, from https://ldaamerica.org/types-of-learning-disabilities/dyslexia/
  2. What does the dyslexic person feel? (n.d.). Retrieved September 21, 2018, from http://dyslexiahelp.umich.edu/parents/living-with-dyslexia/home/social-emotional-challenges/what-does-dyslexic-person-feel
  3. What is Dyslexia? (n.d.). Retrieved September 19, 2018, from http://dyslexia.yale.edu/dyslexia/what-is-dyslexia/

17
Sep 18

Gut-Wrenching Anxiety

Source:http://elizabethyarnell.com/WP/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Gut-brain-microbiome-300×194.gif

Ever “gone with your gut instinct” or had felt “gut-wrenching anxiety” when you’ve been nervous?  You may be getting information from your “second brain.”  The Enteric Nervous System (ENS) is like a second brain in your gut.  That main role of the ENS is to control digestion.  Our guts consist of all of the organs that process, digest and eliminate food.  The ENS is the lining of that gut.  Jay Pasricha, M.D., director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Neurogastroenterology says “The enteric nervous system doesn’t seem capable of thought as we know it, but it communicates back and forth with our big brain—with profound results.”  Our brain can directly affect our stomachs and our stomachs can also affect our brain, meaning, this communication goes both ways.  For example, just the thought of food can cause our stomach to begin releasing acids for digestion.

This adjusts thinking on several levels, does our brain health affect our gut health or can our gut health affect our brain health?  Perhaps therapies that help our brain, can also help our gut health.  More specifically, altering the bacteria in our guts could affect our brain health.  Research shows that changes in the microbiome of our gut can cause symptoms that look like anxiety, depression and even Parkinson’s Disease (Mussell, et al., 2008).  Results suggest that patients presenting with GI problems should be screened for anxiety and depression.   Similar research shows that individuals with anxiety and depression often experience changes in the gut microbiome due to high levels of stress (Posserud et al., 2004). The gut microbiome are the bacteria, viruses and fungi that all live in the gut.  Stress can physically affect the physiology of the gut, in fact, stress and the hormones produced by stress, can influence the movement and contractions of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. Given the knowledge of these connections, it makes sense that we can experience GI symptoms from stress.

Research on the link between gut and brain health is still relatively new and there is still a lot to learn.  Scientists have learned about prebiotics and probiotics that can specifically change brain health.  Specifically, omega-3 fatty foods, foods that are fermented or high-fiber foods can be beneficial to brain health.  There are millions of nerves connecting the brain to the gut and this communication goes both ways.  It will be exciting to see what researchers come up with to combat mental illness using this gut-brain connection knowledge.

 

References:

Harvard Health Publishing. (n.d.). The gut-brain connection – Harvard Health. Retrieved September 17, 2018, from https://www.health.harvard.edu/diseases-and-conditions/the-gut-brain-connection

Mussell, M., Kroenke, K., Spitzer, R. L., Williams, J. B. W., Herzog, W., & Löwe, B. (2008). Gastrointestinal symptoms in primary care: Prevalence and association with depression and anxiety. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 64(6), 605-612. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychores.2008.02.019

Posserud I, Agerforz P, Ekman R, Björnsson ES, Abrahamsson H, Simrén M. Altered visceral perceptual and neuroendocrine response in patients with irritable bowel syndrome during mental stress. (2004). Gut. Aug 1;53(8):1102-8. https://gut.bmj.com/content/53/8/1102

The Brain-Gut Connection. (n.d.). Retrieved September 17, 2018, from https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/healthy_aging/healthy_body/the-brain-gut-connection


16
Mar 18

“Social Media” Disorder

Research has demonstrated that media can influence the ways in which people behave. For example, violent media can lead to a temporary increase in aggressive thoughts or long-term imitation of aggressive behaviors (Schneider, Gruman, & Coutts, 2012). Nonviolent pornography has been demonstrated to alter the attitudes of men and women towards their families and has even been shown to alter men’s views towards women in general (Schneider et al., 2012). Even worse, media has the power to influence an individual’s perception of societal issues due to a technique called framing. This technique refers to the way in which an issue or story is presented, either in a negative or positive way (Schneider et al., 2012). Simply put, these findings confirm the influence of media on behavior. Unfortunately, it seems that many of these influences result in negative outcomes. As such, can certain types of media exposure lead to psychological disorders, such as depression or anxiety?

To answer that question, it is important to emphasize the ways in which people can be exposed to media. No longer is media exposure limited to television, print or radio. Now, people have numerous ways in which to access media. Tablets, smartphones, computers and smartwatches are all devices that keep people “connected.” The problem is that people are constantly engaging with media activity, so the level of overall connectedness remains quite high (Khang, Kim, & Kim, 2013). With respect to this discussion, the focus will remain solely on social media usage. Additionally, an important distinction to make is that social networking and social media are not the same. While typically used interchangeably, social media relates to the capabilities of sharing, collaborating or producing content online, through a variety of platforms; whereas, social networking is specific to connecting people, more accurately described then as a type of social media (Kuss & Griffiths, 2017).

Does this near-constant connection with social media influence our emotional or psychological well-being? Interestingly, there are a few different answers to that question. In one seven-year longitudinal study, 308 of 4,142 participants (7.4%) reported symptoms of depression, which is argued to have resulted from social media use and exposure. Further, the higher the level of exposure to social media, the higher the likelihood of developing full-blown depression (Primack, Swanier, Georgiopoulos, Land, & Fine, 2009). Hawi and Samaha (2016) found that there was no relation between social media and life satisfaction, which has also been demonstrated in previous studies. However, it was found that social media does have an influence on overall levels of self-esteem, with higher social media use resulting in lower levels of self-esteem (Hawi & Samaha, 2016). It was found in a separate study that the use of multiple social media platforms resulted in higher levels of depression and anxiety; however, it was suggested that symptoms were not a result of time spent on social media but a result of the number of platforms utilized (Primack et al., 2017).

The last finding is especially intriguing, as the argument seems to typically be that individuals who spend more time interacting with social media are those more likely to experience anxiety or depression. Instead, it seems that higher levels of anxiety and depression result from the use of multiple social media platforms. To further support this argument, a national survey of 1,787 young adults found that those who reported using the most social media platforms – seven to 11 (i.e. Reddit, Tumblr, Vine) – were three times more likely to experience depression or anxiety (Zagorski, 2017). Two potential reasons for this stem from multitasking and social acceptance. With respect to multitasking, individuals are typically switching from one social media platform to another, and studies have shown that multitasking leads to poorer attention, mood or even cognition (Zagorski, 2017). With respect to social acceptance, individuals might feel pressured to keep up with current trends or the culture of each platform, thus leading to higher levels of anxiety (Zagorski, 2017).

Given all the information above, it seems plausible to argue that social media use can lead to negative psychological outcomes such as depression and anxiety. Granted, it must also be made clear that the suggestion here is not that social media causes these disorders. However, there is strong evidence to demonstrate that the risk of experiencing these disorders increases relative to the number of social media platforms that are utilized. In all, additional research must be completed to provide a better understanding of social media relative to psychological health. Without this research, a true “social media” disorder may become our new reality.

References

Hawi, N. S., & Samaha, M. (2016). The relations among social media addiction, self-esteem, and life satisfaction in university students. Social Science Computer Review, 35(5), 576-586. doi: 10.1177/0894439316660340

Khang, H., Kim, J. K., & Kim, Y. (2013). Self-traits and motivations as antecedents of digital media flow and addiction: The internet, mobile phones, and video games. Computers in Human Behavior, 29(6), 2416-2424. doi: 10.1016/j.chb.2013.05.027

Kuss, D. J., & Griffiths, M. D. (2017). Social networking sites and addiction: Ten lessons learned. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 14(3), 311. doi: 10.3390/ijerph14030311

Primack, B. A., Swanier, B., Georgiopoulos, A. M., Land, S. R., & Fine, M. J. (2009). Association between media use in adolescence and depression in young adulthood. Archives of General Psychiatry, 66(2), 181-188. doi: 10.1001/archgenpsychiatry.2008.532

Primack, B. A., Shensa, A., Escobar-Viera, C. G., Barrett, E. L., Sidani, J. E., Colditz, J. B., & James, A. E. (2017). Use of multiple social media platforms and symptoms of depression and anxiety: A nationally-representative study among U.S. young adults. Computers in Human Behavior, 69, 1-9. doi: 10.1016/j.chb.2016.11.013

Schneider, F. W., Gruman, J. A., & Coutts, L. M. (2012). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems (2nd ed.) Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.

Zagorski, N. (2017, January 17). Using many social media platforms linked with depression, anxiety risk. Psychiatric News. Retrieved from https://psychnews-psychiatryonline-org.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/doi/10.1176/appi.pn.2017.1b16


12
Feb 17

Release Social Anxiety By Doing “The Work”

Utilizing “The Work” In Reference to Social Anxiety

By:Kristen Jezek

If you are like most people, there has been a time in your life where you have felt somewhat anxious or nervous at the thought of going on an important date or attending a party with a lot of people. This type of nervousness to meet with others can be natural, even exciting for some. However, for others it is a nightmare of anxiety which develops into full-blown social anxiety disorder (Schneider, 2012), crippling their social life and self-concept. To combat the thoughts that lead to social anxiety disorder, and a host of other undesirable consequences, The Work of Byron Katie offers a way out (Do The Work, 2015).
The Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA, 2017) defines social anxiety disorder as “the extreme fear of being scrutinized and judged by others in social or performance situations”. While the person who experiences this may have a fulfilling and productive life in the comfort of their own company, the social phobia kicks in with the thought of socializing with other people, meeting someone new, or going on a job interview. As social creatures, this phobia can have devastating effects for a person’s quality of life. When faced with a social situation, the fear can be so great that it stops the person from attending the social activity, leading to isolation and loneliness.
The Work of Byron Katie is a method to question your stressful thoughts. The thoughts you utilize to question in the work consist of anything that is causing you stress or disrupting your quality of life. This has incredible implications for someone who is suffering from irrational anxiety due to their beliefs about what may happen in a social situation. When faced by a social situation that causes anxiety, a person would first identify and write down the stressful thought (or thoughts) they are believing. For example, the stressful thought may be “others will judge me negatively”, “this person will think I’m stupid” or “I will never get this job”. These are the types of thoughts that, when played over and over in a person’s mind, brainwash them into an anxiety which cripples and debilitates their social confidence, and can lead to intense social anxiety. Rather than believe these stressful thoughts, The Work invites you to question them.
So, what is “The Work”? The work is a series of four questions and what is called a “turnaround”, in which you turn the thought around. The four questions are as follows:

1) Is it true?
2) Can I absolutely know that it’s true?
3) How do I react when I think that thought?
4) Who would I be without that thought?

The turnaround is simply finding an opposite of the stressful thought. Examples of
the turnarounds for the thoughts presented above are “They will judge me positively”, “this person will think I’m smart”, or “I will get this job”. The next step is to find three concrete examples of how that thought could be as true, or truer than the negative thought before. I might find three examples of why I should get that job, and armed with the knowledge of those three examples, I could feel more confident that it was true. Furthermore, this increased confidence in social situations often leads to a better performance in the social situation overall.
The implications for The Work in treating and managing social anxiety are huge. Whether you are a person with slight social anxiety or suffering from full-blown social anxiety disorder, the act of slowing down your thoughts long enough to question them can offer tremendous relief. If a person could question their stressful thoughts as they thought them (and turn them around), they would be able to free themselves from the crippling fear that comes with dreading a stressful outcome. This confidence compounds over time and with regular practice of asking these four questions and turning them around, the person can facilitate themselves to greater health, social abundance, and mental freedom.

Bibliography:

1) Social Anxiety Disorder. (n.d.). Retrieved February 12, 2017, from https://www.adaa.org/understanding-anxiety/social-anxiety-disorder (ADAA)
2) Schneider, F. W., Gruman, J. A., & Coutts, L. M. (2012). Applied social psychology: understanding and addressing social and practical problems. Los Angeles: Sage.
3) International, B. K. (2015, September 06). Do The Work. Retrieved February 12, 2017, from http://thework.com/en/do-work


09
Feb 17

So, What’s Your Opinion?

The chapter started off with giving us a snippet of Deena’s struggle with social anxiety and depression for us to keep in mind while reading the rest of the chapter. I, however, ended up reading the chapter relating the concepts to my own anxiety instead.

One of the main reasons that I changed my major from Journalism to Psychology is because of the fact that I have battled with anxiety and many different phobias for as long as I remember. Majoring in psychology has actually played a pivotal role in my ‘recovery process’, even though many family members and even therapists urged me not to switch majors, thinking that being more submerged in the context of psychology will be detrimental. I proved them all wrong.

A lot of social psychological theories have helped me understand the roots of my anxiety and the mechanism behind the physical symptoms that accompany a panic attack, and it has been life changing. One question that used to keep me up at night was: “Why do I care so much about what other people think about me all of sudden? Why does it matter so much?” Before my anxiety worsened, I didn’t give a s*** about what other people thought of me, and I used to behave exactly the way that I wanted to. But as my anxiety symptoms increased, so did my concern about what other people thought about me. As I talk to more people who also have different types of anxiety, I noticed that they exhibited the same trend– they also started worry compulsively about other people’s impressions. At around this same time this happened, I also noticed my avoidant behavior when it came to social events, especially with a lot of new people, because of my fear that I would completely embarrass myself – either faint, throw up on someone, or run away – and that everybody would remember it until eternity. Of course for those of you who have never experienced anxiety, these circumstances don’t sound horrifying or don’t qualify as ‘worst-case scenarios – but it can be extremely debilitating.

There is an existing theory about what I’m experiencing, and it is illustrated in chapter 5 of our textbook, called self-presentation theory (SPT), developed by Leary and Kowalksi (Schneider et al., 2012). SPT underlies the origins, maintenance, and treatment of social anxiety; and according to SPT, it becomes more probable for people to experience anxiety or a fight-or-flight response in social situations when two conditions are present: high self-presentational motivation and low self-efficacy (Schneider et al., 2012). What self-presentational motivation refers to is how much people worry about what others think about them, and when people have high self-presentational motivation, it means that they are very concerned about their image in the eyes of other (Schneider et al., 2012). As for self-efficacy, it refers to the level of confidence that a person has about exhibiting a particular image of themselves to other people. As you probably guessed, having low self-efficacy means that people don’t feel confident that they are portraying the image that they would like others to have of them, whether that is being interesting, loyal, responsible, or sexy (Schneider et al., 2012). As if feeling these two conditions wasn’t enough, they work together to create a main symptom of social anxiety, which is anticipatory embarrassment. Anticipatory embarrassment is what led me to avoid social situations, because I was convinced that if I did go, I would completely humiliate myself in one way or another, and that it would not only haunt me forever, but would also result in “irrevocable social rejection” (Pg. 91, Schneider et al., 2012).

Now you are probably thinking that my social life looks pretty bleak – but I think you’d be happy to know (or maybe not) that I’m fighting my anxiety head on, and pushing through the debilitating and suffocating burden that is panic attacks. Majoring in psychology has truly been an amazing experience for me, and I cannot wait to be there for other individuals who are fighting the same battle, and extend my hand to pull them out of the rabbit hole.

I would also like to say that if anybody has any questions about anxiety in general, or would like to hear some tips about how to help a loved one or for yourself, I will be more than happy to help in any way that I can, with not only the knowledge that I obtained from my psychology courses, but also from the many personal experiences I’ve had with anxiety.

Hope everybody has a great weekend!

Hilda

References:

Schneider, F. W., Gruman, J. A., and Coutts, L. M. (2012). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications

https://www.google.am/search?q=helping+someone+from+a+hole&rlz=1C5CHFA_en&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjN-9qhxYPSAhUGXBoKHafjDO0Q_AUICCgB&biw=1168&bih=597#imgrc=Wf58qmGMvUf4nM:


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