Author: thatdarnamygdala
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The Healing Power of Crying
By Carissa Weber, MA, LCP, CSAC The last month, I’ve talked a lot about Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), multitasking mental health, and new coping strategies. But what happens when it is all too much? I’m going to talk about a very important human skill: crying. Crying is something we have all done at some point…
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Multi-Tasking Mental Health and Life
By Carissa Weber, MA, LPC, CSAC Fall is here. This means big things are starting to happen. Between kids going back to school, new sports and club meetings, cleaning up after the hectic summer (and figuring out a whole new schedule), life is about to get pretty busy. It is no secret that during this…
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Internal and External Validation: How to Improve Validating Your Experiences
By Carissa Weber, MA, LPC, CSAC This post was originally released on October 20, 2021. It has been updated to show the most up-to-date science research. Enjoy! As humans, we strive for validation. Why? Because it allows us to feel like we belong. But, did you know there are two types of validation? No?! Well,…
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Healing Emotional Pain and Inflammation
By Carissa Weber, MA, LPC, CSAC Many people have experienced some sort of physical pain. Whether it be a dull achy pain that often accompanies arthritis, or a sharp and stabbing pain that comes from an immediate injury, you know you are experiencing something you would prefer not to. But when it comes to emotional…
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Changing Summertime SAD
By Carissa Weber, MA, LPC, CSAC Summertime can bring more than sunshine 5% of adults report symptoms of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) during the summer months ( Gökbayrak, 2022). SAD includes:– loss of motivation to complete tasks– losing interest in social gatherings and activities– changes in appetite– feeling exhausted for no reason In this post,…
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The brain and mental health: a basic breakdown (literally and figuratively)
By Carissa Weber, MA, LPC, CSAC This (first) post from That Darn Amygdala was published on March 27, 2021. To help provide you with the most up-to-date information, this post has been updated. Enjoy! The statistic still shocks me: “1 out of 4 adults struggle with at least one mental health disorder at any given…
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Coping with Stress While on the Go
By Carissa Weber, MA, LPC, CSAC Things have been tough lately. Stress is running high, summer plans are in full swing, and it seems like you can’t slow down, despite how bad you want to. Today’s post is all about what you can do to help those stress levels while you are on the go.…
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Improving your Distress Tolerance, One TIPP (or two) at a Time
In the last post, we talked a lot about what distress tolerance is. We also talked about the science behind why we need to improve our distress tolerance levels. This post is all about a couple of my favorite Distress Tolerance skills: TIPP and IMPROVE. What is TIPP? TIPP is one of my very favorite…
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Mood Tracking and Mental Health
By Carissa Weber, MA, LPC, CSAC Many of us enjoy seeing progress. Whether it is progress in projects, progress in physical stamina, or even progress in our jobs, progress is clear information that we are obviously doing something right. What about your mental health? Are you able to easily track the progress you make towards…