Practice these gestures and movements to project an air of confidence. Yes, “fake it ’til you make it” can be good advice! Subscribe Now: Apple Podcasts / Spotify / Google Podcasts Make Eye Contact Appear confident by maintaining eye contact in social interactions. Good eye contact shows others that you are interested and comfortable. Look the other person in the eye about 60% of the time. If direct eye contact feels too intimidating, start by looking at a spot close to the person’s eyes....

Public Speaking Tips If you have SAD and need to give a speech in elementary school, high school, college, or university, it helps to be as prepared as possible. Beyond preparation, however, there are strategies that you can use to reduce anxiety and fight the urge to stay home with a fake illness. Practice Even great speakers practice their speeches beforehand. Practice out loud with a recording device or video camera and then watch yourself to see how you can improve....

“Eating will make me feel better.” “Eating a donut will make me fat.” “If I don’t carefully control my diet my weight will spiral out of control.” “I should only eat when I am truly hungry.” Such behaviors and the thoughts that accompany them can contribute to the development of an eating disorder such anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder, or other specified feeding and eating disorder (OSFED). This article discusses some of the disordered eating treatment strategies that can be helpful for changing thoughts and behaviors related to food, eating, shape, and weight....

After being diagnosed with ADHD, they finally have an answer, and they know that their symptoms are not their fault. When they realize they have ADHD, feelings of inadequacy can begin to fade away, putting them in a better position to treat and manage their symptoms. Diagnosing ADHD in Women Most people have a misperception that ADHD is a disorder for hyperactive schoolboys. Because of the way ADHD manifests in women does not fit this stereotype, women often don’t get diagnosed until adulthood....

How to Implement Mindfulness Meditation Choose a quiet place and time to practice your meditation. You might also wish to set a timer to signal the end of your meditation; anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes is a typical length for practice. If you would prefer to listen to the script, you could also consider recording yourself reading the passage below and then play it back to yourself through headphones....

In a world that thrives on endless stimulation and distraction, it’s easy to fall prey to the myth that ADHD is merely a side effect of our fast-paced society that rewards short attention spans with a culture of instant gratification. Anything and everything all of the time, as Bo Burnham says, would make any brain weary, but the nuances of the ADHD experience permeate much deeper than the inability to stop doomscrolling on TikTok....

A 2021 study of 240 U.S. adults found that social anxiety symptoms significantly increased during the COVID shutdowns. You might have forgotten how to behave around people, feel anxious about how social patterns have shifted, or find that conversation that used to flow easily is now exhausting. Rather than facing your fears, the common advice during the pandemic was to avoid the outside world, a behavior that served to reinforce social anxiety....

Instead of simple laziness or a lack of motivation, this “immobility” or “sluggishness” often reflects the impairments in executive function that can be associated with ADHD. Understanding these impairments is important in order to correct common misperceptions about ADHD. This article discusses how ADHD can affect motivation and how symptoms of the condition can often be wrongly interpreted as laziness. ADHD and Executive Function Executive function deficits affect a person’s ability to get started, organize, and sustain effort on a task....

There are multiple treatment interventions that help manage these symptoms in both children and adults, such as medication, psychotherapies, behavioral therapies, healthy lifestyle habits, and complementary alternative medicine (CAM). CAM therapies are a more holistic treatment approach that focuses on the connection between the mind and body. A specific CAM therapy that is a simple yet effective intervention is the use of essential oils. Benefits of Essential Oils Essential oils have been shown to offer various benefits....

Trypanophobia, the fear of medical needles, is sometimes considered a subset of aichmophobia, but the two phobias are quite different. While those with aichmophobia are afraid of working with sharp tools, trypanophobia is specific to medical procedures. Aichmophobia Triggers Like all phobias, aichmophobia has different triggers in different people. Some people are afraid only of particularly sharp knives, such as chef knives or hunting knives. Some fear all knives. Others are afraid of pins and needles....

How Alice in Wonderland Syndrome Got Its Name In the famous children’s story Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, the main character Alice often experiences reality-altering adventures that skew her visual perception and sometimes how she perceives herself. Psychiatrist John Todd named the syndrome in 1955 after Alice’s characters, considering the symptoms mimic Alice’s distorted reality. Alice in Wonderland Syndrome Symptoms AIWS causes a range of symptoms. Symptoms can generally be categorized into different types of distortions....

While Ambien is generally considered safer than certain other sedatives, it can still be misused. Long-term use may lead to tolerance, dependence, and withdrawal. How Ambien Withdrawal Works If you’ve been taking large doses of Ambien for more than a few weeks, you may experience withdrawal symptoms upon stopping. These symptoms can range from a general unwell feeling to tremors, panic attacks, and vomiting. Case reports suggest that withdrawal symptoms are most common among people who quit abruptly after long-term or heavy use....

To find out what previous surveys said about the state of mental health in the U.S., check out our previous releases. What may surprise you is that nearly as many Americans—76%—acknowledge the importance of taking care of their mental health. With results like that, we must be walking, talking strongholds of mental fortitude, right? Well…not exactly. In the midst of the ongoing, pandemic-aided global mental health crisis, it’s crucial to try to understand this discrepancy and what we can do to balance our priorities and bring our actions in line with our beliefs....

Meth was synthesized in the 1880s and was widely used in the second world war by German soldiers, who were provided with the drug by their government as an aid to alertness. This led to the first wave of meth use when the public gained access to this government-issued drug. Methamphetamine and amphetamine were commonly prescribed during the 1950s and 1960s for a range of medical conditions, including narcolepsy, depression, and obesity....

It is delivered either individually or in a group format, usually once or twice a week, and is often used as one component of a combined treatment program. Social Anxiety Disorder Social anxiety can have an impact on social skills in a variety of ways. People with social anxiety disorder (SAD) are less likely to engage in social interactions, giving them less opportunity to build skills and gain confidence. SAD can also have a direct impact on social behavior regardless of skill level....

Anticipatory anxiety may occur in response to large events such as giving a presentation at work. But it can also precede minor, everyday activities such as driving to work, parking your car, or having conversations with co-workers. If you have panic disorder, you may find yourself anticipating many life events. Going into a store, attending a social gathering, and other activities may be a daily focus of your anticipation. Before you had panic attacks, you probably didn’t give much thought to any of these common events....

But the adverse events associated with antipsychotic use can be dangerous, especially in older adults. To warn people of these risks, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a black box warning for all antipsychotic medications. Black Box Warning Black box warnings are the most serious warnings the FDA issues. They warn doctors and patients about serious or life-threatening adverse drug reactions. Antipsychotics earned a black box warning because they are associated with increased rates of stroke and death in older adults with dementia....

What Is a ‘Workaholic?’ Work addiction, or “workaholism,” was first used to describe an uncontrollable need to work constantly. A workaholic is someone who suffers from this condition. Although a widely recognized and accepted concept in popular culture, and despite the existence of forty years of literature on the subject, work addiction is not a formally recognized medical condition or mental disorder. It does not appear in the current version of the “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders” (DSM), the DSM-5....

Like other leadership styles, the autocratic style has both some benefits and some weaknesses. While those who rely on this approach to heavily are often seen as bossy or dictator-like, this level of control can have benefits and be useful in certain situations. When and where the authoritarian style is most useful can depend on factors such as the situation, the type of task the group is working on, and characteristics of the team members....