What’s more, light passing through your closed eyelids can suppress melatonin, sometimes leading to sleep disorders or poor-quality sleep. Slumbering in a dark bedroom can do wonders in improving how well you sleep, which is where blackout curtains come in. Made with thick, opaque materials, these room-darkening window coverings block all exterior illumination. Whether it’s your neighbor’s porch light, a street lamp, or natural sunlight, the brightness won’t shine through your window with blackout curtains....

What Is the Hippocampus? The hippocampus is a part of the limbic system of the brain. The limbic system describes a group of brain structures that surround the brain stem. The brain structures that make up the limbic system play a major role in how one experiences certain emotions (fear and anger), motivations, and memory. The hippocampus is responsible for the ability to store and retrieve memories. People who have experienced some kind of damage to their hippocampus may have difficulties storing and recalling information....

That’s not to say that a child will be emotionally scarred forever if they endure a horrific experience. But it’s important to recognize when a child may need professional help for dealing with their trauma. Early intervention can also prevent the ongoing effects of the trauma into adulthood. Follow Now: Apple Podcasts / Spotify / Google Podcasts What Is Childhood Trauma? Childhood trauma is an event experienced by a child that evokes fear and is commonly violent, dangerous, or life-threatening....

What Is Fentanyl? Fentanyl is a high potency synthetic narcotic, sometimes called synthetic heroin. The drug also has street names including “white heroin,” “Perc-O‐Pops,” or “Chiclets.” Fentanyl was created in 1959 as an intravenous surgical analgesic. It is 50 to 100 times more powerful than morphine. As an opioid drug, fentanyl is sometimes used deliberately by people who use other opioid drugs, such as heroin and prescription painkillers. But due to its potency, it has made its way into many other drugs that people use recreationally....

This belief was fueled, in part, by the fact that certain motor (movement) and cognitive (thought) functions tend to decline the older we get. But should this suggest that it’s all downhill once we approach a certain age and that we have no choice but to wait for the inevitable decline? Brain Cells and the Hippocampus While the vast majority of our brain’s cells are formed while we are in the womb, there are certain parts of the brain that continue to create new neural cells during infancy....

This article explores examples of how self-report data is used in psychology. It also covers the advantages and disadvantages of this approach. Examples of Self-Reports To understand how self-reports are used in psychology, it can be helpful to look at some examples. Some many well-known assessments and inventories rely on self-reporting to collect data. The MMPI One of the most commonly used self-report tools is the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) for personality testing....

What Tradition 6 Says In order to preserve the integrity of the program and maintain their primary spiritual aim, 12-step support groups do not endorse any outside organizations and causes. “Tradition 6: Our groups ought never endorse, finance or lend our name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property, and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.” And the Al-Anon version adds: “Although a separate entity, we should always cooperate with Alcoholics Anonymous....

The intent of chewing and spitting is to enjoy food’s flavor without ingesting calories. CHSP is similar to bingeing because it involves larger than intended quantities of high-calorie foods. It also shares elements of restrictive eating because the food is not actually consumed. While a 2018 large-scale study published in the International Journal of Eating Disorders showed that the prevalence of CHSP amassed 0.4% of adults (predominantly females), a 2019 study in the Eating Disorders: The Journal of Treatment & Prevention found that CHSP can occur in as many as 12% of adolescents....

What Are Microaggressions? Although subtle and potentially less harmful than outright prejudice or intolerance, microaggressions have an impact too; in fact, being exposed to chronic microaggressions over a period of time may be hurting your mental health. For this reason, it’s important that we as a collective whole do not simply ignore their presence or pretend that something doesn’t make us feel uncomfortable. Instead, as a society, we need to acknowledge them and move forward with a unified strategy to reduce their impact....

Obviously, if you had a physical disability it wouldn’t be legal for an employer to discriminate against you, thanks to the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA), which came into effect in 1992 to prevent private employers, state and local governments, employment agencies, and labor unions from discriminating against people with disabilities. It applies to job application procedures, hiring, firing, advancement, compensation, job training, and more. Businesses or companies with 15 or more employees are required to comply with the ADA....

For instance, one person may become angry and overwhelmed by a serious traffic jam, while another might turn up their music and consider it a mild inconvenience. A fight with a friend might follow one person around for the rest of the day, while another might easily shrug it off. What’s causing you stress may already be something you’re abundantly aware of. But given the importance of keeping stress in check when it comes to mitigating the effects it can have on your physical and mental health, it’s worth opening yourself up to the possibility that other factors may be at play, too....

Hypnotherapy may help with other addictions as well, either on its own or in combination with other psychotherapies such as cognitive behavioral therapy. While it does not have a large body of research regarding its effectiveness in addictions, there are some studies that support its use. If you have tried other treatments and haven’t yet successfully overcome your addiction, hypnotherapy might be worth considering. What Is Hypnosis? Like other states of consciousness—such as normal waking consciousness, sleep, dreaming, and intoxication from various drugs—the experience of hypnosis is unique to the person experiencing it....

In May of 2015, Dr. Weil popularized this breathing technique to help people manage stress and anxiety. The 4-7-8 breathing technique is based on the pranayama breathing exercise that is practiced during yoga for relaxation. How 4-7-8 Breathing Works Are you someone who needs to understand “why” something works before you’ll give it a try? If so, here’s the rationale behind the technique. Using the 4-7-8 breathing technique activates your parasympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for relaxation....

For example, let’s imagine that researchers are investigating the effects of a new drug. In a double-blind study, the researchers who interact with the participants would not know who was receiving the actual drug and who was receiving a placebo. A Closer Look at Double-Blind Studies Let’s take a closer look at what we mean by a double-blind study and how this type of procedure works. As mentioned previously, double-blind indicates that the participants and the experimenters are unaware of who is receiving the real treatment....

Natural euphoric moods can sometimes be produced by things such as aerobic exercise, sex, and love. Long-distance runners, for example, describe experiencing what is known as a “runner’s high,” which is characterized by pleasant feelings of euphoria. But euphoric moods are not always a positive thing. Sometimes feelings of euphoria can be a symptom of a mental health condition. In other instances, people take psychoactive drugs in order to experience the rush of a euphoric mood....

Types of ADHD masking include hiding hyperactivity with calmness, sitting quietly at a desk without squirming in one’s seat, or responding as you are expected to do during class discussions even though your mind may feel chaotic. Masking may also include over-focusing on a teacher, task, or activity to avoid distractions and impulsivity. History and Prevalence of ADHD Masking In 2015, Barkley wrote about the ADHD masking phenomenon in his book, “Taking Charge of Adult ADHD....

Feeling inferior goes beyond unhappiness that a colleague got a promotion over you, or even feeling sad after achieving a low score on a class-wide test. These are expected, even healthy reactions to disappointments, and are usually nothing to worry about. With an inferiority complex, however, it isn’t uncommon for a person to withdraw in the presence of people who make them feel insufficient. In some scenarios, such a person may attempt to overcompensate for a perceived deficiency by behaving in an excessively competitive manner or by acting aggressively toward others....

The underlying goal of emotional abuse is to control the other person by discrediting, isolating, and silencing them. It is one of the hardest forms of abuse to recognize as it can be subtle and insidious. But it can also be overt and manipulative. Either way, emotional abuse can chip away at your self-esteem, and you can begin to doubt your perceptions and reality. In the end, you may feel trapped....

In reality, they are many queer women who don’t look like this. However, the picture we hold for lesbianism in our society equates to the image of the descriptor “butch.” If you aren’t a part of queer culture, chances are that you’ve never heard of femme visibility, or of femme invisibility. Even though it isn’t talked about much in mainstream heterosexual culture, the fact is that LGBTQ+ people who present as feminine women have been historically erased from the LGBTQ+ narrative....

For example, someone who bullies another for being anxious and insecure may be doing so to avoid acknowledging they exhibit those same tendencies. Origins of Projection Sigmund Freud proposed the idea of defense mechanisms as part of his psychoanalytic theory. A defense mechanism is an unconscious strategy people use to defend the ego against uncomfortable personal characteristics that would cause anxiety if they recognized them consciously. Freud initially proposed projection as one of several defense mechanisms, which his daughter, Anna Freud, expanded on in her book, “The Ego and the Mechanisms of Its Defence....