Afraid of Failure? 4 Steps to Breaking Down Failure

Posted on August 8, 2012 by Jodi Aman, LCSW-R

 

4 Steps to Break Down Failure

Have you ever felt like a failure? I totally have. But I am not alone.

There is an epidemic of feelings of failure in our country. And failure is so definitive. When you think you failed, there is not much wiggle room to be anything other than “a failure.” A horrible way to see yourself! This becomes a belief ingrained and tainting everything else we do and try. Here are four ways to break it down.

1. Lower Your Expectations

Failure is in relation to something. Usually some standard or expectation that was not met: I am not thin enough, pretty enough, smart enough. Having unreasonable expectations is more detrimental on our health than anything else. It brings in judgment, which compounds every other problem we already have.

When we have a feeling which is appropriate to the situation, and then we judge ourselves, and worry, the problem becomes so much bigger and harder to recover from. Then, we berate ourselves for not recovering quickly–yet another layer of judgment. The original feeling is peanuts compared to the complex mess layers of judgment and fear add.

Don’t add them. Allow yourself to feel. Don’t worry, you can handle it. Be gentle and compassionate with yourself, lower those outrageous expectations! Instead of dwelling, do something.

2. Know there is a point to trying

Past feelings of failure attempt to take away our point to trying to feel better, accomplish something. We get convinced that we will fail anyway. We assume trying hard will make us more disappointed when we do actually fail, and so we put less effort in in hopes to protect our heart. With less effort, we may actually not achieve our goal and we can say “See? I always fail. Good thing I did not try.”

There is a point. Rarely is anything accomplished without trying. And if we try and don’t succeed, our heart actually feels better, not worse. We build confidence knowing that we did our best. We feel empowered because we can respond to things in life.

Click here to read more.

Virtual patient may help future doctors prevent suicide

Thu, 2013-01-03 08:33

Georgia Health Sciences University

 

A virtual patient named Denise may help future physicians feel more comfortable and capable assessing suicide risk.
Denise, a mother and wife, is seeking psychiatric care for insomnia and a mood disorder.
“Primary care doctors tend to be the frontline providers for people with mental illness so we need to put the same kind of educational effort into suicide risk assessment that we put into recognizing a heart attack,” said Dr. Adriana Foster, psychiatrist at the Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Health Sciences University. “Suicide risk assessment should be one of the ‘must haves.’”
Suicide is occurring earlier and more often in the United States than ever before. Rates are up 25 percent in the last decade to 12.4 per 100,000 individuals annually. It’s the second-leading cause of death for college students and third for all 15-24 year olds, according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Twenty percent of high school students report having seriously considered suicide during the previous 12 months.
The MCG study of second-year medical students is helping determine if the opportunity to ask tough questions about suicide risk to a virtual (computer-simulated) patient can help real families avoid this tragedy.
“We hope this approach will help future practitioners deal with really difficult issues such as suicide, psychosis, anxiety and depression,” Foster said. Mood disorders, such as depression, are the most common mental health disorders coming to physician attention that carry a high risk of disability and suicide, she said. Click here to read more.

Sweet Sodas and Soft Drinks May Raise Your Risk of Depression, Study Finds

By Lylah M. Alphonse, Senior Editor, Yahoo! Shine | Healthy Living – Wed, 9 Jan, 2013 1:30 PM EST
We know that sugary sodas aren't good for our bodies; now it turns out that they may not be good for our minds, either. A new study of more than 260,000 people has found a link between sweetened soft-drinks and depression -- and diet sodas may be making matters worse.

Americans drink far more soda than people in other countries -- as much as 170 liters per person per year (no wonder New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg banned super-sized servings of the stuff). But the impact of this study isn't limited to the United States. "Sweetened beverages, coffee and tea are commonly consumed worldwide and have important physical-and may have important mental-health consequences," study author Dr. Honglei Chen, an investigator at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, said in a statement.
To read more, click here.

Mental-health experts define 'recovery'

December 22, 2011|By Shari Roan, Los Angeles Times / For the Booster Shots blog

 

Recovery is a beautiful word for people suffering from a mental illness or addiction. But what does it mean? A year-long project by experts nationwide has led to a new definition of the term that is meant to help doctors, counselors and policymakers who oversee the field.
And it just might help people who are in recovery, too.
The new definition is thoughtful, if not pithy:
"A process of change through which individuals improve their health and wellness, live a self-directed life, and strive to reach their full potential."
The definition was announced Thursday by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. It's "a significant milestone in promoting greater public awareness and appreciation for the importance of recovery, and widespread support for the services that can make it a reality for millions of Americans," said SAMHSA administrator Pamela S. Hyde.
Click here to read more.

Relationship With Patient Can Determine Treatment Success

Aaron Levin

 

An understanding of the patient’s values and the place of medication in a wider therapeutic program in which medication is one tool for recovery should inform a psychiatrist’s judgment.

Abstract Teaser

Medications may help psychiatric patients get better, but “getting better” is a “profoundly value-laden term,” said Ronald Diamond, M.D., a professor of psychiatry in the School of Medicine and Public Health at the University of Wisconsin.

“ ‘Better’ means different things to different people,” said Diamond at APA’s Institute on Psychiatric Services in New York in October.

“You and the patient might disagree not on what is happening but on its value,” he said. “It could be subjective improvement for the patient, better functioning, symptom improvement, reduced distress, or simply not getting worse.”

Medications are a tool for recovery and can make nonpharmacological treatments more effective, possibly by making the brain less sensitive to stimuli, he said.

“Medications are never a goal of treatment; rather, they can help patients reach their own goals,” he said. “Ambivalence about medications is normal, but people will take them if they feel they will help them and won’t if they don’t.”

All medications have potential risks as well as benefits, so side effects are best seen from the patient’s point of view. To read more, click here.

Research redefines 'recovery' in bipolar disorder

Researchers have developed the first accurate tool for measuring bipolar recovery which takes into account the personal experiences of people living with the disorder.
The Lancaster University-led research team worked with people with bipolar disorder and clinicians to develop the 36 item bipolar recovery questionnaire (BRQ) to reflect changing attitudes to what counts as ‘recovery’ in a severe mental illness such as bipolar.

The questionnaire, which was then tested by 60 people with bipolar, focusses on personal definitions of recovery rather than symptom reduction and relapse prevention. It is the first self-report tool specifically designed to capture the subjective experience of recovery in individuals with bipolar disorder.

In tests it has proved to be a reliable tool, higher BRQ recovery scores were associated with lower depression and mania scores as well as higher wellbeing, better functioning, better mental health quality of life and personal growth.
The results of the study are published this month in the Journal of Affective Disorders.

Professor Steven Jones of Lancaster University’s Spectrum Centre - a bipolar research centre dedicated to research which can improve the day to day lives of people living with this condition - - led the work.

He said: “The importance of personal recovery, rather than recovery as defined by an expert, in mental health is increasing widely recognised.

“But until now there has been no measure available to assess recovery experiences in individuals with a diagnosis of bipolar disorder.

“For some people recovery means getting back into the gym for the first time in five years, for others it is rebuilding successful relationships with family or getting back into paid work.

Click here to read more.

Psychiatrists approve vast changes to diagnosis manual

11:40PM EST December 2. 2012 - Asperger's is out, but binge eating and hoarding are in as official mental disorders in the latest version of the diagnostic bible published by the American Psychiatric Association, following a weekend vote by its board.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders — whose latest edition is nicknamed DSM-5 — is often called the "bible" because it's used to identify and classify mental disorders.

The vote gives only a hint of the massive changes that will be unveiled in detail in May when the guide is published. The last full revision was in 1994, with minor changes approved in 2000.

The revisions have been considered for more than a decade. Among the changes are:

Eliminating the mild form of autism known as Asperger's syndrome per se and including it as part of the autism spectrum disorder. To read more, click here.