According to Dr. Jeffery Young, Some of the problems that can emerge as a result of being raised in the unpredictable family environment include the following emotional and social impact: Read the rest of this entry »

One of the challenges to working with children in a clinical setting is that they are rarely strong enough to overcome the environmental press created by the family dynamics they are being raised within. In society today their is a movement away from accountability in general, and many times when a child therapist wants to address the environment that children are being raised within, the parents scream “FOUL BALL” and claim that they are being blamed for the bad behavior of their children. Read the rest of this entry »

The recent news has been filled with the images of grieving parents who now are living with one of the most horrific events that can occur in a family.  Last week I read that actor Andrew Koenig, the 41-year-old son of actor Walter Koenig, who played Pavel Chekhov on Start Trek,  committed suicide in Vancouver, BC.  The former child actor, who starred on the show Growing Pains long suffered from depression.  Earlier this week it was reported that Michael Blosil, the son of Marie Osmond, committed suicide‎ by leaping to his death.  The news has been tragic.

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Many communities around the holidays have crisis people available throughout the holidays. People that find themselves in a severe depression over the holiday season can always call a crisis line. You can call one of the phone services, be it the cable company or Quest and an operator can hook you right up to those crisis lines.

Note: I’m not talking about just suicidal. Crisis lines handle a lot more than just suicidal calls during the holidays. Read the rest of this entry »

At the last hours before the bells ring, if you still find yourself with the holiday blues and are feeling depressed and alone that’s when you’re probably going to have to rely on things that you can do for yourself. If you do find yourself without any plans and you feel like you’d rather not be alone and you don’t have a network of people to reach out to, you may want visit a public location where there are others who find themselves under a similar circumstance.

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A lot of people that are really introverted have intensely close good friends; they’re just few in numbers. What I would suggest, if you may find yourself possibly facing the holidays alone, is that that you reach out and make a phone call. Talk to these close contacts and see what they are doing. Maybe you’d find that you’d be welcome to share in these holiday events with them.

It’s the unusual person that isn’t connected to someone or several people. The problem is that people that are feeling isolated and alone, and this is part of the depression, they tell themselves that they don’t have anybody in their life. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the things that you’re going to find is that a lot of times people hit the holiday season disenfranchised from other folks. This is particularly true for people that spend a lot of their time online; gamers on interactive sites and people that interact on peer networks and do a lot of their visiting with others on-line.

What they may find over the holidays is that a lot of their peers that they interact with on-line are not available during the holiday season and off-line and they realize that they are not as connected with people as they normally think they are and loneliness and feelings of isolation can kick in. A lot of times these people can find themselves feeling depressed, anxious and a lot of times just really lonely over the holidays. Read the rest of this entry »