BELIEVING IN YOURSELF

DESTRESS YOURSELF BY BELIEVING IN YOURSELF

Hello my friend.  How's your week so far?  Hope you read my last post and are increasing your Positive Attitude. 

Today, I wanna talk a lil bout believing in yourself.  What does believing in yourself have to do with destressing yourself?  Excellent question!

Stress is caused by our doubt, fear, and worry.  If we believe in ourselves, and others, our doubt, fear, and worry will turn into certainty, confidence, and faith.  When we live with thoughts of certainty, confidence, and faith, we truly destress ourselves.

Believing in yourself, and others, is just a matter of being honest with yourself.  If you search the evidence, you will find you are very successful thus far in your life.  Therefore, you have great reason to be honest with yourself and have faith in yourself.

"Be honest with yourself, with others, and with your Heavenly Father. One who was not honest with God until it was too late was Cardinal Wolsey who, according to Shakespeare, spent a long life in service to three sovereigns and enjoyed wealth and power. Finally, he was shorn of his power and possessions by an impatient king. Cardinal Wolsey cried:

Had I but served my God with half the zeal

I served my king, He would not in mine age

Have left me naked to mine enemies.

Thomas Fuller, an English churchman and historian who lived in the 17th century, penned this truth: “He does not believe that does not live according to his belief.”

Don’t limit yourself and don’t let others convince you that you are limited in what you can do.

Believe in yourself and then live so as to reach your possibilities.

You can achieve what you believe you can. Trust and believe and have faith." ~Taken from Thomas S. Monson's message, Living the Abundant Life  

When we believe in ourselves we have faith, and we eliminate the doubt, which is a stress inducer fo sho!

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." ~Hebrew 11:1

"For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith" ~Galatians 5:5

"But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation." ~1 Thessalonians 5:8

Just a few more things you can think about to destress yourself.

Enjoy the rest of your week!!!

Have fun!  Be playful

Love you lots ;0)

BIG HUGS...

Elizabeth

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;0)

STRESSFUL EMOTIONAL HABITS

When we think of habits we think of food, cigarettes, alcohol, or drugs. We can also add caffeine, shopping, and sex to that list. These are obvious habits that we are well aware of and know the consequences if we continue.

Another habit that may be evaluated is our emotions. When we are presented with a stressful situation it may be a habit to feel fear or worry.

Some people may even react to stressful situations with anger, frustration, or irritability. These emotions are the cause of our stress. For example, when we are working on the car or working on the house and the job gets difficult we may get angry, frustrated, or irritable. Sound familiar? This is a habit that we have of reacting to certain situations and it is the source of our stress.

Another example may be, when we have something big that breaks down like a car, washer or dryer, air conditioner, or a water heater and we don't have the money to pay for it we may feel fear or worry. This is another habit that we may have of reacting to circumstances that is the culprit of our stress.

When we become aware of our habitual reactions of our emotions we can take responsibility and change these habits for the better. If we get angry or irritable often, we may have created habits of anger and irritability, which can be changed through education.

Awareness is the number one key. If we are aware of these negative emotional reactions we can take responsibility and change these emotions to the opposite.

We can change anger, frustration, or irritability to patience and tolerance.

We can change doubt, fear, and worry to confidence, security, and hope.

It is not necessary to get angry, frustrated, or irritable. It is not necessary to have doubt, fear, or worry. We can take control of our reactions.

Sounds simple but is not necessarily easy. The hard part is the 20, 30, 40, or more years of the tendency to react this way.

What can we do to destress our negative habits of reacting?

The first key is awareness. Like an addict we cannot get help unless we think we need help.

The next step is to talk to a professional or read a book on anger or stress, bibliotherapy is one of the best ways to change.

Another great way of being aware of our emotions is being aware of our thoughts because it is the thought that we are having that causes our feelings.

And finally, never ending goal setting of changing our habits. If we want to change behavior that we have had for years it may take some time and hard work. Never ending goal setting is the way to move forward. If we don't move forward we are stagnant, if we are stagnant our problems get bigger, if our problems get bigger that causes an increase in our stress.

If you get angry, frustrated, or irritable frequently, or even once in a while, you are creating great stress on yourself mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually.  Make it a goal to stop your negative emotions and replace them with positive one's like calmness, happiness, satisfaction, and even temperedness (I think I just made a word).

You can discover your stressful habits by destressing yourself. When you destress yourself you learn to change your stressful thoughts, feelings, actions, and attitudes to more successful thoughts, feelings, actions, and attitudes, which means changing stressful habits into successful practices.

Any questions???  Comment below, or email me, elizabethstanfill@gmail.com.

Have a super duper week, and don't forget to have fun and be playful.

Elizabeth

DSM-IV-TR CRITERIA FOR PTSD PART II

DSM-IV-TR FOR PTSD Cont.

CRITERION D:  HYPER-AROUSAL

Persistent symptoms of increasing arousal (not present before the trauma), indicated by at least two of the following:

1.  Difficulty falling or staying asleep

2.  Irritability or outbursts of anger

3.  Difficulty concentrating

4.  Hyper-vigilance

5.  Exaggerated startle response

CRITERION E:  DURATION

Duration of the disturbance (symptoms in B, C, and D) is more than one month.

CRITERION F:  FUNCTIONAL SIGNIFICANCE

The disturbance causes clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of function.

Specify if:

Acute:  if duration of symptoms is less than three months

Chronic:  If duration of symptoms is three months or more

Specify if:

With or without delay onset:  Onset of symptoms at least six months after stressor.

REFERENCES

American Psychiatric Association. (200).  Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders DSM-IV-TR (Fourth ed.).  Washington D.C.:  American Psychiatric Association

DSM-IV-TR CRITERIA FOR PTSD PART I

DSM-IV-TR CRITERIA FOR PTSD

In 2000, the American Psychiatric Association revised the PTSD diagnostic criteria in the fourth edition of it's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR).  The diagnostic criteria (Criteria A-F) are specified below.

Diagnostic criteria for PTSD include history of exposure to a traumatic event meeting two criteria and symptoms from each of three symptoms clusters:  intrusive recollections, avoidant/numbing symptoms, and hyper-arousal symptoms.  A fifth criterion concerns duration of symptoms and a sixth assesses functioning.

CRITERION A:  STRESSOR

The person has been exposed to a traumatic event in which both of the following have been present:

1.  The person has experienced, witnessed, or been confronted with an event or events that involve actual or threatened death or serious injury, or a threat to the physical integrity of oneself or others.

2. The person's response involved intense fear, helplessness, or horror.  Note:  In children, it may be expressed instead by disorganized or agitated behavior.

CRITERION B:  INTRUSIVE RECOLLECTIONS

The traumatic event is persistently re-experienced in at least one of the following ways:

1.  Recurrent and intrusive distressing recollections of the event, including images, thoughts, or perceptions.  Note:  in young children, repetitive play may occur in which themes or aspects of the trauma are expressed.

2.  Recurrent distressing dreams of the event.  Note:  in children, there may be frightening dreams without recognizable content.

3.  Acting or feeling as if the traumatic event were recurring (includes a sense of reliving the experience, illusions, hallucinations, and dissociative flashbacks episodes, including those that occur upon awakening or when intoxicated).  Note:  in children, trauma-specific reenactment may occur.

4.  Intense psychological distress at exposure to internal or external cues that symbolizes or resemble an aspect of traumatic event.

5.  Physiological reactivity upon exposure to internal or external cues that symbolize or resemble an aspect of the traumatic event.

CRITERION C:  AVOIDANT/NUMBING

Persistent avoidance of stimuli associated with the trauma and numbing of general responsiveness (not present before the trauma), as indicated by at least three of the following:

1.  Efforts to avoid thoughts, feelings, or conversations associated with the trauma.

2.  Efforts to avoid activities, places, or people that arouse recollections of the trauma.

3.  Inability to recall an important aspect of the trauma.

4.  Markedly diminished interest or participation in significant activities.

5.  Feeling detachment or estrangement from others.

6.  Restricted range of affect (e.g., unable to have loving feelings).

7.  Sense of foreshortened future (e.g., does not expect to have a career, marriage, children, or a normal life span).


REFERENCES

American Psychiatric Association, (2000).  Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders DSM-IV-TR (Fourth ed.).  Washington D.C.:  American Psychiatric Association.

DSM-IV-TR CRITERIA FOR PTSD Part II

Criterion D: hyper-arousal

Persistent symptoms of increasing arousal (not present before the trauma), indicated by at least two of the following:

1. Difficulty falling or staying asleep

2. Irritability or outbursts of anger

3. Difficulty concentrating

4. Hyper-vigilance

5. Exaggerated startle response

Criterion E: duration

Duration of the disturbance (symptoms in B, C, and D) is more than one month.

Criterion F: functional significance

The disturbance causes clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.

Specify if:

Acute: if duration of symptoms is less than three months

Chronic: if duration of symptoms is three months or more

Specify if:

With or Without delay onset: Onset of symptoms at least six months after the stressor

References

American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders DSM-IV-TR ( Fourth ed.). Washington D.C.: American Psychiatric Association

DSM-IV-TR CRITERIA FOR PTSD Part I

DSM-IV-TR criteria for PTSD

In 2000, the American Psychiatric Association revised the PTSD diagnostic criteria in the fourth edition of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR). The diagnostic criteria (Criterion A-F) are specified below.

Diagnostic criteria for PTSD include a history of exposure to a traumatic event meeting two criteria and symptoms from each of three symptom clusters: intrusive recollections, avoidant/numbing symptoms, and hyper-arousal symptoms. A fifth criterion concerns duration of symptoms and a sixth assesses functioning.

Criterion A: stressor

The person has been exposed to a traumatic event in which both of the following have been present:
1. The person has experienced, witnessed, or been confronted with an event or events that involve actual or threatened death or serious injury, or a threat to the physical integrity of oneself or others.
2. The person's response involved intense fear, helplessness, or horror. Note: in children, it may be expressed instead by disorganized or agitated behavior.

Criterion B: intrusive recollection

The traumatic event is persistently re-experienced in at least one of the following ways:
1. Recurrent and intrusive distressing recollections of the event, including images, thoughts, or perceptions. Note: in young children, repetitive play may occur in which themes or aspects of the trauma are expressed.
2. Recurrent distressing dreams of the event. Note: in children, there may be frightening dreams without recognizable content
3. Acting or feeling as if the traumatic event were recurring (includes a sense of reliving the experience, illusions, hallucinations, and dissociative flashback episodes, including those that occur upon awakening or when intoxicated). Note: in children, trauma-specific reenactment may occur.
4. Intense psychological distress at exposure to internal or external cues that symbolize or resemble an aspect of the traumatic event.
5. Physiologic reactivity upon exposure to internal or external cues that symbolize or resemble an aspect of the traumatic event

Criterion C: avoidant/numbing

Persistent avoidance of stimuli associated with the trauma and numbing of general responsiveness (not present before the trauma), as indicated by at least three of the following:
1. Efforts to avoid thoughts, feelings, or conversations associated with the trauma
2. Efforts to avoid activities, places, or people that arouse recollections of the trauma
3. Inability to recall an important aspect of the trauma
4. Markedly diminished interest or participation in significant activities
5. Feeling of detachment or estrangement from others
6. Restricted range of affect (e.g., unable to have loving feelings)
7. Sense of foreshortened future (e.g., does not expect to have a career, marriage, children, or a normal life span)

References

American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders DSM-IV-TR ( Fourth ed.). Washington D.C.: American Psychiatric Association

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Acute Stress Disorder & PTSD

For those of us in the EMS, existence may be easy or it may be hard, depending on where we are in life. Life tends to go in phases, easy sometimes and hard other times. Let us take responsibility for our lives and move towards a life we truly desire no matter where we are. We have the power.

If you are having a hard time with moving forward in life you may have Acute Stress Disorder or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. There are many signs and symptoms for both disorders but you may want to ask yourself if you are happy. Or you may ask yourself, "when was the last time I was happy?"

When we have Acute or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder we may be very unhappy. If this sounds like you then you may want to seek professional help. These are very serious disorders and can disrupt our ability to function in life.

We have been talking about moving forward and setting goals. If we are unable to do this, chances are we may have Acute or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

I have met many individuals who have overcome these disorders, including myself.

In the next couple of posts I will share the information from the DSM (Diagnostic Statistical Manual) on both disorders.

This is information that is very helpful.

Stay tuned...

If you would like support in learning to destress yourself then follow this blog.

If you have any comments or questions please use the comment function on this blog and I will comment in return:)

Have fun and be playful.

Elizabeth