  The Pennsylvania Psychological Association's Public Information Newsletter |
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Psychological News You Can Use
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Greetings,
"Sometimes the most important thing in a whole day is the rest we take between two deep breaths."
~Etty Hillesum
Welcome to the summer issue of our newsletter. Whether you read it nestled under a blanket, sitting by a lake, under a tree, in the shade of a city park, in the coolness of a library, or with sand between your toes, we hope you are able to rest and enjoy these wonderful articles. As always, we ask that you share them with others and encourage them to sign up to receive the next issue.
Christina Carson-Sacco, Psy.D.
Licensed Psychologist
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PPA has designed a series of FREE psychological workshops for the public, June 20-21, in the Bridgeport Room of the Hilton Harrisburg.
Topics will include:
- Speak Up! How to Ask Effectively for What You Want
- Cyberbullying 101: What Every Parent Should Know
- Celebrate Your Body! A "How to" for Today's Society
- How to Take a Quick Mental "Vacation" from Your Screen-driven World
- Teens and Designer Drugs: More Dangerous than Marijuana?
- Stress: Why Your Coping Efforts Don't Work (and What Will)
- Mental Illness and Potential for Violence
- The Courage to Be Imperfect
For additional information go to:
www.psychologycanhelp.com
We hope to see you!
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What Do You See In the Mirror?
Michele Reich, Psy.D., HHC
It is time to prepare for summer so get your checklist ready. Sunscreen, check! Flip flops, check! Positive body image...uh oh! As it gets warmer and we start to dress for summer we may begin to focus on how our body looks, on those pounds we think we "should" have lost over the winter, and the horror of bathing suits.
Here are a few tips to have a more positive body image this summer:
Focus on healthy eating and NOT on deprivation.
Take advantage of eating what is in season. Fresh fruits and vegetables are full of flavor in the summer. If possible, eat local and support farmers.
If you want a sweet treat do not forbid yourself from having it, just eat less of it!
- i.e. if you are craving ice cream, fill your bowl half with ice cream and the other half with fresh or frozen fruit. You can also skip the ice cream and have a bowl of frozen fruit that is "melting."
Remember, we are our own worst critics.
- Give yourself a reality check. Not everyone looks like a movie star, nor is everyone focusing on your perceived body flaws.
- Stop criticizing yourself. You may think if you give yourself tough love you are going to motivate yourself, but this will hurt more than help.
- Take a lesson from the children in your life. Don't they respond better to praise than to criticism?
- "Should" can be a dirty word. Appreciate where you are instead of where you think you "should" be.
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 Reducing the Harms of Pain Management for Chronic Pain Patients
Barry Lessin, M.Ed., CAADC
Two serious health problems in our country that aren't normally associated have converged to contribute to a public health crisis. The interrelationship between the inadequate treatment of these two conditions-chronic pain and opiate addiction-has contributed to an astronomical financial burden and record numbers of deaths from accidental overdose in the United States.
The percentage of people in treatment who started using prescribed opiate medicine for pain relief and then became addicted to them, has risen significantly. Many people, including teenagers, who began experimenting with opiates, have moved on to cheaper, more powerful opiates like heroin.
Here's what you need to know about the problem and suggestions to avoid your own problems.
The Scope of the Problem
The following statistics reflect the magnitude in financial and personal costs:
- It's estimated that there are 100 million people with chronic pain in the United States, affecting more Americans than diabetes, cancer and heart disease combined.
- In 2010, over $560 billion was spent annually on the medical costs of pain care and the economic costs related to disability, lost wages, and productivity. This doesn't include the immeasurable emotional and financial burden placed on patients and their family members.
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Happiness May Lead to Success
If you're waiting for showers of success in work, family and marriage to make you happy, try not to wait too long.
The assumption that success or failure is something that happens to us may not be true, after all. Desirable outcomes such as a fulfilling marriage, career achievement, higher incomes, and even good health may be more within our control than we think. This control may begin with our emotions.
Rewarding careers, loving marriages, and satisfying relationships with others may be among the things we create for ourselves, at least in part. The creation of these successes may begin simply with our feelings that influence our thoughts and behavior.
In recent years, psychology has begun to look at the effects of positive emotion, rather than focusing solely on distress. Research shows that happiness may actually precede success rather than vice versa.
While not dismissing external factors, a thorough research review published in 2005 in the Psychological Bulletin shows that happy people may be more likely to behave in ways that lead to success. Happiness may actually lead people to work toward goals steadily, handle setbacks well, and approach rather than avoid their environment. Conversely, negative emotions such as depression, anxiety, and sadness may lead to difficulty attaining goals along with a tendency to avoid rather than approach the environment. For those who struggle with a preponderance of negative emotion, there may be more than one reason to try to improve mood. Not only may depression, anxiety, and sadness be unpleasant, but chronically unhappy people may be less likely to engage in behaviors that may lead to success.
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Are you Sleepwalking Through Your Days?...and wide awake and working all night?
Attempting to push through your days without enough sleep may make you feel "groggy" and physically lacking in energy. Consistently not getting a good night's rest is also damaging to our physical and emotional health. It makes us more susceptible to short-term and chronic illness and can trigger depression.
Research shows that after missing just a couple of hours of sleep for only a few nights, you could be functioning as someone who is intoxicated. Would you drink alcohol to excess before working, caring for your children, making important decisions, and operating dangerous machinery, like driving a car?
How much sleep is enough? Is your alarm a rude and unwelcome intrusion every morning? If your quantity and quality of sleep is sufficient, you will wake up easily to an alarm or even awaken naturally, feeling rested. Most adults require 7 to 9 hours of sleep each night.
Why can't I sleep when I'm so tired? Ironically, most of us are engaging in daytime, evening, and bedtime activities and habits that lead to an overly active mind and body, which interferes with the sleep we feel desperate to obtain.
Taking back the night...and the day. Our usual take-charge and make-it-happen way to tackle problems in our lives is not a helpful way to approach sleep. For this, we need an attitude that is welcoming of our need for rest. You can make changes in your life that allow for restorative sleep at night so that you feel more present, focused, and calmly energetic during the day.
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 Happiness May Lead to Success, continued...
Among other behaviors, avoidance, isolation, and procrastination may all be roadblocks to success for many who are regularly distressed.
Finding ways to alter one's feelings and outlook may be easier said than done. Challenging beliefs and assumptions that cause distress may be one way to shift emotion from the very negative to the positive. Trying out new uplifting behaviors may also result in a positive shift in mood. Sometimes people are not aware of the beliefs and/or behavior that may be contributing to negative mood states. In these cases, consulting with a professional may be helpful.
Whatever the case may be, it appears that waiting for success to make us happy may not be the best approach after all. Rather, the creation of our own success may begin with happiness, and the characteristics such as confidence, resiliency, and flexibility that relate to being happy.
Anne T. Murphy, Ph.D., is a licensed psychologist in Washington County, PA. She specializes in divorce and co-parenting counseling, neurodevelopmental disabilities, and psychological services to older adults. Her website is www.annemurphyphd.com
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| Reducing the Harms of Pain Management, continued...
Opiate medications are vital, effective tools for pain management, but understanding the opiate prescribing patterns in the United States sheds some light on the problem:
- The United States, with 5% of the world's population, consumes 80% of the world's opiate supply.
- In 2012, there was enough Vicodin (hydrocodone) prescribed to give every American adult one 5mg pill daily for a month.
Our children are vulnerable because the misuse of prescription drugs is now a normalized behavior among teens:
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Twenty three percent of teens say their parents don't care as much if they are caught using prescription drugs without a doctor's prescription, compared to getting caught with illegal drugs.
- More than a quarter of teens mistakenly believe that misusing prescription drugs is safer than using street drugs.
Perhaps the most unfortunate numbers of all are the number of deaths by accidental drug overdose, which now outnumber deaths by motor vehicle accidents.
The Link Between Chronic Pain and Addiction
Our brains are actually wired for us to experience pain and pleasure along a continuum. This is because the receptors in our brain, responsible for pain relief, release the brain chemical dopamine. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that when produced in greater amounts, like when we take more opiate medicine than prescribed or when we use drugs or alcohol to get high, will increase pleasurable feelings.
Also, opiates taken regularly over time will require a higher dosage to achieve the same effect, which is called tolerance. This forms a biological basis for a physical dependence on opiates.
Since we're creatures that tend to move away from pain and towards pleasure, the combination of the pleasurable feelings from opiates plus the possibility of dependence on them increases the likelihood of addiction. It's important to know that less than five percent of people taking opiate pain medicine for pain management are likely to become addicted.
What You Can Do:
- Advocate for your health care: You're the expert of your body and most familiar with your medical care, so don't be afraid to be assertive with your doctors for what you feel is best for you.
- Coordinate your health care: People with chronic pain often have multiple medical conditions treated by separate specialists. Often, specialists don't communicate among each other, so insist they share your treatment with other doctors. Also, coordination of medication is crucial because interactions among medicines are often complex and sometimes life threatening.
- Educate yourself about all types of pain management: Learn the facts about opiate pain medications, as well as non-medical treatments such as acupuncture and mindfulness-based pain relief.
- Control the accessibility of opiate drugs in your house: Take inventory of all pain medicine in your home and lock them up. Safely discard all unused medicines.
- Parents, communicate with your kids: Talking to teens about drug use isn't easy. Once you're armed with accurate information, learn what approaches work and do your best. Your kids will appreciate the effort and you'll set the tone for more dialogue down the road.
- Consult an addiction specialist with any concerns about your use of opiate medication: If you're at all concerned about your use of opiate medications, consult with experts in addiction medicine or with an addiction treatment consultant.
Resources:
American Academy of Pain Medicine Facts and Figures on Pain
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Are you Sleepwalking?, continued...
Setting the Stage for Peaceful and Replenishing Sleep
Live a sleep-friendly lifestyle.
- Make it your intention to go to bed on time! Since the evening hours are filled with getting everyone home from school or work, errands and activities, dinner, homework, preparations for the next day, and getting children off to bed, it is important to have your own bedtime time and routine in the schedule with as much importance as every other obligation.
- Plan ahead for the evening. Know what's for dinner. Do errands as early in the day as possible. Everyone shares in cooking, dishes, and collecting items for the next day.
- Exercise daily. Do moderate exercise for at least 20 minutes, no later than 3-4 hours before bed.
- Avoid/limit caffeine. Don't eat or drink anything with caffeine in the 8 hours before bed.
- Take a mid-afternoon nap, no longer than 20 minutes. Resisting daytime sleepiness may train your brain to resist those same feelings when you attempt to drift off to sleep at night.
Creating an Atmosphere that Helps you Let Go of Your Day
- Unplug. Two to three hours before bed, check e-mail and appointments, make a "remember-to-do" list and pack up, turn off phones and computers.
- Create an indoor dusk. After dinner, turn the lights low throughout the house.
- Design an enjoyable bedtime routine that you follow every night. Consider light stretching, a warm bath, writing three things for which you are grateful, or prayer/meditation.
- Keep bedtime at the same time, even on weekends, as much as possible.
- Even more importantly, get up at the same time every morning (yes, even on weekends.) This sets your body's clock, priming it to fall off to sleep more easily.
- Your bedroom should be cool, quiet and dark. Your body temperature and melatonin levels change to produce sleepiness and wakefulness in cycles throughout the day and night. A bedroom temperature above 65 and even low intensity light interferes with this.
- No TV, computer, electric blanket, nothing plugged in by your bed, especially near your head.
- Limit bedroom activities to sleep and sex.
Returning to Sleep after Nighttime Awakenings
If you awaken during the night and your mind starts "looking for trouble," remember now is the time to rest; your overly alert brain may argue that thinking is the right thing to do, but your wiser self knows that that road only leads to being tired tomorrow, not truly solving a problem.
Set aside worries about not getting enough sleep: - Remember that you have been able to function for a day on less than the best sleep.
- Know that five to six nighttime arousals are natural and no cause for alarm.
- Stretch gently and settle your body into a comfortable position and begin to notice all the parts of your body being supported and comforted by your bed and pillow. Take in a deep breath through the nose and, on the exhale, say, "I am all right, right now." If you don't go back to sleep within 10 minutes, get out of bed, sit comfortably and practice light stretching or a breathing exercise such as:
- Breathe in through the nose to the count of four and exhale through the nose to the count of four, maintaining focus through the complete inhale and exhale. When your mind wanders, bring it gently back to the breath. Lengthening the exhale to 5 or 6 will deepen your relaxation.
- Starting with the head and face and moving through to your legs and feet, breathe in and out slowly, staying with each body part as it lets go of tension or discomfort.
Practicing these strategies can lead to more restful sleep at night and feeling more energized during the day. Seek professional help if making these changes is not working or you suspect you are experiencing more serious sleep-related disorders.
For more information on sleep: www.sleepassociation.org/
And now, "everywhere, creatures have shut off their voices. They've all gone to bed in the beds of their choices. " --Dr. Seuss's Sleep Book
Good night and sweet dreams!
Marianne Herzog, Ph.D., makes creating a sleep-friendly lifestyle a priority in her own life and loves to nap! She draws on a variety of psychological perspectives in providing consultation with Early Head Start and Head Start programs in Philadelphia, PA and Camden, NJ, and in private practice in Lafayette Hill, PA. Dr. Herzog finds mind-body approaches to therapy particularly valuable and she includes mindfulness-based and psycho-neurological strategies in helping people discover their own unique strengths and paths to healing.
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