Positive Psychology

The field of positive psychology has grown tremendously in the past few years. Methods of positive psychology are now widely used by mental health professionals to help a variety of people with a wide array of problems.

Psychologist Martin Seligman, of the University of Pennsylvania, kicked the field of positive psychology into high gear in the 1990's with his ground-breaking concept of "learned optimism".  Seligman found that optimism is a trait which most happy people seem to have.  He also found that optimism - if a person does not seem to be naturally prone to it - can be taught, learned, and utilized to change a person's life for the better.  Optimism can be nurtured by teaching people to challenge their patterns of negative thinking and to appreciate, and focus on, their strengths.  The idea that people can become happier by building upon and growing their natural, inherent strengths is central to positive psychology.

In 2011, Seligman developed the concept of "PERMA":  positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment. He submits that these components allow us to flourish because they are the building blocks of a fulfilling life. (By the way, his 2011 book, Flourish is a very interesting read.)

Positive psychology does have its share of critics who contend that it ignores suffering and denigrates sadness and that it forces people to suppress their anxieties, worries, stresses, and traumas. Furthermore, it encourages people to just "put on a happy face" while discomforting and damaging issues are suppressed and never properly dealt with so that healing can take place.  Additionally, they argue that not allowing negative emotions to be expressed is demoralizing and damaging to individuals suffering very real anguish.

Most of the previous mental health research has focused on alleviating suffering by treating disorders while doing nothing to enhance an individual's life beyond lessening the effect of the disorder.  At best, a neutral state of mind was the aim. Positive psychology, however, focuses on previously ignored ideas of positive emotion and meaning that are important to a person's quality of life.  It embraces the full array of emotions, including sadness, pain, and grief and attempts to help people get passed these emotions towards building a more resilient nature or response in the face of adversity.

D.

Source:  "Positive Psychology:  Harnessing the power of happiness, mindfulness, and inner strength", Julie Corliss (writer), Ronald D. Siegel, Psy. D. (medical editor), Harvard Health Publications, Harvard Medical School, Harvard University, 2013.

On Fear and Resilience

For some people, fear is constricting and can even be paralyzing.  For others, fear can be energizing and can serve as a catalyst for growth.  Whether we allow fear to diminish us or we find a way to enlist it as an ally, it has an enormous impact on how we conduct our lives.

We have to face our fears as boldly as we can in order to become resilient or more resilient.

D.

(From the book titled "Resilience: The Science of Facing Life's Greatest Challenges", by S. Southwick and D. Charney, Cambridge University Press, 2012.)

Building Resiliency in Children

According to George S. Everly, Jr., Ph.D. the author of The Resilient Child, the most essential lesson a parent can teach a child is the ability to cope with stress and adversity.  "This is known as resilience, which can be thought of as the ability to be resistant to stress (a kind of immunity), as well as the ability to rebound from adversity.  It also may be the critical difference between happiness and regret, success or failure."  (p.8)

If a parent can school a child in resilience, then when adversity comes his way when he is no longer living at home, and he doesn't need a parent in order to deal with it, then the parent will know that she has been successful. One of the best things one can do as a parent, beyond unconditionally loving and accepting a child for who he is, and providing the basic necessities of life such as nutritional food and safe shelter, is to strive to make the role as parent obsolete.

In order to meet the objective of building resilience in a child, we must allow children, teach children, to develop the inner strength  that makes all things possible.  A powerful set of actions, beliefs and codes is vital.  Together, these form the core strength of personal character.

Everly describes seven essential lessons for building resilience in a child and calls these lessons the ABC's of creating and supporting inner strength.  A stands for Actions, B for Beliefs and C, of course, stands for Codes.

The first four lessons discuss actions.  Lesson #1 calls for the building of strong relationships with friends and mentors.  Lesson #2 calls for the courage to make difficult decisions.  Lesson #3 teaches responsibility:  the child must own his own actions. The fourth lesson discusses self-investment:  the best way for the child to help others and himself is to stay healthy. I would add that actions towards supporting health require willpower/self-control/self-discipline - a key element in the formula required for leading a successful life.

Everly goes on to write that actions need support from beliefs.  Lesson #5 is learned or natural optimism.  Learn to think on the bright side and to use the power of the self-fulfilling prophecy.  Lesson #6 covers the development of faith:  the belief in something greater than yourself.

Finally, Everly discusses the code and writes that it is "an overarching set of principles or rules that ultimately serves to guide all of a person's actions." (p.10)  Follow a moral compass and strive to have integrity.

Everly believes that these lessons can help children develop the inner strength of character needed to create the resiliency required to face the challenges in life.  What a gift to give to our children:  to have resilience regardless of the events they may encounter in their lives.

D.

The Resilient Child:  Seven Essential Lessons for your Child's Happiness and Success, George S. Everly, Jr., Ph.D., The Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, Center for Public Health Preparedness, Loyola College in Maryland, and The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Sloane Brown, DiaMedica Publishing, 2009.

Menopause Memory Pause

According to many doctors, women imagine many of their reported symptoms of menopause, or doctors connect the symptoms to something other than menopause.  Women have never been viewed as the most credible of the sexes by doctors.  New research, however, is beginning to support one of the claims of so many menopausal women:  difficulties with memory and concentration.  A new study in the Journal Menopause shows that the mental fog reported by many menopausal women is valid.  Researchers gave a battery of cognitive tests to seventy-five menopausal women and also asked them how menopause affected their thinking.  "Nearly half of them reported serious forgetfulness in the study, and the women who described the most problems with concentration and memory also scored worse on the cognitive tests." (1) The researchers hope that these findings will spur on additional research directed at finding treatments.

For me, a good night's sleep - rare these days - makes a huge difference in my thinking and memory skills as well as with my outlook on life.  For many women it becomes more difficult to fall asleep, to stay asleep, and to enter stages 3 and 4 of deep sleep.  Fluctuating, unbalanced hormones lie at the root of this type of insomnia during this stage of life.

D.

(1) Scientific American Mind, July/August 2012, "The Mental Pause of Menopause", Carrie Arnold, p. 11.

A Changeable Brain

I am currently re-reading Norman Doidge's book, "The Brain That Changes Itself".  The book deals primarily with how the brain can be rewired in order to deal with various types of mental conditions.

There are two key laws of neuroplasticity which are highlighted in the book.  (Neuroplasticity is the term used to indicate that the brain retains plasticity, or in other words, the ability to be rewired.) We retain the ability to make some changes to how our brains operate throughout most of our lives in order to cure or mitigate many agonizing conditions.

The first law or principle is the finding that "neurons that fire together wire together" and the second is the finding that "neurons that fire apart wire apart". 

To illustrate these principles, I will refer to the anxiety condition of "obsessive compulsive disorder" (OCD).  By doing something else - something pleasurable - instead of performing the compulsion, individuals suffering from OCD form a new circuit that is gradually reinforced in place of the compulsion.  And, by not acting on the compulsion in the first place, the link between the compulsion and the idea that it will ease anxiety is weakened.  Weakening the link is crucial because while acting on a compulsion eases anxiety in the short term, it worsens the condition of OCD in the long term.  As individuals apply themselves, this 'manual gear shift' becomes more automatic.  The episodes become shorter and less frequent and although relapses occur, especially during times of high stress, regaining control comes about more quickly.

D.

The Brain That Changes Itself, Norman Doidge, M.D., Penguin Books 2007, p. 174.

The Fluidity of Female Sexuality

Attention heterosexual men:  I don't want to cause you to be overly leery, but, it turns out that there's no guarantee that the significant heterosexual woman in your life will not, at some point, desire a female partner.  So-called 'straight' women are aroused by both male and female erotica:  by images of men and women having sex, by men having sex with men, and by women having sex with women.  They are enticed by the faces and bodies of both sexes.

"Straight women may be particularly ambidextrous in their attractions, but gay women seem to share some of the female inclination to ambiguity."(1)  Two studies carried out in the 1990's indicated that about 80 percent of gay women have had sex with a man while just over half of gay men have had sex with a woman.

In my personal life, I don't know of any cases where a woman has gone from partnering with a man, to then partnering with a woman, and then back to a man.  In my experience, the woman leaves the man for another woman and then stays with that woman or continues on to have additional relationships with other women.  One high-profile case, however, indicates more fluidity.  Lou Diamond Philips' wife, Julie Cypher, left him to pursue a relationship with Melissa Etheridge then years later split with Etheridge to marry a man. 

A 2003 study found that behavioural plasticity isn't exclusive to the area of sexuality:  female identity appears to be more malleable in general.  Over the course of a single week, women reported conflicting traits far more often than men did.  Individual women reported that they were submissive and argumentative, compliant and forceful.  If their conceptions of their true selves can be so fluid, then it is not much of a stretch to consider that their sexualities may also be more fluid and responsive to outside stimuli - whatever that stimuli might be.

Female sexual fluidity has coursed through most sexuality studies that have been carried out since 1940, beginning with the landmark studies by Alfred Kinsey.  Like most other traits, the degree of fluidity most assuredly varies along a continuum.  Being somewhat attracted to both sexes seems to be built into the mating psychology of females. 

D.

(1)  Psychology Today, July/August 2012, "Flex Appeal", Katherine Schreiber, p. 36.

An Early Warning Sign (Alzheimer's Disease)

A slow or uneven gait in older individuals may be early signs of Alzheimer's Disease according to three recent studies.

According to research presented at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference in Vancouver, pace, rhythm and the size of steps taken in older persons changed with the onset of neurological illness.  Observing gait is a good way to determine who may need further neurological evaluation, potentially leading to earlier diagnosis and earlier intervention.  Since individuals with Alzheimer's are also more likely to suffer falls than are healthy, older individuals, simply watching for signs of a slow or uneven gait could help them get the early, appropriate care required to prevent injury, disability and possibly premature death. 

A study completed at the Basel Mobility Center in Switzerland of approximately 1,100 people with an average age of 77 indicated that those with Alzheimer's disease walked more slowly and with a more irregular pattern of steps as they suffered cognitive decline.  Even those with what could be considered mild cognitive impairment walked with less vigor and more variability than did elderly individuals without cognitive impairment.

Another study carried out at the Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands, which looked at the walking stride of approximately 1,200 people over the age of 49, found that the rhythm of a person's stride is associated with the speed at which the brain processes information as well as with the regulation of behaviour - some of the executive functions of the brain - but not with memory.

A study at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota found that individuals who had slower steps and smaller strides had larger declines in thinking, memory and executive function processing.  The study indicated that the motor changes were happening prior to the memory changes, but both have been recognized to be part of the disease spectrum of Alzheimer's and other types of dementia.

In total, the studies looked at 4,000 individuals.

Most older adults walk more slowly as they age.  It is important to determine what underlying physical conditions may be present, such as conditions of pain, joint degeneration or bone disease in order to recognize how much gait, stride and rhythm may be affected by physical conditions and how much may be affected by cognitive decline.

D.

"Changes in Gait May Signal Alzheimer's", July 16, 2012, http://www.newsmaxhealth.com/