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Health
and Lifestyle
We all know that exercise is good for your physical
health, but what about lifestyle changes that improve mental health? What
follows are simple exercises that can do just that. Each suggestion is
listed beside the condition that it helps.
I recommend using this page in consultation with your
doctor or therapist to ensure these techniques are right for you.
This is an active area of research, and I expect this
page to be updated as more strategies are found to enhance mental health.
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General Mental Health
and Stress Reduction
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1) Mindfulness
2) Exercise
3) Relaxation Exercises
4)
Self-guided cognitive-behavioral therapy is described in the The Feeling Good Handbook by David D. Burns.
5) Positive Psychology (this site by Dr. Seligman guides you
through these techniques but requires you to register).
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Insomnia
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1) Restoring
Sleep
2) Exercise
3) Relaxation Exercises
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Depression
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1) Mindfulness
2) Exercise
3) Guided Action (also called
behavioral activation)
4) Acceptance
and Commitment Therapy (ACT). This is an updated version of
cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) which focuses on ways to accept emotions
and live intentionally. It is
described in the self-guided book Get
Out Of Your Mind And Into Your Life, by Steven C. Hayes.
5) Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). These techniques allow you to become
aware of, and change, the patterns of thinking that lead to
depression. An excellent book
resource is Feeling
Good: The New Mood Therapy, by David D. Burns (volume two, The
Feeling Good Handbook, expands the techniques to other areas like
anxiety, but also covers depression).
6) Light
Therapy for Seasonal Depression
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Bipolar Disorder
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1) Regular sleep is the most important thing you can
do to prevent mood swings. Read more
in Restoring Sleep.
2) Monitoring your mood with a daily mood chart can
help diagnose the type of mood swings that you have, determine
whether your treatment is working, and sometimes prevent episodes before
they occur. Several versions exist
online: Harvard
Mood Chart, BEAM,
and Lilly Mood Chart and
Dr. Aiken’s Version.
3) Social
Rhythm Therapy is a lifestyle approach that can reduce mood swings for
the long-term.
4) Click here
for more education and lifestyle approaches.
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Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
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1) ADHD
support group in Greensboro
2) Useful books:
Driven to
Distraction and Answers
to Distraction by Ned Halloway
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Borderline Personality Disorder
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1) Mindfulness
2) Self-Activation
(also called behavioral activation)
3) Book: Don't Let Your Emotions Run Your Life: How
Dialectical Behavior Therapy Can Put You in Control, by Scott E.
Spradlin
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Anxiety
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1) Mindfulness
2) Relaxation Exercises
3) Duke Psychiatrist
Jonathan Davidson has written an updated guide to overcoming anxiety: The
Anxiety Book
4) A
good guide to overcoming social anxiety is Ronald Rapee’s
1998 book Overcoming Shyness and Social
Phobia.
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Post-traumatic Stress Disorder
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1) Mindfulness
2) Some people find it helpful to read about this
condition and process in a diary between therapy sessions. Below are some
good choices to guide this:
The
PTSD Workbook
by Mary Beth Williams, PhD
Trauma
and Recovery
by Judith Herman, M.D.
The
Courage to Heal and The
Courage To Heal Workbook by Laura Davis and Ellen Bass (for survivors of
childhood sexual abuse)
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Panic Attacks
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1) Self-guided cognitive-behavioral therapy. Effective relaxation techniques and
methods to overcome the fears that lead to panic attacks are described in Don’t
Panic, by Chapel Hill author R. Reid Wilson.
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Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
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1) Self-guided behavioral therapy. This very effective therapy for OCD is
described in the book Stop
Obsessing, by Chapel Hill author Reid Wilson.
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Anger
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1) Redford Williams is a Duke physician whose research
has helped us understand the connections between anger and heart disease.
His book Anger
Kills has helped people reduce this emotion (volume two by is Lifeskills).
2) Popular media teaches us that letting loose our
anger, such as by punching a bag, can “cathartically” reduce
this emotion. Actually, research has
found that acting aggressive like this only revs up more anger and
aggression (read
more). Through
cognitive-behavioral therapy, people can learn more effective skills to
cope with anger.
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Alcohol and Substance Abuse
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Smoking
Cessation
Winston-Salem Alcoholics
Anonymous
Piedmont Area Narcotics Anonymous
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Eating Disorders
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1) Online support for binge-eating, bulimia and
anorexia is available at:
www.something-fishy.org.
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Schizophrenia
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National Alliance for
the Mentally Ill
National Mental Health
Association
Forsyth County Mental Health
Association: includes information on local support groups
Greensboro
Mental Health Association: includes information on local
support groups
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Alzheimer’s, Dementia
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Preventive
Exercise
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Artwork: Study of Proportions, Leonardo da Vinci
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