how can stress affect your mental health

How Can Stress Affect Your Mental Health?

Written by In Balance Counseling on . Posted in General.

If you’re wondering, “How can stress affect your mental health?” you’re not alone. Millions of people struggle with stress and the mental issues that come with it. In Balance Counseling offers an intensive outpatient program in Tucson for patients struggling with addiction and mental health issues. We can help you find healthy coping mechanisms to deal with stress. 

How Stress Can Affect Your Mental Health

Stress leads to the following mental health conditions.

Stress Causes Insomnia

Sleep rejuvenates the body because the brain replenishes the body in slumber. It does this via biological processes that restore important chemicals and remove toxins. Sleep also allows the brain to generate and sustain memory pathways.

Stress interrupts or prevents sleep and, thus, prevents these processes.

Even one night of poor sleep affects physical and mental function. But when this happens constantly, it diminishes:

  • Long-term job performance
  • The ability to perform daily tasks over time
  • The evolution of personal relationships

These outcomes compound the stress, so it becomes a vicious cycle.

Stress Causes Mood Swings

It’s not unusual for stress to cause irritability. Sleep regulates the brain region that controls mood. Therefore, a lack of sleep generates wild mood swings. 

Stress Increases Substance Abuse

Many people under stress abuse substances like alcohol or drugs because they feel like it relaxes them. However, the more they do this, the more they need to feel relaxed, which can lead to addiction. The brain releases stress hormones in response to this cycle. 

Stress Provokes Anxiety and Depression

Stress causes physical issues that create pain. For instance, the medical community recognizes clenched jaws and scrunched shoulders as physical manifestations of stress. Some people develop depression over what they view as an unmanageable state of decline.

Stress creates hypervigilance, too. That level of intensity makes relaxation impossible. Anxiety and depression often result because the mind and body receive no relief from arousal, which creates certain chemicals that lead to negative emotions.

Stress Leads to Isolation

Because stress causes poor health, it impairs social connections. When people struggle with anxiety or depression, they’re more likely to remove themselves from situations where they feel they have to fake feeling happy. This can lead to devastating loneliness that becomes a permanent state of being.

Answers to, “How can stress affect your mental health?” show that mental health symptoms compile on each other. They connect to physical issues. Therefore, it is hard to experience a condition like stress and only have one area of your life affected.

Contact In Balance Counseling 

In Balance Counseling provides emotional, physical, social, and spiritual work for clients who want to develop healthy, all-natural coping mechanisms for stress. We highlight the importance of establishing an awareness and practice of your beliefs and values.

Our clients review their behaviors, feelings, life choices, and communication skills. This helps them recognize harmful patterns and create strategies to deal with them. 

Instead of worrying about the answers to, “How can stress affect your mental health?” take positive action to control your stress. Effective behavioral changes and management skills provide the structure to do that. To make an appointment for your first therapy session, call 520-722-9631.

opening up

How To Feel Comfortable Opening Up in Therapy

Written by In Balance Counseling on . Posted in General.

Opening up causes many people to panic. After all, not everyone feels comfortable displaying emotional vulnerability. However, if you want to change your life via therapy, opening up is crucial to your success with individual counseling in Tucson, AZ. The following tips explain how to overcome the worry and get the counseling you need.

Opening Up in Therapy

These pointers will help you open up in therapy. 

Don’t Worry About the First Session

Some people starting therapy wonder how they’ll ever feel comfortable opening up. They think they must have it all figured out before starting the work.

Therapists work with many people who don’t know what to expect from the first session and who dread discussing their lives with anyone, anywhere. A therapist won’t expect you to show up and understand the process. Showing up for that first session takes a lot of courage, so commit to that right now.

You are there to construct a course of action that helps you achieve goals that set you on a preferred course. However, the first session is the first step. The more you open up with time, the more your therapist will understand what you want to achieve. Focus on taking baby steps to reach your long-term objectives, including your goal of opening up.

Write What You Want To Discuss

In your first session, you might find that writing what you want to achieve works better than talking about it. You can do that before the session, and it will still count as therapeutic communication.

Give your writing to the therapist and explain that you wrote your thoughts and goals because you have problems vocally expressing feelings in therapy. You can also email your words if sitting there while someone reads them makes you cringe. Remember those baby steps when you are worried about overcoming barriers in therapy.

Look at Therapy as a Choice You Made 

Began building trust in therapy by viewing it as a choice you made. Next, consider that choice an opportunity to strategize actions to gain relief from habits that inhibit your well-being. In therapy, that means you have to open up.

Adopting this viewpoint gives you a sense of control over the process. After all, you know that when you open up, it is good for you. And just like a child learning to eat vegetables, time and patience will show you that you can appreciate the essential elements you are receiving from the process. This approach teaches you a gentle, manageable way of participating in therapy that won’t stress you out. 

If You Are Looking for Therapy in Tucson, Contact In Balance Counseling 

In Balance Counseling is an established reputable counseling service in Tucson. We work with many clients who have expressed fear about therapy session openness. Our gentle yet direct approach has proven successful with clients who don’t like the idea of opening up yet want to attain goals through significant behavior and thought modifications.

Contact us at 520-772-9631 for more information about what to expect from first therapy session and to book your first appointment. 

does adhd affect memory

Does ADHD Affect Memory?

Written by In Balance Counseling on . Posted in General.

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is more than just a short attention span. Adults and children may live with many ADHD symptoms that affect their behavior, mood, and ability to learn.

Here, we’ll explore the question, “Does ADHD affect memory?” and discuss some strategies you can use to improve your memory. With a few powerful techniques and individual counseling in Tucson, AZ, from In Balance Counseling for support, it’s possible to improve your memory and manage some of the daily challenges you face. Make an appointment by calling (520) 722-9631.

The Connection Between ADHD and Memory Deficits

Everyone has the occasional absent-minded or forgetful moment, but for people with ADHD, memory issues are often a daily occurrence. So, how does ADHD affect memory?

ADHD can affect all three types of memory: working, short-term, and long-term.

Working memory is your active memory, which supports executive functioning. In theory, it’s how you process, store, and retain information to complete tasks. In practice, it’s remembering how to follow multi-step directions or stay focused during complex cognitive tasks.

Short-term memory involves how well you remember things a few seconds or minutes after they happen. ADHD can create short-term memory deficits by causing you to lose vital information, like instructions, soon after you hear them.

Finally, long-term memory is your ability to retain information indefinitely. In addition to storing experiences, long-term memory preserves your skills, knowledge, and more. 

It’s important to recognize that ADHD does not cause memory loss. Instead, the disorder leads to distractibility and a loss of focus that prevents memories from ever being stored. 

Also, not everyone with ADHD experiences memory issues to the same extent. Research suggests that about 85% of children with ADHD have working memory issues, which can extend into adulthood. There’s also evidence that the more severe your ADHD symptoms, the more severe your memory issues will be. 

How Memory Problems Affect People With ADHD 

ADHD-related memory issues can manifest in multiple ways throughout your life. 

The effect on working memory can make it difficult to complete tasks or require frequent reminders of the necessary steps. Planning and organization can also be more difficult because of executive function impairment. 

It’s common for people with ADHD in adulthood to have difficulty remembering names, for example, or to require multiple reminders to avoid missing appointments. Issues with lateness and challenges doing work efficiently can also arise from ADHD-related memory issues. 

Improving Memory With ADHD

ADHD is incurable, but you can strengthen and improve your skills with in-depth therapies and training. The tools counselors use to help people with ADHD improve their memories include:

  • Memory games and exercises, like puzzles and brain-training apps 
  • Memorization techniques 
  • Assistive technology, like smartphone alarms
  • Mindfulness and meditation exercises 
  • Visual aids

Get Help Managing ADHD at In Balance Counseling 

Does ADHD affect memory and your ability to work and live a fulfilling life? Schedule your first therapy session at In Balance Counseling in Tucson, AZ, by calling (520) 722-9631 and see how you can start to regain control over your life.