Differentiating Between ADHD and Anxiety in Children
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and anxiety share some common symptoms. This makes differentiating between these two mental health disorders more challenging. With both of them, a child may demonstrate symptoms of inattention, distractibility, hyperactivity, restlessness, and at times even insomnia. It is even more challenging to know if a child also has ADHD if [...]
Common Concerns About Mental Health Treatment
Most individuals are fairly good about seeing their physician or dentist for routine health care or when they experience an injury or illness. Unfortunately, it can be much more challenging to have the courage to seek mental health treatment due to the stigma surrounding mental illness. Individuals often worry about being judged by family or [...]
The Importance of Variety with Food
In this world of the internet and social media, we have so many messages thrown at us. We're bombarded with individuals who lack proper credentials inadvertently telling us and showing us how we should look. Underneath these specific looks, there is often a diet or routine that they follow to make them appear a certain [...]
Navigating The Pain of Infant Loss
One of the most difficult and devastating experiences a parent will ever face is the death of their child. Each year there are individuals and couples who experience a miscarriage, still birth, or the death of an infant son or daughter. If this is you, we want you to know there is hope, and we [...]
Tips for Navigating the Holidays in 2020
It has been an unusual year, but the end of 2020 is fast approaching and the holiday season is here. There is no question that the holidays this year will be very different than years past... For many people, Christmas and New Years are a wonderful time to get together with family and friends, many [...]
The Benefits of School-Linked Mental Health Services
School-linked mental health therapy services have become increasingly common due to the many benefits they provide. This model can be best defined as a therapist from an outside agency working onsite at a school, providing services to students during the normal school day. The benefits of this model are many... School counselors and teachers are [...]
Simple Tips for Wearing Masks
Today, I want to share some thoughts and advice around wearing masks and the anxiety that can come with it. As more cities and states have moved to mandatory mask-wearing policies, we're hearing from people about their experiences of masks causing anxiety. This can include creating full-blown panic attacks whenever a person puts on a [...]
Men’s Health – Five Tips for Creating a Healthy Lifestyle
Water's Edge Counseling & Healing Center believes in nurturing an individual's whole self, including biological, psychological, social, and spiritual well-being. For men, this can be particularly challenging. Many haven't learned to be proactive about their health, and some try to ignore the signs their body gives them. Others simply focus on being "silent and strong." [...]
Where PTSD and Eating Disorders Meet
Trigger Warning: This post will address the topic of trauma and names specific eating disorder behaviors. You may have heard people say that eating disorders are not just about food, but instead, a way to cope with some form of significant distress. This distress can show up in a number of ways, but for many, [...]
Rekindling Your Inner Fire
As a boy, I remember playing laser tag on a moonlit golf course with my older brother and his friends, sneaking around in the sand traps and behind the trees, seeking out my opponents. I remember playing capture the flag along the beach sand dunes at night, running through the soft, cold sand with others [...]
Managing Emotional Eating During Stressful Times
Have you noticed during this pandemic and recent community emergency, that you are struggling to stay on the path, or maybe getting on a path, of mindful eating? If you are, you are not alone. There's a reason for this. It's your brain. You see, your brain is a very efficient organ. It likes to [...]
Self-Care During a Pandemic
Self-care, the active process of taking care of ourselves, is essential to our overall mental health and well-being. While it may be a concept we are aware of and try our best to do, it is not uncommon for our self-care to take a back seat to more ‘urgent’ issues. There is nothing quite like [...]