I was reading about an antidepressant medication called Pristiq that is thought to work by affecting the levels of the chemicals in the brain serotonin and norepinephrine.

I was reading about the side effects and it is important to be aware of potential side effects like:nausea, headache, ry mouth, sleepiness, dilated pupils, insomnia, constipation, loss of appetite, tremor, diarrhea, vomiting, anxiety, dizziness, decreased sex drive, delayed orgasm and ejaculation, sweating, tiredness

Many Children teens are angry and feel they have been “wronged”. It may be a parent that is critical or a parent that is judgmental or critical. It may be an irrational or distorted thought in relation to a friend or family member that needs to be modified.

Children and teens have many negative thoughts or cognitions that keep them angry, stuck, and frustrated. This anger impacts their school performance, social dynamics,
and creates tension and stress at home. Cognitive Behavioral counseling is an evidence based therapy that shows great results in modifying anger and unhealthy behaviors.

Children and teens can learn about forgiveness and acceptance versus attacking, judgment, and criticism and see how it is impacting their mood and life via counseling and psychotherapy.

In mixed martial arts athletes are taught to side step their attackers force rather than taking the “hit” or “blow” by doing so the attackers energy bounces back onto the attacker. If we maintain judgment and criticism we will be judging and criticizing our selves exponentially. It is heavy.

If we judge someone we will feel judged. If we are angry at others we may feel better for the moment but all our fear and guilt will come back to our mind and body.

There are many elements that are essential in healthy relationships. If I mentioned all the elements this blog would be 20 pages long, however, their are some core elements in healthy relationships.

Does your partner show respect for your thoughts and feelings? Is there mutual respect for each other. If there is not mutual respect that we must look inside ourselves and figure out why we are not displaying respect or why we are in a relationship that does not convey respect. Boundaries are a huge part of healthy relationships. Setting boundaries can deal with many areas: comfort doing an activity, getting enough sleep, setting limits for spending money, limits in relationship to health and diet. yeah it is hard to look at ones lack of boundaries but it is key to a healthy relationship.

Trust is huge in a relationship. Does your partner act in line with his or her words. Is there honesty? Is your partner reliable? Is your partner faithful? Dependable? Does your partner “walk his or her talk”? These are all very important.

Does your partner cooperate and are they flexible as far being a team player. Is there a balance in lets say going to the movies? Is it “my way or the highway” if so thats not ok. Healthy relationships need to be 50/50 not 90/10. Sharing and balanced is key.

Communication is key as well. Expressing ones thoughts and feelings on a daily basis is healthy and important. Stuffing feelings and not talking is unhealthy and emotions will ooze out into unhealthy behaviors like over-eating and eating huge portions, workaholics, zoning out to the TV, addictions, explosive anger that builds up over time, health problems such as poor sleep and much more.

Lifeworksaz provides family and relationships counseling, counsleing for children, teens and adults in Phoenix Arizona.

Two Million people are taking antidepressants over several years and over 30 Million people are taking SSRI’s like Prozac.

Research has shown that individuals that have tried to get off SSRI’s on their own like Prozac feel anxious and have expressed withdrawal symptoms.

Counseling and psychotherpy aim to alleviate psychological distress like: depression, anxiety, anger, communication etc …

Counseling’s focus is treatment of emotional, behavioral, personality, and psychiatric disorders based primarily on verbal or nonverbal communication and interventions with the patient, in contrast to treatments using chemical and physical measures.

Research has shown that cognitive behavioral therapy has shown great results in the area of treating depression, anger, anxiety and more. Cognitive Behavioral therapy looks at irrational or distorted thoughts and how they impact our mood and emotions and the connection to behavior.Lifeworks Arizona provides depression counseling in Phoenix Arizona for children, teens, and adults.

Research shows that Tv can be stressful to children and teens. Research shows that children and teens that watch tv in significant amounts have higher blood pressure then those children and teens that do not watch tv.

Tv provides stressful programming and advertising triggers unhealthy snacking.

Limits and boundaries must be set with technology for a child or teens health and this includes:
cell phone , texting , tv , Internet , my space , facebook , video games , x box, and you get the idea.

Children and teens need exercise and activity that is not provided via technology.
Adolescents need to develop social skills and life skills and this can not happen via technology.

An angry teen killed his brother today with a knife wound to the chest. The AP states that one sibling was watching TV and the other teen was playing music. The teen was not in Phoenix I believe it was FLA.

One brother was upset that the music was to loud and wanted the music turned down. A fight ensued and one brother grabbed a kitchen knife and stuck into the siblings chest and he died.

Now this is tragic and sad and a tragedy, however, many teens do not lean healthy ways to manage their anger. Anger management for teens is a skill that must be taught for a heathy life and healthy life skills.

Children and Teens that do not learn anger management skills become angry adults and many use unhealthy ways to cope with their anger: alcohol and drug addictions, violence, abuse that oozes out on spouse, children, co-workers and more. Anger management and mood regulation are valuable skills we must all learn in society to be safe, healthy,and happy.

It is important to stay positive and use a strength based approach if you child or adolescent teen displays symptoms of ADD.

Explaining to you child or teen that he has exponential gifts and he or she has some areas to work on like everyone in life. We will all have areas we can improve upon.

It is not a good idea to label your child ADD or ADHD. Many children and teens will believe they are defective and will incorporate a victim mentality due to their “label”.

Using touch and simple directions is important if your child seems to have ADD or ADHD symptoms.

Counseling and psychotherapy are excellent ways to address ADD behaviors and teach children and teens skills for life.

ADD or ADHD or the combined type is a popular diagnosis made in the mental health field for children and teens at school and at home.

The most common features of ADD or ADHD include; Impulsiveness: blurting out answers, difficulty waiting or taking ones turn, interrupting conversations.

Another common feature of ADD or ADHD is; Hyperactivity; fidgeting, squirms, runs and climbs excessively, talks excessively.

ADD and ADHD in teens may have another feature called inattention: careless mistakes, details are missed at home and at school, does not follow through with chores, or duties. A child or teen may have challenges with organization at home and at school.

A child or teen may avoid homework or school work that requires a mental effort. The adolescent may lose personal items frequently.Adolescents and children may be easily distracted and forgetful.

Family counseling and family therapy combined with child or teen counseling can address the above issues. Behavior modification counseling, anger management counseling, self esteem counseling, social skills counseling can help a child or teen with add or adhd.

Healthy relationships are created through a variety of elements. Positive relationships are part of love, acceptance, and giving.

Addictive relationships that are unhealthy and are based on: fear, scarcity, criticism and judgment.

The ego can be extremely selfish and self serving and this does not work in relationships. Criticism and judgment and the belief that one is better than another is not healthy. Sarcasm and dishonesty and those who lack appreciation and empathy create a self absorbed egocentric being. Agression or passive ag

Your breathing is very important to your health, for it has a myriad of effects on your bodily functions. You must become aware of how you normally breathe. You have to be aware that breathing properly is a step toward bringing under control the physical and mental ramifications of stress.

During episodes where you are under stress, you hold your breath. Don’t think you’re unusual if you do this. Most people do this unless they have been trained in using proper(diaphragmatic) yoga breathing in relation to their stress responses. during these anxious times, you breath irregularly and don’t exhale completely. If your exhalation is not complete, you can’t get enough fresh air into your lungs on your next inhalation. This leads to a viscous cycle of incorrect breathing where your diaphragm is not used properly. If you are a chest breather it will result in a very poor exchange of stale air with fresh air. As a result, your body reacts with blood chemical changes and becomes fatigued.

Counseling and psychotherapy at Life Works AZ incorporates many tools like yoga breathing, progressive relaxation, visualization, and imagery to reduce stress in your life and make you feel better.

Yoga breathing is excellent for stress release. International published author and Yoga expert Joy Abrams explains proper yoga breathing in her book Strategies for stress release. You can buy her book or CD on stress management at www.aaafengshuiandyoga.com . Info above is from Joy Abrams book Strategies for Stress Release. Joy is also an empowerment specialist and a Feng Shui expert. You can find more info on Joy Abrams at www.empowermnentwithjoy.com .