Category Archives: Mental Health

Man shielding his face from intense campfire flames, visually representing signs of anger issues.

Signs of Anger Issues: When Flares Become Fires

Life can be a sea of unpredictability and we’re all trying to stay afloat, preferably on a sturdy raft, without any punctures, and with some chocolate chip cookies. Some days, the waters are calm; on others, it’s as if the sea is personally offended by our existence.

But anger … anger is like the unexpected squall that takes us by surprise. The suddenness of its arrival, the ferocity, and, sometimes the aftermath can leave us wondering: “Where did that come from?”

In the idyllic world of our imagination, we’d like to believe that anger is just the warm fire on the camp that keeps the mosquitos away. But sometimes, that small fire flares up, scorching everyone around.

Signs That Anger May Be Signaling Deeper Issues

The point is anger happens. To be human is to get angry once in a while. And we even hurt people out of anger. But when is the anger too much? When are the apologies too frequent? What are the signs of anger issues? Here are a few points to consider.

  • Sudden, explosive reactions to minor provocations.
  • Regret or guilt after an angry outburst.
  • Consistent feelings of being misunderstood or unappreciated, leading to resentment.
  • Physical symptoms, such as tension, tightness in the chest, or headaches when angered.
  • Avoidance – friends or family subtly distancing themselves due to your anger.
  • Consistent use of alcohol or drugs to suppress or deal with emotions.
  • Issues at work or school resulting from confrontations or suppressed anger.

Anger Issues By the Numbers

Now, while all of us feel anger from time to time, some statistics shed light on its more extensive presence in society:

  • Around 9% of adults in the U.S. have a history of severe, impulsive angry behavior.
  • 1 in 10 U.S. adults have regular outbursts but don’t seek the help they need.
  • Those with anger issues are 5 times more likely to experience poor health outcomes, including cardiovascular disease.

Alright, breathe. We’re in this together. If the fire is burning a little too brightly inside, the universe (and modern psychology) has some answers.

What Disorders Are Associated with Anger?

Anger can sometimes be the tip of the emotional iceberg, hinting at deeper issues lurking below the surface:

  • Depression: It’s not just sadness. Many people experience anger, irritability, and frustration.
  • Anxiety Disorders: Chronic anger can often be a coping mechanism for underlying anxiety.
  • Bipolar Disorder: Manic phases can manifest as periods of intense irritability and anger.
  • Intermittent Explosive Disorder (IED): Characterized by sudden, unwarranted episodes of anger.
  • Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD): Intense anger episodes, often in response to perceived rejection.
  • Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD): Impulsivity and frustration can lead to angry outbursts.

Therapy: A Torch in the Dark

Does therapy help? Emphatically, yes. Just like we might need a guide in an unknown forest, therapy provides a roadmap for navigating the complex paths of our minds.

  1. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): It helps individuals recognize patterns of thinking that lead to anger and teaches coping strategies.
  2. Anger Management: Structured programs providing tools and strategies to control anger.
  3. Mindfulness and Meditation: Focusing on the present, grounding us, and giving space between stimulus and reaction.
  4. Talk Therapy: A safe space to discuss and process emotions, often revealing underlying issues.

What to Do About Signs of Anger Issues

So, when does anger signal deeper problems? When it’s chronic, when it’s hurting you or others, when it’s affecting your health, or when it feels uncontrollable. Recognizing that you’re not alone is the first step. Seeking help, the second. You need a reset—someone who can come beside you and help you reconfigure how you understand yourself.

Lido Wellness Center: Your Harbor in the Storm

Life sometimes paints outside the lines. But just as every tempest needs its lighthouse, every soul deserves its sanctuary. Lido Wellness Center in Newport Beach has an Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) that understands the waves you’re sailing on.

When the waters get rough, when you feel adrift, remember that anchors exist. This is your call to the harbor, where dedicated professionals await with open hearts, a listening ear, and therapeutic tools that have guided countless souls back to the sunlit shores of hope.

Reach out to Lido Wellness Center. Let the journey to calm waters begin.

Phone: 949-541-8466.

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A heart-shaped puzzle with interconnected pieces representing emotions, symbolizing emotional intelligence and its role in building meaningful connections and fostering personal growth.

What Is Emotional Intelligence?

Understanding the profound impact our emotions have on our lives is always fascinating. They are the threads that weave through the tapestry of our lives, coloring every experience and shaping who we are at our core.

They reveal our deepest truths, helping us understand our vulnerabilities, joys, and fears. Our ability to embrace and appreciate our emotions with courage and compassion truly determines the depth of our human experience. Emotions are not to be suppressed or ignored but to be embraced as valuable guides on our journey. Understanding emotional intelligence is the key that unlocks the door to understanding and managing these powerful forces within us.

What Is Emotional Intelligence?

Emotional intelligence (EQ or EI) is the ability to understand and manage your emotions to communicate effectively, empathize with others, relieve stress, and overcome challenges. Dr. Daniel Goleman, among others, has contributed significantly to our understanding of emotional intelligence by delving into two crucial facets: interpersonal intelligence, which focuses on our ability to perceive and respond to others’ emotions, and intrapersonal intelligence, which revolves around self-awareness and understanding our values and beliefs.

Interpersonal intelligence: A person’s ability to detect and respond to the mood, motivation, and desires of others.

Intrapersonal intelligence: A person’s ability to be self-aware and attuned to their values, beliefs, and thinking.

The Value of EQ

Developing emotional intelligence is a game-changer in both personal and professional spheres. It fosters meaningful connections with others, fuels success in work and education, and helps us steer through stressful situations with grace and resilience.

EQ emerges as an essential leadership skill in the workplace, fostering improved communication, problem-solving, and management. It allows individuals to fully understand another’s perspective even when it contradicts one’s opinion.

Signs of Emotional Intelligence

The four primary attributes of emotional intelligence include self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management.

Demonstrating empathy, taking responsibility for mistakes, recognizing personal strengths and limitations, and effectively expressing ourselves are hallmarks of emotional intelligence.

The key signs of emotional intelligence include:

  • An ability to show empathy towards others
  • Accepting responsibility for mistakes
  • An understanding of personal strengths and limitations
  • Ability to express oneself clearly
  • Managing difficult situations successfully
  • Self-confidence

IQ vs. EQ

The intelligence quotient (IQ) measures your ability to solve problems, think logically, and communicate complex ideas. While IQ refers to intellectual capacity, EQ measures an individual’s social and emotional competencies. Some experts believe EQ is more important than IQ and is essential for success.

Emotional Intelligence and Mental Health

High levels of emotional intelligence are associated with positive mental health and reduced anxiety and depression. EQ helps us grasp potential stressors. In the case of anxiety, EQ can reduce anxiety by making the world less threatening and allowing them to return to a calmer state more easily. A person suffering from depression can maintain their ability to fully process painful losses by learning to acknowledge their emotions.

Emotional Intelligence and Relationships

In relationships, emotional intelligence is the cornerstone of authentic and meaningful connections. It allows us to embrace our vulnerabilities and hold space for others to express theirs without judgment. We can listen with empathy and respond with compassion, fostering a safe and nurturing environment where trust can grow.

At the heart of emotional intelligence lies the power of self-awareness, which helps us recognize our emotional triggers and patterns. This awareness empowers us to pause and reflect before reacting, fostering healthier and more constructive responses to our emotions and those around us. Understanding our emotional landscape allows us to communicate more effectively, conveying our thoughts and feelings with clarity and openness.

As we journey further into emotional intelligence, let us embrace its profound implications for our lives, hearts, and minds. Understanding and nurturing our EQ allows us to chart a course toward a more fulfilling and connected existence.

Develop Emotional Intelligence at Lido Wellness

At Lido Wellness in Newport Beach, we help people journey towards cultivating emotional intelligence and nurturing their mental health. Our outpatient mental health services offer a unique opportunity to foster EQ in a supportive and flexible setting.

Through outpatient care, you can develop a deep understanding of your emotions, build resilience, and forge meaningful connections while maintaining your daily life’s comfort and familiarity.

Our compassionate team of professionals is dedicated to walking alongside you, empowering you to communicate authentically and navigate life’s challenges with grace. Together, we can unlock the profound power of emotional intelligence and embark on a path of healing and personal growth. Your journey begins here.

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A woman standing alone on an empty road, with a reflection of herself in a puddle, symbolizing the disconnection and self-reflection experienced during a dissociative fugue state triggered by stress or trauma.

How Stress and Trauma Can Trigger a Fugue State

Have you ever found yourself lost or confused about your whereabouts, without any recollection of how you got to where you currently are? If so, then there is a chance that you have experienced a dissociative fugue state. This rare condition refers to a temporary disarray in the mind that can often cause amnesia, confusion, or identity issues.

What is a fugue state?

During a fugue state, a person may unexpectedly and temporarily lose their autobiographical memory, personal identity, and awareness of their past. They may also engage in impulsive travel or wandering.

They may suddenly leave their home or workplace, travel to a new location, and assume a new identity or adopt a different name. They often have no recollection of their previous life, including their personal relationships, responsibilities, or events that occurred prior to the fugue state. This state of dissociation can be perplexing and disorienting for both the individual experiencing it and those around them.

Stress, Trauma, and Dissociative Fugue States

Although researchers continue to explore the core triggers behind the onset of a fugue state, most psychologists today believe that high-stress levels and trauma are often the root cause. However, this is hardly a surprise. Stress and trauma significantly impact our mental health and often lie at the center of various mental health conditions that most people face today.

When we come face-to-face with overwhelming levels of stress or trauma, such as sexual assault or the violent loss of a loved one, our brain may choose to react in one of many ways. Sometimes, people become flooded with anger or despair in the face of this intense trauma, while others may become lost in incoming waves of depression.

However, in some cases, some people take a more mysterious path. If our mind believes that facing this trauma head-on may be too overwhelming, it may completely disconnect from the situation as a way of protecting itself. This disassociation is often so powerful that the person who experienced the trauma does not only disconnect from this event but also their core identity.

So, while this level of disassociation may vary from person to person, people that experience a fugue state may go as far as taking on a newborn persona during this period. This disassociation allows us to forget this overwhelming trauma or stress and continue to live a life of blissful ignorance.

Stress Management to Control Fugue State

While it is rare for anyone to experience fugue states, some may battle constant episodes of this condition.

There are various ways to manage a dissociative fugue state, such as stress management or trauma support. These psychological methods help you get back in the driving seat of life by teaching you healthy coping mechanisms you can rely on when facing high-stress levels.

These adaptive strategies should make it easier to maintain control of your life and reduce the chances of slipping into a fugue state.

  1. Therapy: Engaging in therapy, particularly with a mental health professional experienced in treating dissociative disorders, can be crucial in preventing fugue states. Different therapeutic approaches, such as cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), or trauma-focused therapy, may be utilized to address underlying trauma, improve coping mechanisms, and develop strategies to manage stress.
  2. Stress management: Learning effective stress management techniques can be beneficial in reducing the likelihood of dissociative episodes. This may include practicing relaxation exercises, such as deep breathing or meditation, engaging in regular physical exercise, maintaining a healthy lifestyle, and identifying and managing stress triggers.
  3. Self-care and support: Prioritizing self-care activities, such as getting sufficient sleep, maintaining a balanced diet, and engaging in activities that bring joy and relaxation, can contribute to overall emotional well-being and resilience. Building a support network of trusted friends, family, or support groups can also provide a sense of connection and assistance during challenging times.
  4. Addressing trauma: If the fugue state is associated with past trauma, seeking specialized trauma-focused therapy can be helpful in processing and resolving the underlying traumatic experiences. Therapies like Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) or trauma-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy (TF-CBT) can assist in healing trauma-related wounds and reducing the risk of dissociative episodes.

Help for Dissociative Disorders in Newport Beach

Dissociative fugue is considered to be one subtype of dissociative disorders, which also include dissociative amnesia, dissociative identity disorder, and depersonalization/derealization disorder. If you want to talk to someone about your options for IOP treatment in Newport Beach for fugue state triggers, call Lido Wellness today. Our experienced team is ready to help you understand your options and give you the help you need for the next step in your journey.

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A serene desert landscape, with vast sandy dunes stretching into the distance, symbolizing the journey of navigating through suicidal thoughts towards hope and healing.

I’m Having Suicidal Thoughts: What Is Suicidal Ideation?

The hope is that we can live with purpose. We can find joy, and we can look forward to another day. But it is just not always the case. Some people have not had joy or happiness in so long that they feel like maybe it isn’t even a possibility. And it might even get to the point that they decide that there is so much pain; it is just better to try to stop it all. Suicidal thoughts, or contemplating suicide, is a serious mental health concern. It’s scary for the person having them and those who love them.

Understanding suicidal thoughts is a difficult prospect. But there are some ways you can reflect and inspect to find out where they might be coming from and recognize when they might become dangerous. As well as where to get help when things feel like they are at their worst.

*Please note: If you are thinking, “I have Suicidal Thoughts,” we want to help. But If you are experiencing suicidal ideation, reaching out to mental health professionals or trusted individuals in your life is crucial. Use crisis resources like the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (dial 988 on your phone) or Crisis Text Line if immediate help is needed. Remember, it’s not a sign of weakness to seek help but a brave step toward healing.

Understanding Suicidal Thoughts

Suicidal ideation is another way to talk about suicidal thoughts. It refers to thinking about self-harm, ranging from fleeting considerations to detailed plans.

There could be lots of reasons for a person to consider suicide. Some of the most common stem from chronic depression or anxiety. These conditions are overwhelming, and it seems like there is no way out or any hope. Stressful life events also may play a part, such as losing a job or a loved one. Trauma is also extremely painful and can impact a person daily, making someone feel trapped in a cage of their past.

Ultimately thoughts of suicide occur when despair, hopelessness, or unbearable pain feel like they are never going away. There is no way to cope with what is happening or what has happened, and the person feels they have no other options to alleviate their suffering.

Recognizing Suicide Danger

Suicidal ideation becomes more dangerous when passive thoughts become active plans or actions. Is there a plan in place? As well, have they lost or had protection removed? Protective measures are people who care about them or a safe environment to find the ability to self-soothe.

There are some other signs to look for:

Crisis: has there been a loss in their life or a traumatic event?

Previous attempts: previous attempts are a clear sign—especially if they were recent.

Mental health: are there other mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, substance use disorders, or personality disorders?

Access: do they have access to lethal means, e.g., Firearms or medications?

Help for Someone Who Says, “I’m Having Suicidal Thoughts”

Identifying signs of suicidal ideation in loved ones can be challenging. Look for changes in behavior, expressions of hopelessness, or references to death or suicide. Look for the above signs and notice if they spend their time in isolation.

But the most important is that they feel safe to talk to you. If you fear for someone’s life, ask them. Hiding from it or pretending it is not there creates more pain.

What do you ask? Keep it straightforward:

Ask: “Are you thinking about killing yourself?”

Approaching a loved one who is experiencing suicidal thoughts requires compassion and care. Be ready to listen and offer nonjudgmental support. Make sure you have some resources available and options for professional help.

Treatment Options for Suicidal Ideation

Numerous treatment options exist for managing suicidal ideation. Psychotherapy, including cognitive-behavioral therapy and dialectical behavior therapy, can help people build the skills to learn how to cope with these thoughts. Medications, particularly antidepressants, can be helpful for various mental health disorders.

In acute cases, an intervention may be necessary. This might include hospitalization or residential treatment programs. These provide a safe environment and intensive treatment to navigate the crisis.

Support networks such as family or friends that love the person are crucial. While mental health professionals offer necessary therapeutic interventions and support groups provide a space to share experiences and learn from others who’ve faced similar struggles, loved ones offer ongoing support, reminding the individual they are not alone.

Getting Help With Suicidal Thoughts

When someone is thinking of suicide or is afraid of their thoughts, it is time to take action. It is always a big deal and should be considered an emergency. Understanding when it is most dangerous is important, but even more, understanding the options for yourself or your loved one is vital. At Lido Wellness, we have professionals that can help. Again, if you are thinking of harming yourself right now, call 911 or the 988. But if you are scared of the underlying factors or see your despair getting deeper and deeper, please call Lido Wellness today. Recovery is possible. There is hope. Our team can help you find the path toward a life worth living with joy and purpose.

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