Do you find yourself feeling low or down after periods of feeling good, proud, or effective? Do bouts come over you where it feels like you’ve done or are something wrong even though you can’t point to anything? Do you carry around a sense that the other shoe is going to drop? It’s a matter of when not if? Many …
Surviving A Parent’s Narcissistic Rage: The Value of the Freeze & Submit Responses
This post considers the take-no-prisoners quality of narcissistic rage. A narcissist’s rage can feel – and sometimes be – life-threatening to its recipient. First, narcissistic rage will be described and a case example provided. Next, I discuss the role of rage in the narcissist’s psychology. Particular attention gets paid to how rage ensures others comply with the narcissist’s inflated sense …
The Pain of Panic Attacks…and How to Overcome Them
One of the scariest experiences in life can be a panic attack. Anxiety is no fun but at least there’s a sense that something might or might not happen in the future. In a panic attack something terrible is happening right now. Panic attacks mean having your world unexpectedly turned upside down, with a surge of terror that feels never-ending. Your …
Interrupt your anxiety with this breathing exercise
Anxiety is the body and mind’s threat-detection system going off. It deserves credit for helping the human species survive. Here’s one way anxiety has been helpful: alerting us when the connection to a parent is in jeopardy. Early baby humans who experienced and listened to this anxiety when their play carried them too far away from a parent, likely scampered …