1. What is stress?

Sleeplessness, headaches, weight gain, indigestion. Chances are you’ve experienced at least one of these symptoms recently. You may have even consulted a physician. But despite how common these afflictions are, they are often misdiagnosed. And the reason for that has nothing to do with how rare the underlying condition is. In fact, it’s because the condition is so common that it’s easy to overlook.

Stress has become so prevalent in today’s society that we don’t tend to think much of it. But countless scientific studies have shown that stress has a serious impact on our health and well-being. It even produces symptoms equivalent to complications from hypertension and autoimmune disorders.

But knowledge is power. The more you understand where your symptoms may come from, the more focus you can direct towards addressing the underlying problem. And to help you discern what ailments may be stress-related, we break down the ways stress impacts your health:

The 14 ways stress impacts your physical health

Blood pressure: Stress can raise your blood pressure by temporarily constricting your blood vessels and speeding up your heart rate. This can be harmful to your health if sustained over time.

Food cravings: When you are under stress, you may find it harder to resist cravings for sugar or fat. You may also find yourself eating in an attempt to fulfill emotional needs — sometimes called stress eating or emotional eating.

Weight gain: Research has shown that when your stress and cortisol levels are high, the body actually encourages the storage of fat, particularly in the lower abdomen area. This belly fat, also known as visceral fat, in turn increases inflammation and insulin resistance in the body.

Heart disease: Coronary heart disease has been found to be significantly more common in individuals subjected to chronic stress. The incidence of heart attacks has also been shown to increase as a consequence of severe stress.

Insomnia: Stress causes insomnia by making it difficult to fall asleep and to get a solid night’s rest. Stress also causes hyperarousal, which can upset the balance between sleep and wakefulness.

Tension headaches: Stress causes your body to release chemicals like adrenaline and cortisol. These chemicals can cause vascular changes that leave you with a tension headache or migraine. Researchers have also found that stress-induced fluctuations in neurotransmitters — like serotonin and endorphins — also activate pain pathways in the brain, leading to headaches.

Memory: Chronic stress has been shown to reduce spatial memory: the memory that helps you recall locations and relate objects. Researchers have also found a connection between an increase of cortisol and difficulty to form new memories.

Hair loss: Acute stress has been shown to trigger three types of hair loss known as telogen effluvium, trichotillomania, and alopecia areata.

Pregnancy: Severe stress can increase the chances of premature labor. There have even been some studies that suggest very high levels of stress can affect the developing fetal brain.

Digestion: Stress can cause or worsen heartburn, stomach cramping and diarrhea. The common digestion issue known as IBS, irritable bowel syndrome, is also thought to be fueled by stress.

Brain function: Brain-imaging studies have shows that chronic stress can reduce the amount of tissue in regions of the brain that regulate emotions and self-control.

Premature aging: Chronic stress can shorten telomeres, the protective caps on the ends of cell chromosomes. As telomeres shorten, their cells age faster and die younger, contributing to premature aging and shorter human lifespans.

Colds: Stress weakens the immune systems, making it difficult for individuals exposed to common cold viruses to fight off the germs successfully.

Sexual drive: Research suggests that individuals who are stressed out tend to have a decreased sex drive and a less pleasurable experience during intercourse.

2. How do you handle stress?

Even with the best intentions, many of us believe that our emotions are out of our control, that they happen spontaneously, and that we handle them in a multitude of ways. But in fact, there are four basic ways in which people deal with emotion. Do you recognize any of these? Once you identify your primary strategy for dealing with emotions, you can shift to an approach that truly works for you.

Avoidance The first defense against negative emotions is avoidance. We all want to avoid difficult or painful emotions. As a result, we tend to avoid any situation that could lead to the emotions we fear, or worse, try not to feel any emotions at all. While avoiding negative situations may protect us in the short term, it also keeps us from feeling the very emotions — connection, energy, excitement — that we desire most.

Denial The second defense against stress is outright denial. When you experience an emotion and try to deny what you’re feeling, your emotions will simply intensify. The pressure will build and what you are trying to ignore will resurface – potentially at an inconvenient time.

Competition The worst addiction facing people today is not drugs, it’s not alcohol, it’s problems. Often, after moving past avoidance and denial, we decide to stop fighting our painful emotions and decide to fully indulge in them. Rather than learn what our feelings are trying to tell us, we get our fix of significance by making our problem worse than everyone else’s. It becomes a “badge of courage,” and we begin to compete with others, saying, “You think you’ve got it bad? Let me tell you how bad I’ve got it!” Do yourself a favor and get your need for significance met by doing something positive rather than for your problems.

Learning and Using Truth: Problems are gifts. Our biggest problem is we think we shouldn’t have problems. Albert Einstein put it this way, “Crisis is the greatest blessing for people and nations, because crisis brings on progress…He who blames his own failures and difficulties to crisis rapes his own talent and gives more importance to problems than to solutions.” Leaders use their pain. Find a way to use stress and pain to serve you.

Is stress making you sick?

Stress isn’t just unpleasant mentally and emotionally — it also has the power to make your body sick. Stress weakens your immune systems, making it harder to fight off common cold viruses and other germs. Stress has also been shown to raise blood pressure by temporarily constricting blood vessels and speeding up heart rate. Coronary heart disease is also more common in those suffering from chronic stress.

Stress can prompt emotional eating and make it harder to resist other cravings for unhealthy foods. There is little wonder, then, that stress is also connected to weight gain; however, what may be news to you is the fact that the high cortisol levels linked to stress encourage fat storage, particularly in the lower abdomen area. This, in turn, increases insulin resistance in the body, which can lead to changes in blood sugar. Other symptoms may include heartburn, IBS, diarrhea and stomach cramping. For pregnant women, severe stress may affect the fetus’ brain development and increase chances of premature labor.

Chronic stress isn’t good for your brain, either. Stress causes tension headaches and sometimes even migraines. It reduces spatial memory, which helps you remember locations and relate objects, as well as impacts your ability to form new memories and regulate emotions and self-control. Acute stress has been shown to cause three different kinds of hair loss as well as premature aging.

How do you handle stress?

1. You can learn how to effectively handle stress and make yourself a better person. One way to do this is to find activities you enjoy, such as ways to strengthen your body, find a role model or help someone in need to put your life in perspective.

2. Feed your mind something good every day. Don’t let the weeds grow; cultivate great thoughts and sow the seeds of knowledge for tomorrow.

3. Strengthen your body. Fear, stagnation, rage, numbness, sadness: these are all emotional states that affect one’s physical well-being, and you need to be ready to grapple with and overcome these emotions. Science has shown us that when you participate in physical activities, you activate your body chemistry and unite your mind and body so they can work together effectively.

4. Find a mission greater than yourself. We all benefit by aspiring to something greater, something that is more than either our pain or even our joy. Get inspired by being part of something big.

5. Find a role model. This makes what you are hoping is possible real for you. Are you hoping to become a successful entrepreneur? Find a role model who did that. You need to feel how real that goal is, how attainable it is and how others achieved their success while overcoming challenges.

6. You can also find someone who is in need and help them. There are countless ways to offer help, such as volunteering at a local homeless shelter or food bank or offering your services in underserved classrooms. The process of volunteering teaches you how to put your own life into perspective and reminds you that you are connected to everyone else. Your ability to give to others and help no matter how many mistakes you’ve made or losses you’ve suffered will inspire you to try again and move on.

1. Recognize that stress isn’t permanent

2. Find a greater purpose

3. Create new habits

4. Decide to live in a beautiful state

3. How to deal with work stress?

Work stress: We’ve all felt it, especially in today’s environment. Working from home may be convenient, but it can also mean that spouses and children interrupt. Large companies seem to be laying off workers in droves, and uncertainty about the economy can add to our own stress as we wonder if we’re next. Everything seems to have changed over the past few years.

Work stress isn’t going anywhere, but that doesn’t mean we have to accept it. The great news is, you are not powerless. Work stress doesn’t have to be an inevitable part of your day. You can learn how to deal with work stress – and even make those emotions work in your favor. But you must focus on what is under your control: you.

What are some examples of work-related stress?

The answer to “What is work-related stress?” isn’t one-size-fits-all. Some examples of short-term or temporary work stress include preparing an important client presentation, covering for a sick coworker or working on a big project. Longer-term work stress can be caused by an overly demanding boss, coworkers who don’t pull their weight, tough clients or chronic understaffing. You may even experience work stress if you feel a lack of control over your role or don’t have the growth opportunities you desire.

Work stress can also take the form of fear – for example, if your company recently went through cutbacks, you may be afraid of being laid off. Work stress also can be caused by interpersonal conflicts, toxic coworkers or an environment in which you don’t feel physically or emotionally safe. In all of these scenarios, you must learn how to deal with work stress before it negatively affects your state.

How to deal with work stress

You can often reduce stress at work by improving your soft skills, like communication and teamwork, working on your time management and prioritizing your tasks. Even when work stress can’t be avoided, there are stress management strategies you can use to cope in the moment. Here are 12 strategies for how to reduce stress at work – and deal with it when it inevitably happens.

1. Communicate

In a perfect world, you’d have open lines of communication with your immediate boss or supervisor. Tell them you’re feeling stressed. They’ll have the best ideas for how to reduce stress at work. If you don’t feel you can be open with your boss, have a one-on-one with HR or even a manager from another department. They may be able to help.

2. Clarify

Don’t guess what you need to be doing. Ask questions until you are crystal clear on your goals and the steps to get there. Understanding the “why” behind your tasks is key to how to cope with stress at work. You’ll also be able to identify which factors in a stressful situation are under your control. Let go of what isn’t, and excel at what is.

3. Learn to say no

Sometimes, people who need to learn how to deal with work stress are guilty of over-committing themselves. Don’t aim for invincible – amazing is your attainable goal. Back-to-back scheduling is almost never going to work, because unexpected things come up and tasks often take longer than planned. Focus on what must get done. Trim the fatty extras for a lean and purposeful schedule.

4. Give yourself a time cushion

Leave just 15 extra minutes in the morning so you don’t start your day feeling rushed and behind. Schedule regular, short breaks and stick to that schedule. Breaks interspersed throughout the day amp up your focus and clear your mind. On your breaks, go for a walk, listen to your favorite song or read an empowering book. You’ll return more energized and better prepared for how to handle work stress that does occur.

5. Prioritize

Practice chunking: organize larger tasks into manageable chunks and focus on each one at a time. Ensure that you are striving for SMART goals – specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and anchored within a time frame. Tackle the high-priority items first. If one of the tasks is particularly unappealing to you, cross it off ASAP and create a more pleasant and productive rest of your day.

6. Balance your schedule

Once you’ve prioritized immediate needs, balance them with longer-term tasks and responsibilities. Finding a work-life balance is key; failure to do so is a recipe for burning out. When you’ve got the right schedule in place, you can relax appropriately.

7. Practice emotional intelligence

Emotional intelligence concerns how well you can understand and manage emotions, both your own and those of others. If your work stress is caused by interpersonal conflict, honing your social awareness to understand the emotions of your coworkers can help you better understand where they’re coming from – and defuse any conflicts before they escalate.

8. Master your own emotions

Become the master of your mental state. Take the time to identify your own bad habits, negative attitudes and other harmful behaviors that have become second nature – you may find that you are the author of much of your own stress. You must recognize and learn from those destructive thoughts, without allowing them to put you in a state of anxiety. That’s how you truly beat work-related stress.

9. Use your senses

Use your senses to re-energize and calm stressful feelings fast. Scent is a powerful sense for stress relief – multiple studies have found aromatherapy reduces stress, including lavender, the most popular stress-relieving scent. Relaxing music is another proven stress-relief method – music activates the brain’s reward system and moves us in ways other tools can’t. Put on some calming tunes and focus on relaxing.

10. Change your physical state

Would you believe that discovering how to deal with work stress is as easy as changing your body language? Like scent and music, our physical state is closely related to our emotions. Lifting your chest, taking a quick walk or adopting a power stance doesn’t just change your physical state, it changes your mental state.

11. Practice relaxation techniques

Other on-the-spot relaxation techniques include acupressure, breathing exercises and humor breaks. When you feel frustrated or irritable, use one of these healthy habits to defuse your emotions and reset your mind so you can approach work from a place of calm instead of anger. Soon they’ll become second nature. 12. Rely on your support system

A solid support system is key to countering stress in every area of life, including how to deal with work stress. Go to lunch with your coworkers or call your partner to vent. While they may not have control over the causes of your work stress, they can create a buffer zone that allows you to blow off some steam.

Remember, you are the author of your story, at work and in life. Taking charge of yourself changes your story into a positive epic adventure. With smart self-training, you will develop healthy behaviors and discover how to reduce stress at work once and for all

4. Stress: do everything possible to lower it

https://hackernoon.com/biohack-your-intelligence-now-or-become-obsolete-97cdd15e395f?ref=hackernoon.com

Key point: stressed out, negative, emotional people basically have long-term brain damage

Constant stress truly hurts everything: it makes cognition worse[1 2], drains energy, and even cuts adult neurogenesis and neuroplasticity in our brains [1 2]. Makes memory crap [1]. Interferes with hormonal systems [1]. It ages and kills us in many ways[1 2]. Here are another 50+ studies on how chronic stress fucks us up.

In other words, constant stress makes us stupid. Anything we can do to reduce it is a big win. Here are the specific tools I found useful for this:

• The SSRI antidepressant Escitalopram (I take 10mg/day) to boost serotonin. It eliminated “bad mood days” that used to happen 1–2 times a month. Reduced propensity to react to stress. Life just feels a little better all the time. It is also proven to enhance growth of new neurons in adult brains [1 2 3].

Escitalopram is extremely safe even in large doses [1] especially for me because I have genes that are associated with significantly higher positives and lower negatives of this specific drug.

Old antidepressants (e.g. MAOI) are dangerous. There are also studies out there that claim even the latest, best antidepressants are bad for you [1]. My medical team is skeptical of those studies. The biggest reason is “sick cohort bias.” These “researchers” take a bunch of depressed people that are prescribed antidepressants, compare them with people NOT on antidepressants (while claiming to magically compensate for the fact that the latter group are obviously healthier people). Conclude that the AD group has a small difference in some kind of risk, and PR this to gullible media. This is bullshit, not science.

My doctors take SSRIs themselves and make no money from prescribing them to me. So I trust their conclusions.

• Lithium. We get ~1–3mg of it a day from water. It is prescribed to bipolar disorder patients in doses of 800mg-2000mg/day. I take 100mg/day (i.e. 10–20x less than a dose known to be safe). Reasons: (1) it is proven to enhance neurogenesis and is associated with a great number of medical benefits [here is a list of >50 studies on its various benefits] (2) subjectively it seems to drive a slight increase in my stress resilience. There appears to be no good reason not to be on lithium in this dose range.

• Meditation. I meditate 30–45 minutes every day with a combination of mindfulness and freestyle-notation. Meditate “in life” while doing things from eating to listening to music to sitting on a skilift. My friends and I have a private Slack community where we keep shared meditation journals, and discuss them with a talented meditation coach. My meditation time is unstructured — a habit of meditating when in the back of a car, with a bit of free time, or just when bored. It’s a much better use of time than mindlessly browsing the internet. Meditation gets better with time and coaching— now I’m so good at it that I can dismiss an extremely strong emotion in 5 minutes just by observing its bodily manifestations.

We can be completely non-religious and do not need to believe in any mystical bullshit that meditation is (sadly) surrounded with. There is a large amount of serious scientific evidence that suggests meditation is valuable for everything from neurogenesis to cognition, mood, attention, and disease risk [here is a collection of ~50 studies on this].

Once we are good at meditation, it provides very concrete applied hacks we can use. Here are some I use every day:

1. Emotions are sets of specific bodily sensations [link]. Once they manifest, they are reinforced by loops of thoughts about them. So when you want to easily get rid of an emotion (e.g. loneliness or anger or self-doubt) you can sit down, find that emotion in your body, and pay close attention to it. This breaks the rumination cycle (because you aren’t thinking) and reinforces your self-awareness (because you find emotion-driving bodily sensations => understand that your self-doubt is merely an itch). I can dismiss negative emotions in 30 sec — 5 min. They just vanish.

2. I can see myself “from the side.” I have my eyes open and typing on laptop but I can also simultaneously see myself in front of me. This is easier to do with eyes closed, is a trainable skill, and is quite hard. The reason this is useful is that it lets you dissociate from your own emotions and ego. You can say to yourself “why is that guy sitting over there annoyed about some work bullshit? He knows very well that various bullshit happens all the time, it is just a regular day.”

And it feels like in meditation I only just scratched the surface although I meditated (incorrectly) for 5 years. It is already easy for me to control my emotions. My goal this year is to get to a point where negative emotions don’t even appear. This is feasible.

• Remove negative people from life. There are people who make us happy and energized and inspired, who we absorb new skills from, who we look forward to seeing. There are others who make us drained, who fill us with their own insecurities, fears and negativities. Even if the latter are our bosses, relatives, friends, spouses, we should reduce time with them. We can empathize, but it is not on us to fix other people. Hard enough to fix ourselves.

Additionally, I saw material enhancements for stress resistance from things described in other sections. Most of all better sleep, sex, MDMA, removal of news/social media, and hormonal enhancements.

Last important point on stress: our propensity for it is a long-term thing.

Stress and fear increase the size and power of the amygdala (the part of our brain where fear is generated), which in turn makes it easier for us to be stressed and afraid.

If we are constantly fearful, stressed, depressed, negative, skeptical of others — we are “sick” in the medical sense that our brain structure is doing something detrimental to us due to long-term damage. And it is detrimental — lots of scientific evidence for that (refer to all the studies listed above). We can get better, but it takes time and effort.

Actively work on keeping stress levels low. It doesn’t just make us happier and healthier. It makes us significantly smarter.

5. Stress: The contagious disease

https://youtu.be/nV3ZiqXPWn8

Stress symptom #1: No verbal filter

Stress symptom #2: Mistakes

Stress symptom #3: Bad food decisions

Stress symptom #4: Sensitivity

6. Relaxation techniques for your life

Mastering the art and science of relaxation to maximize success

When you envision the word “success,” you probably imagine yourself excelling in your field, working diligently. But success is about more than just how well you perform at the office – success is also about how you find balance in life – specifically, how you’re able to relax.

Relaxing is essential to any person’s success – especially the success of those who have high-octane careers. For some reason the ability to relax is something most of us think we should possess automatically, and some may even feel like it is a “waste” to practice relaxing. No wonder we have so much trouble with managing stress! The reality is, given the effectiveness of relaxation techniques for anxiety, sleep, stress and other needs, strategies like relaxation breathing techniques have garnered much-deserved acclaim for providing relief naturally.

Relaxation techniques demand practice. Remember, the definition of “technique” is the way an artist, writer, dancer or athlete employs the technical skills of his or her particular art or field of endeavor. Make these relaxation techniques a part of your life every day so you can master them and reap the benefits. By learning relaxation breathing techniques for calming yourself, you’ll not only find greater success in your professional life, but you’ll experience greater joy in your personal life, too.

The science behind relaxation techniques for anxiety, sleep and stress

When you implement relaxation techniques, you’re embracing a centuries-old mind-body practice for finding healing and wholeness. From relaxation breathing techniques to mindfulness meditation, there are many types of relaxation techniques to choose from. What is the science behind therapeutic relaxation? The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health reports on the effectiveness of relaxation techniques for anxiety, stress, insomnia and other issues. Research indicates that relaxation techniques are generally safe and effective for healthy people when used in tandem with holistic and preventative health care practices. Unless you have a medical issue that contraindicates mind-body practices, it can’t hurt to relax.  The importance of relaxation techniques for success

Relaxing isn’t only about stress relief – it’s about living up to your full potential. This is one reason Tony Robbins incorporates relaxation techniques into his daily mindfulness meditation practice. The concept of “state” is central to Tony’s philosophy, which says you can control your mind and emotions by engaging your physical body. Even when you’re stressed out, being aware of how stress feels in your body is actually the first step to taking control. Tuning into your feelings is as straightforward to observing your breath – hence the popularity of relaxation breathing techniques in cultivating mind-body awareness. As you develop awareness, you’re able to notice and adjust any limiting beliefs, putting you well on your way to personal and professional growth.   Relaxation breathing techniques and other strategies

Relaxation breathing techniques are a tool you can use any time.

1. Quick cool down

Feelings of anger and frustration create a heated feeling in your body that you feel the need to react to right away. This is one reason why tempers soar when temperatures rise. But instead of engaging in a powerful burst of anger in the moment and then allowing your body to eventually cool down, use the cool sensation of deep breathing to soothe the feeling from the beginning. Breathe in through your mouth slowly, and exhale through your nose normally. Practice so you get a cooling feeling on your tongue. Take that time to pause and think, too. Repeat this breathing exercise until you’ve diffused the situation and can react in a more logical fashion. With practice, you’ll find that harnessing your breath is one of the most powerful relaxation techniques for anxiety, anger and other “hot” emotions.

2. Stand tall

Your posture has an incredible impact on your mood and performance. The more you hunch over, the more you subject your internal organs to stress and compaction. Squeezing yourself uncomfortably into a space that is too tiny makes you feel powerless. Instead, practice standing tall and owning the space you occupy. Simply changing your posture is one of the easiest yet most effective relaxation techniques for anxiety or stress. By opening up your body and changing your physical state, you’re also clearing up your emotional and mental state.

3. Watch your caffeine

Limiting caffeine may not be one of the first relaxation techniques that pops to mind when you’re dealing with stress, but it makes sense. If you start your day with a serious dose of caffeine, you are sending a big ripple throughout your body in the form of pituitary hormones and adrenaline. And you will also experience the blood pressure spike that comes with lots of caffeine. All of those little changes add up to irritability and impatience – not a great way to relax. If you really want a small caffeine boost at work, opt for green tea instead; it has less caffeine, more healthy antioxidants as well as theanine, a calming amino acid for your nervous system that also improves attention. If you’re looking for ways to produce even more natural energy in your body, try this 10-day pure energy challenge.

4. Use acupressure to instantly relax

Looking for relaxation techniques for anxiety? Acupressure can help. There are nine acupressure points that help relieve anxiety, and applying gentle pressure to one of them will regulate your blood pressure and calm your thudding heart. Try the point called Union Valley, in the web between the index finger and thumb, when you’re at your desk and need a quick fix.

5. Take a song and humor break

When it comes to anxiety or stress, laughter really is the best medicine. Enjoying a good laugh is one of the best muscle relaxation techniques out there! When you’re feeling stressed, nervous or just can’t sit still, doing something as basic as listening to calm music and laughing out loud can help reduce cortisol, the stress hormone, and ultimately help to lower blood pressure. Laughing also gives you a refreshing dose of endorphins. Take five when stress is getting to you so you can listen to soothing music or white noise sounds, then follow up with a quick dose of your favorite comedian or a funny viral video. Whatever music and laughter combo you choose, you will feel calmer and more energized when you get back to work.

6. Fine-tune your mindset

Our sense of contentment with life is a function of the stories we tell ourselves. When you tell yourself your best story, you’re able to build confidence, reduce stress and find the energy to achieve your goals. As you practice relaxation techniques, meditate on the notion that true contentment is not just about pursuing your work, but about aligning everything in your life with your mission. You are the author of your own story, so embrace a narrative and lifestyle that align with your values.

Building relaxation techniques into your lifestyle helps you create calm and find your purpose. Get the guidance you need with Tony Robbins’ Ultimate Edge, your guidebook for overcoming obstacles in life.

7. How to turn your most stressful thoughts into fuel for success

Tony says that business is a sport for gladiators – it’s tough, and only the tough will survive. There is a whole different level of stress that comes with being a business owner. As a business owner, you must make decisions you never considered as an employee and with these decisions come new stresses to work through on your way to achieving the goals you set to create a successful business.

But stress is nothing more than the achiever’s word for “fear” – and facing that fear is what will set you apart and allow your business to thrive. To be successful in your business, and in life, you need to learn how to use fear instead of letting fear use you.

In this episode, listen as real-life Business Mastery attendees share the limiting beliefs and stressful thoughts that are blocking them from leveling up on their journey to business success.

Tony coaches business leaders through these vulnerable moments. He listens and then instructs them to listen as well – coaching them through the process of truly hearing their own stressful thoughts, feeling them, working through them and turning them into fuel.

FURTHER LISTENING: beat work-related-stress forever:

https://www.tonyrobbins.com/podcasts/beat-work-related-stress-forever/

8. Aromatherapy in the Control of Stress and Anxiety (PDF)

https://www.hilarispublisher.com/open-access/aromatherapy-in-the-control-of-stress-and-anxiety-2327-5162-1000248.pdf

9. Different types of therapy

Psychoanalytic therapy is a type of therapy that aims to bring repressed conflicts to light and release suppressed emotions by delving into the patient's subconscious. It is a long-term approach and techniques used include Rorschach inkblots, free word association, dream analysis, and examining early attachments. Types of therapy within this category include psychodynamic therapy, couples therapy, art therapy, and play therapy. It is commonly used for generalized anxiety, trauma recovery, self-destructive behavior, relationship issues, and eating disorders.

Humanistic therapy is a patient-centered, patient-led approach that focuses on helping individuals be their authentic selves in order to feel fulfilled. It focuses on the patient's emotions and experiences in the present, rather than the past. Techniques used include unstructured interviews, open-ended questionnaires, validation and verification, and the Q-sort method. Types of therapy within this category include existential therapy, interpersonal therapy, and Gestalt therapy. It is commonly used for depression and anxiety, low self-esteem, self-destructive behavior, relationship issues, and schizophrenia.

Behavioral therapy is based on the idea that all behavior is learned and that faulty conditioning can lead to abnormal behavior. The goal is to unlearn this behavior through techniques such as aversion therapy, flooding, desensitization, positive reinforcement, and challenging irrational beliefs. Types of therapy within this category include cognitive-behavioral therapy and applied behavior analysis. It is commonly used for phobias, OCD, PTSD, and addiction.

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is a type of behavioral therapy that focuses on the relationship between thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. The goal is to help patients identify and change negative patterns of thought and behavior that may be contributing to their mental health issues. Techniques used in CBT include cognitive restructuring, which helps patients challenge and replace negative thoughts with more positive and realistic ones, and exposure therapy, which involves gradually exposing patients to feared situations or objects in a controlled and safe environment. CBT is commonly used for a wide range of mental health conditions, including anxiety disorders, depression, eating disorders, and PTSD.

Another type of behavioral therapy is applied behavior analysis (ABA), which is often used to treat autism and other developmental disorders. ABA focuses on understanding the principles of behavior and how they can be used to change behavior in a positive way. Techniques used in ABA include positive reinforcement, which rewards desired behavior, and antecedent-based interventions, which change the environment or situation to prevent the problem behavior from occurring in the first place.

In addition to these types of therapy, there are many other types of therapy available, such as dialectical behavior therapy, which combines cognitive-behavioral and mindfulness-based techniques, and mindfulness-based therapies, which focus on helping patients become more aware of their thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations in order to respond to them in a more healthy and effective way.

It's important to note that different people may respond differently to different types of therapy. A combination of different approaches may be more effective for some individuals. Additionally, finding a therapist that is a good fit is important and should be considered while choosing the right therapy for you.

Conclusion

Quiz

How can you apply this in life today

Food for thought

Expand your understanding