Recognizing Stress

Americans are STRESSED OUT!!

Many of us, young and old, are under “extreme” stress. In our household of two parents and four kids, at times the stress level gets pretty high!!

A recent article in our local paper said: “the American psychological Association conducted 1, 134 adults ages 18 or older from Aug. 3 to Aug. 27, including 100 adults who were parents of children ages 8 to 17.  In addition to the national sample, the association surveyed another 937 adult parents. The report also includes the results of another online survey from Aug. 19 to Aug 24 of 1, 136 young people ages 8 to 17. The survey found that a majority of Americans are living with “moderate” stress, which is a stress level of four to seven on a scale of one to 10.”

Dog Owner:Yah… My old lady got me this service dog. SHE said he’ll FIT right into our Family!

Dog: Rowr Snarl

Title: Mental Health Service Dogs

The mental health benefits of companion animals isn’t a novel idea. In the fall issue of Esperanaza magazine, the focus is to give hope to cope with anxiety and depression . One of the articles is about The Power of Pets by Donna Jackel:

Dealing with anger is an important part of recovery.  Since anger is associated with most, if not all, mental health disorders, how we deal with it can effect our treatment plan.

We need to understand anger issues, this is the example in today’s Mental Health Humor Psychology Cartoons.  NOT all angry people are “obviously” mad and angry all the time!  We my fall into the category of Mild or Serious Anger Issues; where we may struggle not to lose our temper daily, but can go from cold to hot tempered in a flash!

I received this comment on the post Five Steps to Overcoming Anger by W. Robert Nay, PhD. I was quoting the doctor’s 5 steps. Then, I added my own twist with a few of my past cartoons.

You make overcoming anger seem easy. When my spouse gets angry he gets loud and in my face, grabs me. I always keep a calm voice but it doesn’t seem to calm him down. I tell him to walk away and he won’t. He keeps repeating and belittleing me , our conversation gets nowhere. HELP – Comment on “Five Steps to Overcoming Anger” post.

I replied:

W. Robert Nay, PhD wrote the five steps. I quoted him and added my cartoons.

I deal with rage and anger issues. When I snap, I get to a point where it is dangerous. I’ve never put a hand on my wife, but when I would yell, it would get scary… and that is putting it mildly.

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