When It’s More Than Teen Angst: Differentiating Between Situational and Clinical Depression

by | Sep 28, 2017 | Understanding Your Child

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“Teenagers are known for their angst and moodiness. You really can’t blame them with all that’s going on in their lives from physical changes and peer pressure to academic expectations and the formation of relationships.”  Tyler Jacobison (Twitter | Linkedin

Feeling moody and grouchy once in a while is normal. Trouble begins when these feelings become more intense, persisting for weeks, months or even longer. Teen depression is an uncomfortable reality in our society and it’s up to parents to support and help their affected teens.

Situational vs. Clinical Depression

You can help your child by first identifying the difference between situational and clinical depression, their causes and treatment methods.

Situational depression (also known as adjustment disorder) occurs in the aftermath of monumental or traumatic changes in an individual’s life. In teens, situational depression can be triggered by parents’ divorce, a breakup from a romantic relationship, death of a loved one, academic struggles or even moving to a new area. Keep in mind that situational depression is temporary and things should go back to normal once the stressors are removed or your teen learns to cope with them.

In the meantime though, their symptoms are very real and are similar to those of chronic depression. They include:

  1. Persistent feelings of sadness, anxiety, worthlessness or hopelessness.
  2. Changes in sleeping patterns –either difficulties in falling asleep or oversleeping.
  3.  Changes in eating patterns, loss of appetite and weight changes.
  4.  Loss of interest in hobbies, studies and life in general.
  5. Persistent lethargy and fatigue.
  6. Difficulties concentrating, making decisions or remembering tasks.
  7. Self-harming or suicide attempts.

 

Clinical depression, on the other hand, is more severe and is thought to be caused by a complex mix of brain chemical imbalances, genetic factors and social situations. It causes major long-term depressive symptoms that are pervasive enough to interfere with your teen’s daily life.

Different Treatment Approaches

The treatment your teen requires depends on the type of depression they have.

Managing Situational Depression

● Urge your teen to continue pursuing their hobbies and other leisure activities.
● Also, encourage them to eat a nutritionally well-balanced diet and get regular exercise to stimulate the production of dopamine to boost their mood.
● Joining a support group or talking out the situation with close friends and relatives can also help.
● If all else fails, seek the help of a trained psychotherapist.
Managing Clinical Depression
● Psychotherapy is a crucial part of helping your teen deal with clinical depression. Get feedback on their progress to ensure that the therapist you engage is the right fit.
● Appropriate medication in tandem with therapy will provide the best outcome for your teen. The medication might be for short or long-term use depending on the diagnosis.
● Hospitalization in a psychiatric facility might also be necessary especially if your teen is self-harming, suicidal or showing signs of delusion or psychosis.

With proper coaching, parents can learn responsive parenting skills that will help them discern behavioral issues that may predispose their teens to depression as well as learn how to assist their children to get over rough patches in their lives.

GUEST AUTHOR: Tyler Jacobson is a proud father, husband, writer and outreach specialist with experience helping parents and organizations that help troubled teen boys. Tyler has focused on helping through honest advice and humor on: modern day parenting, struggles in school, the impact of social media, addiction, mental disorders, and issues facing teenagers now. Follow Tyler on: Twitter | LinkedIn

 

Mindset Matters 2 – Control Mindset and Emotions

by | Sep 22, 2017 | Mindset and Money

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Mindset is about how you think and use your mental focus. The term emotions refer to your feelings, and each affects the other. -Emotion intertwines with mood, temperament, personality, disposition, and motivation.

Emotions and Strength

Want strength, then rile up your emotions like Norse warriors of long  ago. The warriors were so called because they created fist of anger before entering the battlefield. They caused adrenaline to pump to prepare to win a war. In this agitated state, they felt  invulnerable and accomplished feats of incredible strength.

Under extreme stress or emotional overwhelm,  your body produces excess amounts of testosterone, adrenaline and cortisol. These hormones increase you heart rate, focus, awareness and muscle tone for the extra strength.

Use Your Emotional Strength for Calm, Collected Focus

Calm, collected focus is about creating and being in a “flow state.”

 We also call flow by several descriptors:

  • Being in the zone or fully immersed mental state.
  • Feeling of energized focus
  • Full involvement
  • Complete absorption of in what one does
  • Results that are focused, engaged, maybe losing track of time.

A flow state is a feeling of calm, focused bliss, like in extreme sports when athletes persofrm effortlessly.Or like in music where the melody or the rhythm moves a person to sing or to dance.

No fear. No doubt. No bursts of anger or unwanted emotion.

You do your best work in a flow state. This is when we are happiest.

Do you try to live your life as much as possible. The problem is that you may have anxiety or stay overly  busy with chores and things we need to do. These limitations leave you stressed, anxious or busy and they take you out of the moment. You face a challenge when your body and mind  cannot possibly be in-sync when you are worrying.

Entering flow means being in the moment which not only makes you happy and confident, it also makes you unstoppable. You take control over your emotions.

Taking Control Through Full Wave Breath

So how do you take back control over your emotions?

  1. Check into how you feel, especially if your energy is low,  or you you are distracted or even in a bad mood. 
  2. To change your mood, I suggest Full-Wave Breathing to change your physiology in the literal sense. 
  3. If you learn to breathe correctly (using belly breathing to fill the lower portion of the lungs, then the upper portion). If  you use slow, controlled breaths, then you will be able to lower your heart rate, blood pressure, and calm your entire body.
  4. This will change your parasympathetic tone, taking you out of ‘fight or flight’ and into ‘rest and digest’. Try it the next time you feel overly stressed, overly competitive or worked up after an intense workout – your heart rate will slow and your mind will grow calmer.
  5. For your mental framework, another tool to use is called CBT—‘Cognitive Behavioral Therapy’ and this is a popular form of psychotherapeutic intervention used to treat phobias and other anxiety disorders.Take the intention of CBT strategies to look at the content of your thoughts. The self-talk that you give yourself to work yourself into a panic, or to calm yourself down. If you are thinking things like “I’m worried I might fall off that ledge” then of course you are going to be scared. If you think things like “I’m grateful for my friends” then you will be less likely to feel unhappy with where you are in life. You can use CBT to challenge long-held beliefs and to break negative self-talk habits by challenging your thoughts and testing your hypotheses. This is called ‘cognitive restructuring’.
  6. In the short term, you can use CBT techniques in order to more honestly assess your state of mind and your emotions and to then change the way you feel about a situation.So if you were stressed that you had a deadline you couldn’t meet and it was ruining your evening, then you might use cognitive restructuring in order to assess the thoughts making you stressed and replace them with more productive ones.For example, you might consider:
    • What is the point of being stressed? Will it make matters better?
    • What’s the worst case scenario? Would it really be that bad to tell the boss you can’t finish work on time? Are they expecting too much of you anyway?
    • When was the last time you did this?
    • Are there other ways you could lessen the blow?
    • What would you rather pay attention to right now?

    Combine this with controlled breathing and bring your focus to the thing that is most useful to you right now.

    In the long term, you can use CBT in order to bridge the gap between your thoughts and your physiology. You see, your physiology and your emotions are designed to drive you toward desirable states: sex, food, shelter, love, success, social acceptance.

Your Coaching Mindset Matters Series

by | Sep 21, 2017 | Mindset and Money

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What makes coaches so credible with clients and successful in business? Charisma, experience, and expertise are at the top of the list. However, the one attribute which is critical to personal relationships and professional success is mindset.

 

MINDSET: the established set of attitudes a person holds 

 

Mindset – A Way To Foresee and Plan Your Financial and Big Goals

It’s true. In every action you take in business or life, your mindset is a pervasive determining factor which influences your success. Your coaching plans require the same foundation, a fresh viewpoint and about people, money, and solutions. 

Here are examples of how a stressed or unconscious mindset could work.

1. You know that helping everybody would be great for business. The solution would be to define your audience by temperament, income level, and initial problems you could solve. This allows you to plan for the right ideal customer and learn how to market to their needs and values. 

2. You set a sliding scale in a good-hearted effort to turn away no one that you could help.

While deserving and lovely, clients are less than your ideal persona when it comes to their ability to pay. You plan for your successful business first, and you create a financial plan to meet your goals, and your planning for your clients’ needs.]

  • Will you scale your financial levels  so you earn more than what you need.
  • Can you meet your budget with a lower-end scale? Yes, possibly with a group program or class.
  • Would this client enter into private coaching? Did they value your work and you?

Before you realize your dreams of four-or-five-figure clients, insure that your mindset helps you be open, focused, compassionate, or playful and personal, depending on your temperament.

  • If you are a caring, heart-oriented supporter, your coaching strengths are:
    Being able to reframe other’s doubts,
    Listening to one’s story,
    Modeling the best conversation for the positive parenting with your client’s kids.
  • If you are a charismatic influencer, you inspire those who admire you because
    Your nature is gregarious
    You enjoy people, and they appreciate your friendliness
    You are an excellent example of creativity in action and brainstorming.
  • If you are an achiever-type coach, your coaching could challenge others
    To tackle the project they’ve ignored
    To commit to the exercise routine they need
    To manage finances better
    To plan the product launch sooner than later
  • If you are the kind of coach who strategizes, your primary strength is solving people’s problems This makes you an excellent consultant. In coaching, you can ask the right questions to help a client strategize:

What is the result you want?
What is the first step you would take to get there?
Can you outline the process?
What resources will you need?

In coaching, you are often the cheerleader for your clients, and gratitude will be a quality that you want your customers to have. In coaching, you expend energy being with your customer. If you find yourself complaining or fatigued, what will you do to better care for you?

Growing Your Confidence

What top-end coaches have in common is confidence. They believe in what they do. They believe in their ability to help others achieve the same thing. They walk on stage or join a webinar filled with the knowledge that what they are about to say will change the lives of those who are listening.

That is confidence!

When you feel confident, you radiate knowing and strengths. Just like how the person you’re talking to on the phone can hear a smile in your voice, your potential clients can sense your mindset. 

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Niche Research In Planning Your Digital Business

by | Sep 15, 2017 | Business Training & Marketing Courses

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Use this checklist to ensure you do not miss any valuable steps in planning a successful business. Your niche research gives you a solid foundation, and your market can grow exponentially.

 

Niche Research

Choosing your niche is one of the most important decisions you ever make in your business. Remember to take plenty of time to conduct thorough niche research in this area. Here are some things to keep in mind:

The niche research I’ve chosen:
  • Is interesting
  • Is something I’m passionate about
  • Is profitable
  • Is evergreen (it has year-round interest)
  • It has a sense of urgency with lots of customers looking for real solutions to their problems.
I’ve considered my goals for this business, and I know:
  • What I want to achieve with this business.
  • How much money I want to earn.
I’ve determined my marketing strategy, and I have to decide:
  • Will I be targeting the global market?
  • Will I  be targeting the local market?
  • Which countries have the most interest in the niche and related topics?
  • What are the top problems people in this niche have?
  • Which solutions are people seeking?
I also have prepared in this way:
  • A list of related search suggestions to help me plan future content and possible ads
  • A list of  trending  hot topics
  • A list of existing tried-and-true  products (solutions) that stand the test of time as well as rising/trendy products
  • My list of keywords
  • Information on pay-per-click ads to help me generate marketing and ad ideas.
  • Details on how widespread the niche is with advertisers

 

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Personalize Your Online Marketing Strategy

by | Sep 14, 2017 | Business Training & Marketing Courses

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Every online business today should have a strong online presence. You then personalize your online marketing strategy. This will allow you to potentially reach out to more customers than you would with regular marketing methods. A solid online strategy will allow you to increase your business image, send more traffic to your site and promote customer awareness.

There are various marketing strategies that you should implement to achieve this. Use the following tips to help you plan a strategy that will give you results.

Develop a Marketing Message

You should work on creating methods that clearly project your marketing message. This needs to be done in such a way that your audience clearly knows what message you are sending. Work on understanding what your message is first, then practice writing it out so that it becomes super clear.

Who is Your Target Market?

This aspect is vital and should not be overlooked. Take the time to research who it is your products or services are targeting. It is not always the group that you first had in mind.  Learn how they operate, how they think, their wants and desires. By doing this you will discover ways that you can easily market to them. Without this knowledge your marketing strategy will not be as successful as it could be.

Discovering Your Options

Any good business will know what their options are and how to put them into play. No matter how great your online marketing strategy is, it will eventually come to a standstill. By having options in place, you can simply move on to the next thing.

Be Consistent

A good marketing strategy will offer consistency. This includes ensuring that your branding and any promotional materials are all consistent. This way your potential customers will know who is sending the message. Use the same image and logo across all of your social sites. Keep the branding in place on your website or blog. Eventually customers will associate this look with your business name.

Always Follow Up

As well as following up with your customers you need to follow up with your online marketing strategies. This way you can identify which methods were successful or not. You will then know what areas of your business need tweaking or changing completely, and what methods to keep in place.

If you take the time to include all of these points into your marketing strategy, you will have a well thought out plan in place. You will know how to communicate with your audience and you will know who it is you are targeting with your messages.

By having a good marketing strategy in place your business will prosper and grow. So take the time to put yours into place today.