Tag Archives: anxiety

Avoid Stress-Eating: What’s Your Vice?

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Inevitably when faced with stress people turn to vices that are unhealthy: food, alcohol, drugs or acting out in ways that are unhealthy, perhaps sexually.

(CNN) – That foods can soothe, reduce anxiety and boost your mood is well known to anyone who has kept a vise grip on a pint of Chunky Monkey at midnight or dived into the deep end of a party pack of chips at the end of a day gone awry.

In a perverse way, ice cream and chips do represent a fast-track to happiness. A load of simple carbohydrates provides an instant lift because carbohydrates trigger the rapid release of serotonin, the mood-elevating “happy hormone.” When the brain produces serotonin, we experience a calming effect.

Continue reading →

A Relational Perspective on The Psychological Treatment of Gay Men: Treating Symptoms or Treating People?

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In Continuing on our health journey, our brother site, Inside First :Men’s Health Resource, we are aiming for better health, current and quality  information on issues of mental health, fitness and nutrition. We are expanding and strengthening our team everday. Below our teams newest contributor, Dr. Todd Troutman. ”Dr. Troutman holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, and a Masters and Doctorate in Clinical Psychology. He has delivered psychological services to children, adolescents, adults, couples, and families in multiple settings, including: the Marin City School District, Berkley Mental Health Community Clinic, Access Institute For Psychological Services, and Ann Martin Center. In 2009, Dr. Troutman was awarded the Mental Health Services Act (MHSA) stipend, which is a grant program that provides practitioners funding to deliver psychological services to underserved communities in California. His work through the MHSA program was focused on the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment planning of individuals struggling with complex cognitive, emotional, and behavioral challenges.

Dr. Troutman currently works delivering individual psychotherapy to adults and adolescents, and provides clinical consultation services in his private practice in San Francisco. When he is not working in his private practice, Dr. Troutman teaches several classes in the Community Mental Health program at the California Institute Of Integral Studies (CIIS) and the Masters in Counseling Psychology program at San Francisco State University.”  drtoddtroutman.com

Treating Symptoms or Treating People?
Why Some Therapies Succeed and Others Fail:

A Relational Perspective on The Psychological Treatment of Gay Men

Public health research conducted over the last decade indicates that gay men experience higher rates of depression, panic attacks, and psychological distress than their heterosexual counterparts (Cochran et al., 2003). For their distress, many gay men seek short-term psychological treatment that is primarily focused on reducing symptoms. However, despite the use of symptom-focused therapies such as cognitive-behavioral forms of treatment (CBT), a significant portion of gay men experience chronic or recurring bouts of depression and/or anxiety. While many factors contribute to the mental health of an individual (e.g., economic status, discrimination, trauma, etc.), one reason gay men experience chronic psychological distress may be the type of mental health treatment they are receiving. Continue reading →

Men’s Mental Health: Depression- Reduce Unnecessary Stigma Attached to It

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photo source en.bestpicturesof.com

Depression is a hot topic in the media, which helps reduce the unnecessary stigma attached to it. The more we talk about depression, the more we will see it as part of being human.

Just about all of us will suffer an episode of depression during our lifetime. For some it is a clinical, deep-rooted long-lasting melancholy and for others it lasts a few days or weeks.

There is no research evidence showing gay men suffer depression any more than members of the general community. However, we do know that being a gay man today can be very tough on the human psyche, when competing for attention in the demanding homosexual landscape of fashion, fitness, obtaining sex and the clubbing environment. Continue reading →

Shedding Light on Depression Symptoms of Men (Video)

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2012 is here and let the resolutions begin and end. It’s the time of year to conquer your to-do lists and to-be list’s. Although these may lead to healthier choices and life style changes, they may also lead to you being extremely and unreasonably hard on yourself. You may be stacking yourself up to your neighbor who has a two car garage (with 2 cars), a muscle daddy husband, 2 french bulldogs with perfect markings, a full head of hair, the money to do all his shopping at Whole Foods ($$$) and these overly cheerful hummingbirds circling his home.! First off stop! Second of all these are all external, material things, and unless you dive down deep into his mental state, nerves, heart and blood pressure don’t be all that envious. Don’t get me wrong all those things your neighbor may have are wonderful, but appearance really only skin deep. What would you rather have ,2 french bulldogs with perfect markings or a totally content and happy mind?

Far to many men hide behind shields of possessions, jobs and physicality in hopes to convince themselves that they are ‘good’ and to give off the appearance that “all is well in the hood,” when in reality they are a crumbling mess with rocket high anxiety and crippling depression.

This is just the tip of the iceberg of the complex issue of mental issue among men. As our first post, we wanted to get the ball rolling and discussion started. We asked our good friend Dr George Forgan-Smith from The Healthy Bear  Website to give us a quick run down of some possible symptoms of depression. Please join the conversation and add comments below.

An Introduction to Inside First: Gay Men’s Health Resource

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A quality resource for gay men to safely learn, teach and communicate about health issues with one another in the spirit of good health.

We want to help you get your mind, body and spirit on the same playing field. Our goal is to help gay men take a good long deep look on the inside at the same time, as pumping up their biceps. Happy mind = better looking biceps. Our community has far to much focus on physical appearance, leaving mental health issues hidden, ignored and something to be a shamed of. We say NO MORE.

 

We are searching for other health practitioners and doctors to share their specialties with us on Accidental Bear website and be featured. E-mail us at accidentalbear@gmail.com for more information.

JOIN OUR TEAM!

In order to achieve overall health and a happier you, you need to start by looking inside first, which includes your mental health (depression, anxiety, body image etc) and nutrition.

“Gay and bisexual men and other men who have sex with men (MSM) represent an incredibly diverse community. Gay and bisexual men have both shared and unique experiences and circumstances that affect their physical health and mental health needs as well as their ability to receive high-quality health services.” CDC

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