When it’s hard to find your heroes

A few weeks ago I got asked to give a guest lecture on addiction to a psychology undergraduate class at the University of Auckland.  To be fair, I was asked to fill in for the person who usually gives the lecture, who couldn’t make it. But I still felt just a little bit chuffed to be asked at all, given that I’m still really early in my career.  And nervous of course, giving a lecture to 150 students is no walk in the park when you’re not the biggest fan of public speaking!

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Imagination and Anxiety

Imagination and Anxiety: This is a comic I wrote way back in 2010 – to express my theory about my imagination and my anxiety

Cultivating a different attitude

Early last year I talked about my newly developed anxiety around flying.  In an effort to help me manage the problem better, later in the year I attended a “Flying without fear” course held out at Auckland Airport.  Today I thought I’d share a few of the things that I learned in the hopes that it might help other people with a fear of flying.

The course contained a lot of information – some of it I already knew, some I knew about but had forgotten, and some was entirely new (and very helpful).

Taking flight from fear

Within the last year or two I seem to have developed a fear of flying. I still travel by plane, of course, because there are places I want to see and places I need to go. But flying makes me feel considerably more anxious than it ever used to.
Being a therapist, I’ve naturally done a huge amount of navel-gazing and self-reflection as to what this fear is about and why it has developed.

Depression and anxiety — illness not weakness. Or something else?

World Mental Health Day and New Zealand Mental Health Awareness Week both fall in October, so we’ve nominated this month as ‘mental health’ month on DPSN. We’ve asked our bloggers to let us know what they think on the issue of mental health, be it personal experiences, social and cultural attitudes and awareness, stories of supporting others, or the perspectives of those who work in the field. As always, we’re keen for you to be part of the conversation, so let us know your thoughts in the comments below, or jump over to our Facebook page to join the conversation.

It’s Beliefs month on DPSN – are you aware of your own bias?

This month’s theme on DPSN is ‘beliefs’. It’s remarkable how good we can be at holding on to some of these beliefs, despite all evidence to the contrary. Some of the more recognisable ones are the bandwagon effect (believing something just because many other people believe it), the ostrich effect (burying your head in the sand, or ignoring bad news), and stereotyping.