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Clinical Mental Health

Temperament and Personality Disorders

Personality disorders are thought to result from a difficult temperament (as well as biological and social factors). Personality traits and temperaments are dimensional characteristics that are heritable and manifest early in life. These characteristics underlie or influence cognitive processes, interpersonal and social functions, emotional and affective states and biological stress systems (Howland, 2007; Shiner, 2005). […]

Personality and Disorders

Everyone has personality traits that characterise them as unique individuals. Such traits refer to the usual way in which a person thinks, feels and behaves. Specifically, personality refers to the pattern of thoughts, feelings and behaviours, consistently exhibited by an individual over a long period of time. Personality is a complex combination of traits and […]

Substance Use, Abuse and Dependence

There is a difference between substance use, abuse and dependence. Substance use, as the name implies, refers to the use of substances in low to moderate amounts and does not interfere with social, occupational or educational functioning. Substance abuse on the other hand refers to regular use and it is defined in terms of how […]

The Psychology of Addiction

Almost all substance use affects the “reward mechanism” in the brain. The main chemical messenger involved in the brain’s reward mechanism is dopamine. Each time the person uses a substance they will tend to feel ‘good’, which makes them want to use the substance again. Over time, changes in the brain occur (e.g. less dopamine […]

Graded Exposure with Anxiety

When a person has experienced anxiety in a certain place or situation previously, they are more likely to anticipate the anxiety recurring under similar circumstances. This can lead to avoidance, which further reinforces the anxiety and its association with the particular place or situation where the anxiety initially occurred. The decrease in anxiety, when the […]

Characteristics of Addiction: Loss of control

Loss of control in its broader sense encompasses both the relative inability of an addict to terminate consumption once initiated and the inability to refrain from substance use following a period of abstinence (Lyvers, 2000). This has been attributed to impairments in the area of the brain that is responsible for executive functions including behavioural […]

Cognitive Restructuring with Anxiety

Cognitive restructuring, straight thinking or logical reanalysis is based on the belief that the way we feel, behave and respond to situations is based on the way we think. This approach attempts to modify unhelpful thought patterns and beliefs. Cognitive restructuring, also known as cognitive reframing, is a technique drawn from cognitive therapy that can […]

Beck Depression Inventory

The Beck Depression Inventory is copyrighted by the Psychological Corporation. Material here presented is only for educational purpose because the BDI should be used only by registered professionals. The original version of the BDI was introduced by Beck, Ward, Mendelson, Mock and Erbaugh in 1961 (cited in Victims’ Web, 2007). The BDI was revised in […]

Characteristics of Addiction: Compulsive Use

Addictions may manifest in numerous ways, but generally they share three common characteristics – often referred to as the three C’s of compulsive use, loss of control and continued use. In this post we’ll focus on the role compulsive use plays in addictive behaviour. Compulsive use has three elements: reinforcement, craving and habit. Reinforcement refers […]

Understanding Panic Attacks

People with panic disorder suffer severe attacks of anxiety which can make them feel as though they are having a heart attack or are going crazy. Symptoms include heart palpitations, chest pain or discomfort, sweating, trembling, dizziness, difficulty breathing and feelings of losing control. Panic disorder involves at least one of these attacks followed by […]

Types of Unresolved/Complicated Grief

Historically, researchers have argued that complicated grief is an expression of a major depressive disorder or an anxiety-based disorder that has been triggered by a specific loss.?More recently, researchers have concluded that grief symptoms only partially overlap with symptoms of depression and other DSM-IV-TR categories, such as anxiety and post traumatic stress disorder, and that […]

Motivational Enhancement Therapy

Motivational enhancement is a style of person-centred counselling developed to facilitate change in health-related behaviours. The core principle of the approach is negotiation rather than conflict. It aims to help people explore and resolve their ambivalence about behaviour change. It combines warmth and empathy with focused reflective listening and the development of discrepancy between where […]