World of Hope Counseling Center - San Antonio

Do I Suffer From Trauma?

Sun, 28 Feb 2021 21:40:27 -0800

Trauma Changes Your Beliefs

Humans are built to adapt to environmental stressors. Although there is bad stress, there is also such a thing called good stress. We refer to this stress as eustress or the kind of stress we experience while watching a thrilling movie, running a race, or interviewing for a job. It’s the kind of stress that we experience without fear or threat of danger, and we usually have some type of control over this somewhat expected situation. You can turn off the TV, opt out of the competition, or decide to stay on the job until you’re really ready for another one. But too many unanticipated or uncontrolled fear-causing situations can become bad stress. And bad stress can turn into trauma. Trauma is anything that negatively shapes or changes our belief in ourselves, others, or the world around us to a foreshortened future.

What is Traumatic Stress and How Common is PTSD?

Traumatic stress is a common reaction to trauma. According to the National Center for PTSD, about 7 or 8 out of every 100 people will likely experience PTSD at some point in their lives, with women more likely to develop it than men. Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) can manifest itself through flashbacks, vivid memories, and recurrent incident-related dreams or nightmares, or night terrors. It can cause avoidance of certain places that may trigger specific memories or events to avoid re-experiencing the trauma. Therapy helps to restore emotional balance to your life.

“Traumatic stress reactions are normal reactions to abnormal circumstances.” Yes, believe it or not, fatigue, depression, anxiety, irritability, lack of connection, dissonance, disorientation, and even physical response are all normal, acute reactions to stressful situations. But that doesn’t mean you have trauma or PTSD. In fact, most people will return...Read More

Compulsive Sexual Behavior, Bipolar Disorder and Borderline Personality Disorder

Wed, 04 Nov 2020 12:12:59 -0800

In our previous blog, The Truth About Sexual Addiction, we talked about sexual compulsion, misconceptions about sex addiction, sex addiction versus sexuality, and Impulse Control Disorder. Briefly, we reviewed some of the causes and treatment of sexual addiction. This blog discusses Compulsive Sexual Behavior Disorder in relation to mental health disorders, some of which are personality-based dysfunctions or related to sexual impulses during mood disturbances.

***For additional help, please consult World of Hope Counseling Center professionals, as only a licensed and qualified clinician should provide any mental health diagnosis.***

What is Compulsive Sexual Behavior Disorder?

If you’re familiar with the question, “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?” then you have an idea of the complexity surrounding sexual behaviors related to mental health and substance abuse. We’ll start with the International Classification of Diseases (11th Revision), or what the World Health Organization uses as the global standard for diagnostic health information for Compulsive Sexual Behavior Disorder diagnosis. Then, we will take a look at some of the most common mental health disorders that overlap with sexual compulsion.

Compulsive sexual behavior disorder (6C72) is characterized by:

The persistent pattern of failure to control intense, repetitive sexual impulses or urges resulting in repetitive sexual behavior.

Symptoms may include:

Repetitive sexual...Read More

The Truth About Sex Addiction

Mon, 19 Oct 2020 12:09:49 -0700

Many people wonder what sexual addiction really is, as well as the signs, causes, treatment options, and non-threatening ways to talk with a partner they suspect of sexual addiction. Nevertheless, “sex addiction” is not a term that all therapists use, although there is research pertaining to hypersexual disorder. “Sex addiction” has not been included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 5 (DSM-V), (an authoritative guide agreed upon by hundreds of international experts), but rather compulsive behavior or disorder, where hypersexual disorder may be considered a subcategory.
What is Sexual Compulsion?
A sexual compulsion is an uncontrollable urge to engage in a sexual activity, such as viewing pornography, self-pleasuring, talking about sex excessively, attempting to have consensual sex with strangers, pressuring one’s partner to have sex, or driving around and shopping for sex workers.
Misconceptions About Sex Addiction
A common misconception about sex addiction is that masturbating over a certain number of times within a period of days means the person has the condition of sex addiction, porn addiction or masturbation addiction. However, an addiction is an uncontrollable compulsion to act, not the number of times the act happens or the act itself. The urge also causes distress. One could experience compulsive sexual urges and only act on the urge infrequently. However, if the urge is so powerful that it interrupts their daily life, that person would qualify the issue with the label of compulsion.
Another person would be capable of watching pornography and masturbating several times per day with no negative side effects and be content. Since their sex life,...Read More

Guided Journaling

Sun, 23 Aug 2020 21:39:48 -0700

What is guided journaling?
Guided journaling helps you commit to mindfulness and can help you improve mental health through structured, reflective writing prompts, guided questions, and affirmations.

What is the difference between guided journaling and regular journaling?
Your thoughts can take you anywhere and everywhere. Without structure, regular journaling is a “continuous unedited chronological flow of conscious experience through the mind,” or through a stream of consciousness, leading to an interior monologue. Guided journaling provides more structure and can be quite effective as therapeutic help.
Why is guided journaling effective?
Guided journaling generally begins with a prompt to guide the flow of writing which leads to certain goals and a deeper level of thinking. Creating an unfiltered and uninterrupted safe space and safe place is a part of prepping for guided journaling.
What are the therapeutic benefits of guided journaling?
Guided journaling is close to guided meditation, a form of mindfulness that improves mental health with reflective thinking in the form of writing. Guided journaling can be the first step to habit-forming journaling that trains the brain to have reflective thinking routines that help with irrational beliefs or thinking. Taking the 10 most common thought distortions (developed by David Burns), for example, are a part of journaling exercises that help people to work through thinking distortions.
10 Forms of Distorted Thinking
All-or-Nothing Thinking ||| This is an extreme form of thinking in “black or white.” ||| If I don’t get a job by next month, everything is lost.
Over-generalizations ||| When one instance or example is used as...Read More

PTSD During Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic

Thu, 06 Aug 2020 13:48:42 -0700

Feeling the Effects of COVID Through PTSD
For most people, the COVID-19 pandemic has created stressors and fears which are affecting their mental health. But for those who have already been trauma-exposed (through accidents, natural disasters, physical assault, personal assault, sexual assault, domestic violence, child abuse, combat, witness to sudden unexpected death, etc.), the COVID pandemic may act as a switch to relive traumatic episodes.
For example, when the Coronavirus Disease was first declared a national health emergency, the absence of protective gear for frontline workers like doctors and nurses, police officers, veterans, immunocompromised individuals, and "essential workers" was enough to shake those already trauma-exposed.
The stay-at-home orders have enhanced or contributed to sickness, social isolation, worries of job loss, and rising levels of stress. Staying at home more often means many parents and caretakers have the new reality of dealing with increased childcare demands and chores around the house. Without the right tools, this difficult time can become a mental health burden that ultimately takes a toll on relationships and quality of life, potentially leading to long term effects. Those with PTSD may find their symptoms coming back.
Can the COVID-19 Pandemic Cause PTSD?
In short, yes. Many psychotherapists agree that there are not only short-term but potentially, long-term psychological effects of quarantine and coronavirus.
Also, people who have dealt with traumatic events that led to post traumatic stress disorder could find their PTSD symptoms resurfacing with a situation like COVID. Coping with other forms of trauma pre-COVID may...Read More

4 Tips to Reduce Violence During COVID-19

Fri, 22 May 2020 09:17:11 -0700

Domestic Violence During COVID-19 Lockdown
Tip 1: Create a Prevention Plan
Tip 2: Learn to Manage Situations and Emotions
Tip 3: Increase Self-Esteem With Healthy Coping Skills & Positive Self-Talk
Tip 4: Increase Independence & Do Meaningful Activities
Resources
Compared to 2019, San Antonio has seen an increase in family violence by 20% since COVID-19, posing a new danger to survivors of domestic abuse. Hotlines around Texas saw a sharp increase in calls right before the pandemic and then a sudden drop, which could be due to abusers in the home keeping survivors from seeking help during stay-at-home orders. Child abuse cases have a similar trend. here.
Texas defines domestic violence, or family violence, as,
Dating violence occurs between individuals with a romantic or intimate relationship. Physical injury, sexual threat, unwanted/forced sexual conduct, sexual contact or intercourse is abuse. With verbal violence a person often uses hurtful words to injure another person emotionally and evoke negative feelings.
The intended result of violence is harm, which is why violence can also be verbal. In fact, when a person is trapped in domestic violence, physical abuse comes with verbal abuse.
As the population continues to follow stay-at-home orders, the growing unemployment, childcare responsibilities and lack of resources are stressors that can contribute to abusers lashing out as a way to control what is uncontrollable.
Trapped with their abusers, lockdown is creating a situation where many survivors are unable to access the same help before COVID-19 became a global crisis. However, there...Read More

World of Hope Anger Management Classes

Fri, 15 May 2020 13:36:21 -0700

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy effectively controls anger with relaxation training, mindfulness, effective communication skills, problem solving skills. Through anger management classes, World of Hope helps clients identify their irrational perceptions of reality and low frustration levels of tolerance. By using the anger management techniques and applying the skills learned throughout classes, clients are able to understand and recognize factors that contribute to anger in order to control outbursts.
Signs Of Anger In The Body
Treating Anger Issues
Where Does Anger Come From?
How Do I Manage Anger?
1. Signs of Anger In The Body
Anger affects the body by sending hormones that trigger a physiological response to the perceived threat resulting in symptoms of anger in the body.
2. Treating Anger Issues
Anger can be treated by understanding your level of emotion, understanding how your temper and triggers work, and then embracing it. Not everyone experiences anger outbursts. It is the anger outbursts that are treated in anger management. Whether the person explodes by taking out anger on others (verbal abuse or physical harm) or implodes by taking out anger on themselves (e.g., drug use, self-harming and doing other self-destructive behaviors), these outbursts can be controlled.
Finding appropriate and effective ways to handle strong emotions is key. Once the strong emotion is accepted then different interventions can be tested to find the most effective. There must be an intervention with our own emotion before it escalates and we must understand what triggers the person. People try to avoid or blame and these are two ineffective ways of handling anger.
3. Where Does Anger Come From?
Anger is associated with a past painful experience and the source of the anger is being triggered by a current event. Knowing...Read More

Anger Management

Fri, 15 May 2020 09:19:20 -0700

Anger is an intense emotional response to feeling frustrated, hurt, disappointed or threatened. There are hundreds of sources of events that can lead us to anger. Some are internal, such as having unreasonable expectations, while others are external, like the environment in which you are surrounded. Ultimately, anger results from feeling there was a wrong-doing, mistreatment, or unfairness and is caused by an irrational perception of reality and a low frustration point.
What is Anger?
Frustration And Anger
Uncontrolled Anger
What are the Levels of Anger?
Anger Management
1. What is Anger?
Anger is an intense emotional response to feeling frustrated, hurt, disappointed or threatened. There are hundreds of sources of events that can lead us to anger. Some are internal, such as having unreasonable expectations, while others are external, like the environment in which you are surrounded. Ultimately, anger results from feeling there was a wrong-doing, mistreatment, or unfairness and is caused by an irrational perception of reality and a low frustration point.
2. Frustration And Anger
There are also factors that lower our frustration levels, both as external and internal sources of anger. It is important to understand that these factors affect us on a daily basis and can cause our frustration levels to decrease. Stress and anxiety, physical and emotional pain, medication/drugs and alcohol, recent irritations or “having a bad day” all lower our frustration levels. Recognizing these factors may help us to deal with our anger and resolve our anger issues.
There are responses to anger that can be beneficial or healthy and lead to overcoming fears, boosting confidence to respond to perceived danger or threats, and reacting with a fight or flight...Read More

Stress Management

Mon, 10 Feb 2020 11:38:04 -0800

Learning to Unwind
Have you noticed an increase in marketing advertisements targeting people with sadness and anxiety promising, “a way to a happier and more fulfilling life?”
This is because a growing number of studies show self-reports of Americans feeling lonely, anxious and unhappy. Major depression has risen 33% in the United States since 2013, and 47% for millennials.
Data from the National Institute of Mental Health mirror these findings with surveys demonstrating an increase in mental health diagnoses and suicide rates. The evidence makes it hard to ignore the root of an increasingly mentally ill society.
Appropriately, marketing campaigns are following the trends of what is happening in the mental health of the population at large, recognizing the market for anxiety disorders and depression treatment is rising. A number of brands are tapping into the market by integrating stress management into their industry through various wellness methods.
global market for anxiety disorders and depression treatment. are estimated to reach $18.6 billion in 2025.
Stress: The Root of the Problem
As a mental health counselor, I work with clients that have been diagnosed with major depression, multiple anxiety disorders, complex PTSD, and many other mood disorders. In our sessions, I see the need to teach essential yet straightforward stress management skills but one cannot help but question, why is our society sadder and lonelier than before?
The fast pace of our modern society has made it difficult for us to slow down and listen to our emotions. The business of everyday life has become a way to ignore our most inner emotional states and needs. The reduction of leisure time and the increase of working hours has...Read More

Domestic Violence

Thu, 07 Nov 2019 15:35:47 -0800

When looking at the status of women in San Antonio, the statistics are staggering. Bexar County has the highest murder rate of women per capita in Texas, at 1.8 murders by male intimate partners per 100,000 females. For comparison, the rate in Harris, Dallas and Travis County are 1.2, 0.6 and 0.5.
In 2018, 28 people died from domestic violence in Bexar County. 28 too many. How can this end? Recognizing domestic violence can prevent abuse that leads to death.
What is Domestic Violence?
Domestic violence is often limited in definition to physical abuse, such as a slap, punch or a kick. However, there are other types of domestic violence. Understanding the types of violence that one may be exposed to is crucial to escaping the cycle and beginning the healing process in order to live a healthier, happier, and more fulfilled life. MedicineNet and the American Psychological Association identify five types of violence that we refer to on our website.
Types of Violence
Emotional Abuse Before physical abuse begins, violence often begins verbally. Verbal abuse is a form of emotional, mental and psychological abuse described as “using words to criticize, demean, or otherwise decrease the confidence of the wife, husband, or other intimate partner victim.” The abuse can be delivered through covert attacks with sarcasm or snide remarks, or overt insults and name-calling. Derogatory pet-names, such as “my little fattie,” although masked as terms of endearment, are condescending. Even being told to “man up,” which attacks one’s femininity or masculinity/selfhood, is a form of abuse....Read More