How to Help a Partner Through New Mental Health Conditions
How to Help a Partner Through New Mental Health Conditions

When you look back on your family’s experience through this last year of pandemic living, what stands out? How have you, as a couple or family unit, been able to manage the stress and uncertainty of these times?

The challenges of the last year have been many. One or both of you may have lost employment or contracted COVID-19. You may have lost friends and family to the disease. The enforced isolation may have taken a large toll on your partner or yourself. New mental health conditions, such as anxiety, depression, or addiction, might be looming over your life right now.

If you’re struggling to know how to help your partner navigate these new struggles, please know there are things you can do.

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Pathways To Wellness
PTSD During a Pandemic: 3 Ways to Manage Symptoms
PTSD During a Pandemic: 3 Ways to Manage Symptoms

If you have post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the coronavirus pandemic may have changed how you can manage your symptoms. You may have felt an increase in your PTSD symptoms and found yourself more easily triggered than before.

Of course, the pandemic has created significant changes in the lives of many people. Restrictions and attempts to manage it have added stress and uncertainty on top of the everyday life stress. Anxiety over becoming ill with the virus, losing loved ones to the virus, or making ends meet after pandemic-related job losses are ongoing issues for millions. Enforced isolation often plays out as increased depression and anxiety.

If your PTSD symptoms have become increasingly overwhelming during the pandemic, please know that there are ways you can manage them during this time.

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TraumaPathways To Wellness
Dealing With Loneliness After a Breakup? 3 Coping Tips
Dealing With Loneliness After a Breakup? 3 Coping Tips

Breaking up with a romantic partner can be one of the most challenging things you face in life. After all, your relationship formed because of your attraction and love for each other.

Depending upon how long you were together, you likely became each other’s closest friend and greatest comfort. When you weren’t at work, you were usually together. Evenings and weekends centered around your relationship and your life together. And with the pandemic restrictions of the last year, your time together probably became even more intense.

If your relationship has ended, whether through mutual agreement, infidelity, or growing apart, loneliness may be at the forefront of your mind. How will you fill the gaps left in your life now that your partner is gone?

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Relationship BreakupPathways To Wellness
Patience in the Pandemic: How to Outlast the Tough Times
Patience in the Pandemic: How to Outlast the Tough Times

The world is eager to celebrate as we say goodbye to 2020 and welcome 2021. After all, it’s been a tough year — and having patience in the pandemic is no small feat.

But even though we are entering a new year, unfortunately, the pandemic itself doesn’t recognize dates on a calendar. It’s still here, along with the all-encompassing changes it brought with it.

If you’re like most, you’re doubtless growing impatient with the situation. In fact, you were probably tired of it a long, long time ago.

The arrival of effective vaccines for the coronavirus brings hope. Glimmers of change are on the horizon. How long do I have to practice being patient, you may wonder. You may question your ability to outlast these tough times. You’re ready to leap back into normalcy.

But common sense tells you that you need to hang in a bit longer while vaccines are administered and the harsh winter season passes. How can do you do this? Here are a few tips.

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DepressionPathways To Wellness
How to Heal Regrets Related to Your Bipolar Disorder
How to Heal Regrets Related to Your Bipolar Disorder

Living with bipolar disorder can be incredibly painful. Whether you’re experiencing the highs of mania or the lows of depression, it can cause you to act in ways you later regret. You struggle to process your behavior and the consequences on your life and those you love.

At one point or another, everybody walks through the journey of grief and loss. And it’s probably safe to say that all people struggle with regrets. But when you’re bipolar, these losses and regrets take on their own flavor. After all, they often occur due to something largely out of your control: the cycles of bipolar disorder.

Many people just like you, though, have worked through these regrets and found healing. Here are a few steps that can help you, as well.

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GriefPathways To Wellness
5 New Holiday Traditions to Create With Your Children
5 New Holiday Traditions to Create With Your Children

If you’re like many parents, you may be struggling to figure out how to make the holidays special this year. You’re looking for parental support when it comes to navigating changing holidays. After all, the chances are good that they won’t be exactly as usual.

The pandemic has disrupted many traditional holiday activities. Concerts and performances are canceled or virtual. Big family gatherings likely won’t happen. Instead of enjoying a huge turkey dinner with your grandparents, you may be having a smaller meal at home. You get the picture.

But you still want to ensure that the holidays are special for your children. You want them to create good memories that will last for decades. Despite the pandemic, you can still make this happen. Creating new holiday traditions is an excellent way to start.

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Parenting SupportPathways To Wellness
How to Navigate the Holidays With a New Romantic Partner
How to Navigate the Holidays With a New Romantic Partner

The holidays hold so many emotions, so many expectations, and so many traditions and activities. If you have a new partner, you may be trying to figure out how to navigate the holidays.

How will the relationship affect your usual holiday activities? What expectations will there be for gift exchanges? Should you meet each other’s families if you haven’t already?

All of these factors can easily make you feel anxious. There’s always excitement and anticipation when you’re with someone new. But you don’t want to mess things up, either, and take steps too early. Likewise, you don’t want to make them feel left out. How do you figure out how to navigate the situation?

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Pathways To Wellness
Consider Premarital Counseling and Save Your Marriage Before It Starts
Consider Premarital Counseling and Save Your Marriage Before It Starts

If you’re still months away from the big day, the idea of going to counseling together before the wedding date may sound silly. After all, you might wonder, why do you need counseling?

Perhaps you’re blissfully in love and eager to commit yourselves to each other. You know you love each other and are ready to go all-in. Problems don’t exist in your relationship, or at least not any that would require counseling.

Yet many relationships experts recommend what is called premarital counseling. This type of counseling is designed to help both of you enter marriage with practical relationship skills and a deeper understanding of what’s ahead of you.

It’s not about fixing problems so much as it is about being better empowered for the good times and the bad. Consider premarital counseling as a necessary part of your pre-wedding planning, and you’ll be off to a good start. That said, here are five ways this vital step can be beneficial.

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Premarital CounselingPathways To Wellness
Love Feels Like a Roller Coaster, But Why?
Love Feels Like a Roller Coaster, But Why?

Sometimes, love feels like a roller coaster ride. We might experience it when we first start to develop romantic crushes in middle or high school. Our young emotions are a rapid cycle of yearning for time with our crush, feeling hopeful, and worrying they won’t like us back. Additionally, our feelings coincide with the new hormones that are carrying us into adolescence.

However, in “normal” love relationships, we experience these feelings only in the beginning, when we’re infatuated. If our love object doesn’t like us back or already has their own love interest, we mourn briefly but then move on.

When we find someone who feels the same way about us, we enjoy the emotional excitement and intensity. This stage can last a few weeks or a few months. And we’re okay when this initial rush stabilizes into a calmer, more stable relationship. Our partnership grows into something more than the rushes and crashes of emotional intoxication.

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Obsessive LovePathways To Wellness
Being “Lovesick” Is Real – 3 Ways to Navigate the Unknown
Being “Lovesick” Is Real – 3 Ways to Navigate the Unknown

It can happen without warning. You meet someone briefly, or even only know them from afar — and you’re smitten.

Maybe it’s the barista who occasionally prepares your order or someone who works in the same building you do. It could even be a celebrity whom you’ve never even seen in person. Whoever it is, your emotions and thoughts become focused on this person like a laser beam.

They dominate your waking hours and even the hours when you should be sleeping. Your heart aches for attention from them; you dream of them always. You think you’ve fallen in love. And even though they show no signs of reciprocal feelings, you can’t get them out of your mind.

There is a word for this. It’s called being lovesick or suffering from obsessive love. Some people call it limerence. And living with it can cause your life to feel upended. Fortunately, there are things you can do to help navigate the unknown.

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Obsessive LovePathways To Wellness
Understanding Prenatal Anxiety, Its Symptoms, and Your Risk
Understanding Prenatal Anxiety, Its Symptoms, and Your Risk

Most people have heard of postpartum depression or even the “baby blues” that can occur after giving birth. But prenatal anxiety is sometimes often overlooked.

No question, finding out you’re having a baby is one of the most exciting news someone can receive. It’s also natural to experience worry, stress, and even fear as you go through your pregnancy. That is especially true when your pregnancy is not what you expected.

Feeling guilty about those fears or worries will only lead to more worrying. As a result, it’s crucial to recognize that prenatal anxiety is an actual condition.

Take heart in knowing that you can learn to manage your anxious feelings and cope with the thoughts throughout your pregnancy.

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Parenting SupportPathways To Wellness
Sanitizing OCD vs. Indifference: How to Strike a Balance
Sanitizing OCD vs. Indifference: How to Strike a Balance

Living through a pandemic hasn’t been easy. The initial confusion and fear from its early days haven’t improved much. There’s still uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 virus, and it hasn’t been well contained in the United States.

Flareups continue to occur throughout the nation. Some people get the virus and never realize it, while others die horrible deaths from it. People often have no idea where they picked the virus up if they do get ill. And we struggle much to prevent the spread.

While we used to walk through crowded places with no face coverings and little fear of becoming ill, we now fear the most basic social encounters. People are even being told to limit how much they talk while wearing a mask to slow the spread.

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TraumaPathways To Wellness
5 Safe Ways to Manage Anger During Quarantine
5 Safe Ways to Manage Anger During Quarantine

Do you find that you’ve been feeling more angry or frustrated in the last several months? Do you feel like the stress of life under quarantine is pushing you to the edge?

If you do, it’s understandable. After all, anger is a normal response when we experience considerable changes in our lives that are entirely out of our control. It takes time to adapt to significant changes in your routine and daily life. And some things naturally create more anger-inducing stress.

Massive amounts of time cooped up with your family — as much as you love them — can easily cause irritation and anger. Job loss, the loss of friends and family due to distance or death, and your regular life interruption are very frustrating. All of these changes may also lead to anxiety, which can manifest as anger.

But it’s essential to find a safe way to manage and discharge your anger to slow its effects or consequences. Fortunately, this is possible.

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AnxietyPathways To Wellness
3 Keys to Stop Overeating While Working from Home
3 Keys to Stop Overeating While Working from Home

Many Americans are now working from home as a result of the COVID pandemic. Of course, telecommuting isn’t new. But its quick rise as a result of the coronavirus has led many people to realize just how much easier it is to graze compared to when they’re in an office setting.

And while it’s easy to forage for sweets or other treats, it can be hard to stop. Overeating while working from home, has become a new issue. Fortunately, you can take proactive steps toward curbing this tendency.

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DepressionPathways To Wellness
How to Navigate the Pandemic’s Impact on Teens
How to Navigate the Pandemic’s Impact on Teens

Their social circle and activities often define a teen’s life. Teens are in the process of creating their adult identity and dreaming about their future. They typically thrive on time with their peers. Recognizing the pandemic’s impact on teens means understanding that teens likely did not welcome the idea of missing out on life and being stuck at home with family members.

With the abrupt loss of their social life and extracurricular activities, it’s easy to imagine how severe the pandemic has been for teenagers. It’s been hard for everyone, of course, but its effects on teens are unique. Here are some ideas about how to navigate the pandemic’s impact on teens.

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Teen TherapyPathways To Wellness
Expect to Grieve Because of COVID-19 – Here’s Why
Expect to Grieve Because of COVID-19 – Here’s Why

How are you navigating the COVID-19 pandemic so far? Have you experienced the loss of loved ones, acquaintances, or colleagues? Did you expect to grieve in this way? If so, you already know the turmoil that this pandemic is bringing.

Or maybe you feel like you’re handling the COVID-19 pandemic pretty well. Grief and loss haven’t been a part of your experience so far. You’re surviving financially, enjoying more time with your kids, and liking the quieter pace of life. At least on the surface, that is.

No matter where you are right now, the reality is that everyone’s life has been and will be negatively impacted by the pandemic somehow. You may not be ready to admit it, but none of us will be able to avoid grief and loss. In simple terms, you can expect to grieve as a result of the pandemic.

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GriefPathways To Wellness
The Importance of Support in Chronic Illness Treatment
The Importance of Support in Chronic Illness Treatment

If you’ve been undergoing a chronic illness treatment, you probably know you need a support system. While support systems look different for everybody, their underlying importance is the same.

You need people and systems in place to help you manage life with a chronic illness. After all, there are so many things that need to be managed. Getting to and from appointments, being an active participant in your treatment plan, medications, dealing with everyday responsibilities, adapting your lifestyle as needed, and more can leave you overwhelmed.

Support often includes several elements: practical, emotional, social, medical, and possibly spiritual.

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Chronic & CatastrophicPathways To Wellness
How to Re-Discover Your Resilience During a Pandemic
How to Re-Discover Your Resilience During a Pandemic

We’re several months into the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. By now, most of us expected that our lives would have returned to pre-pandemic normalcy. No one wanted to think that cases would still be rising, and states would be returning to lockdown this far into it.

Changing medical advice and economic worries are adding to the uncertainty. With all of this going on, it’s quite easy to feel overwhelmed. You may even find yourself feeling depressed and anxious.

Nevertheless, it is possible to strengthen your resilience during a pandemic to help carry you through this trying time.

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DepressionPathways To Wellness
5 Tips for Interacting with People Who Have Opposing Views
5 Tips for Interacting with People Who Have Opposing Views

An infinite number of topics exist for people to disagree on.

There are the smaller ones, of course—where to have dinner, what show to watch, or which sports team is the best. Even these can cause hard feelings. And then there are significant issues, like politics, climate change, race relations, and how the pandemic is being managed.

Often, we hold our views very dearly. We’re passionate about our opinions, perspectives, and understanding. So how do we handle it when we encounter people who have opposing views?

Depending on your personality, you may thrive on debate and not experience any sense of embarrassment or anger when interacting with someone who sees differently than you do.

Many people, however, feel anxious just thinking about this situation. You may sense your pulse quickening, breath rate increasing, and muscles tensing when you imagine it.

There are things you can do, though, to help keep such conversations and interactions calm and maybe even productive.


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AnxietyPathways To Wellness
3 Ways to Reduce Stress When Parenting in a Pandemic
3 Ways to Reduce Stress When Parenting in a Pandemic

Let’s face it: parenting during the current COVID-19 pandemic has brought many challenges with it.

Parents have needed to educate their children from home. Activities, celebrations, and outings have been canceled. One or both parents may be working from home, or childcare might be an issue if remote work is not an option.

These struggles are even harder if you’re a single parent. Life has changed for everyone; adults and kids alike are experiencing stress as a result. Unfortunately, increased stress levels bring tension and irritability to the home.

If you’re overwhelmed by these changes, consider some of the following ideas.

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Parenting SupportPathways To Wellness