Grappling with Popular Belief

03/09/2021

The sun is shining, the chickens are squawking, and a new GPB episode dropped this morning!

In this month's episode I discuss addiction with the help of a brilliant former colleague of mine, Dr. Joseph Mathias. Dr. Mathias is board certified in both general psychiatry and addiction psychiatry. It was so much fun chatting with him in this month's episode. Go and check it out!
*Bear with us for the audio in the beginning of the interview - we were having some mic issues but we fixed them!

Podbean link: https://grapplingpopularbelief.podbean.com/e/is-addiction-a-disease-with-dr-mathias/

In this month's episode, Alyssa discusses her own experience with shifting her perspective on addiction. Dr. Joseph Mathias, a board-certified psychiatrist in general psychiatry as well as addiction psychiatry, joins Alyssa to discuss the complexities of a...

02/26/2021

As you all know, I love bringing other passionate professionals to chat with me on my podcast episodes. This month I am discussing some of the complexities of addiction, and I had the honor of discussing this with an old colleague of mine, Dr. Mathias (although he yells at me when I don't just call him Joe 😏😅)

Joe is a board certified physician in addiction psychiatry and has a lot of knowledge and wisdom. I can't wait to share our conversation in my episode this month!

02/15/2021

It's been a while friends, but I'm back with a new episode! Give it a listen and let me know what you think!

In this month's episode, the overall increase of suicides and mental health challenges in the adolescent population is discussed.

01/22/2021

Hey y'all, Happy Friday.

I am going to get real with all of you - I have been completely unmotivated and disinterested in any sort of creating for the past month or so. Normally I would have published an episode this week, but I'm just having a very difficult time finding it in me to put this episode together.

My hope is to find some motivation during this upcoming weekend and week to unravel the literature and begin illustrating the important pieces of this month's topic.

In the mean time, I hope everyone is safe and healthy and feeling hopeful in this new year!

01/19/2021

Do you remember the GPB episode about perinatal mental health? This is a great directory where you can find clinicians skilled in treating these challenges.

Postpartum Support International is dedicated to helping families suffering from postpartum depression, anxiety, and distress.

01/13/2021

As I work on a mandatory training this morning, I came across this video from the Center of the Developing Child at Harvard University that does a great job of talking about the importance of infant attachment. I did a short discussion on this topic on my episode back in October.

One of my favorite quotes in it is: "When a baby isn't being attended to, it sees that as a dangerous situation. This activates the stress response system".

It also illustrates the differences between occasional inattention which can actually be beneficial for development, compared with neglect and severe neglect.

https://youtu.be/bF3j5UVCSCA

Learn more about the science of neglect on our website: https://goo.gl/wUtAw9Extensive biological and developmental research shows significant neglect—the on...

01/12/2021

One of the biggest burdens on the young people in our world is the push towards perfectionism. In an international, longitudinal study that APA published in 2017, teens showed an increase in:
• Feeling that they need to be perfect to gain approval from others.
• Perceiving schools and families as unreasonably demanding.

These experiences are associated with increased levels of anxiety and depression. Researchers believe that the push in our society for kids to obtain high grades including lots of testing, juggle several extra-curricular activities, and have less unstructured social time has been leading to an increase in mood disorders in our adolescent population.

This is a big topic that I'll be digging into this month. Can you guess the others?!

01/05/2021

Happy New Year!

I hope that everyone had a safe and restful holiday. I'm slowly getting back into the swing of things and am ready to share with you my topic of the month.

Merging back into my previous human development route I was on, I'll be taking a look at an important and interesting phenomenon that's been occurring with our adolescent population. In the past decade, we have seen a significant increase in the rate of suicides for this age group.

There are a lot of things to consider here - our perception of what the age range of an adolescent actually is has changed, along with so many other parts of our lives. I'll be taking a look at some of these caveats and sharing with you what some of the researchers believe are contributing to this increase.

01/03/2021

Happy New Year everyone!

I'm not even going to dig into all of the awful that 2020 was. I am happy it is behind us while also acknowledging that a new year doesn't necessarily mean that all of the injury of the past year will be magically healed.

I know many people will be setting goals for the new year - getting more physically active, working towards a promotion at work, changing eating habits and other lifestyle changes. It's always an awesome thing to set goals for ourselves and whatever that reason is for setting them, I'm here for it. I applaud you for focusing on you and valuing personal growth. Get it!!

I also want to point out that if you're exhausted and depleted from everything going on in the world, and you are not feeling up for setting goals or making lifestyle changes, that is more than OKAY. Meet yourself where you're at and have the compassion for yourself that you have for others. Don't beat yourself up when you see others setting big goals, especially if you are feeling lost and defeated. Do what you can to nurture yourself and work on growth when you are ready. Use your supports. Reach out. Seek help if necessary. You are not alone.

12/20/2020

New episode dropping on a Sunday...What?!

The new episode of GPB is published today! In the episode, a friend and colleague of mine and I discuss commonly misused and misunderstood mental health terminology. We go off on a couple of tangents that also bring us to important points such as person-first language. Give it a listen and let us know your thoughts!

In this month's episode, Alyssa chats with a colleague about commonly misused mental health terminology while also illuminating important issues regarding caring for individuals suffering with mental health challenges. Music by Daniel Brouse

12/12/2020

Hey peeps! Thank you for all of the likes!
For those of you who are like, what is this Grappling with Popular Belief nonsense, what is Alyssa up to?!
Grappling Popular Belief is a podcast that I created to talk about controversial topics that I feel passionate about. I am always looking for ways to grow and push myself out of my comfort zone. This podcast has been a great way for me to do just that. And it's also offered me some great ways to connect with people and learn new things. I think so far I have had some really great episodes.
Feel free to give it a listen, or just follow along on my page for inspiring memes and things relating to mental health and overall wellness.

If you are interested in checking out the podcast, give it a listen on Podbean, Apple podcasts, and Amazon music. One of my goals for the new year is to expand onto more platforms and perhaps even increase my publishing frequency. I also have a youtube channel where I've been posting some general mental health stuff. Check it out, give me feedback, let me know if you are interested in joining me on an episode! I love to have people share their knowledge with myself and my listeners.

12/11/2020

I love having great minds to record with! Very grateful to have another social worker join me for this month's episode where we talk about mental health terminology that is commonly used incorrectly. This month's episode is going to be a great one!

12/09/2020

Even when other people have it worse.

Even when you have good things in your life to be thankful for.

Even when you don't know how to communicate those feelings.

Even when the world tells you not to cry, not to be upset, not to feel.

Your. Feelings. Are. Always. Valid.

12/07/2020

I'm so excited to be recording this week! I'm even more excited because a fellow social worker will be joining me as we dissect some of the commonly misused and misunderstood terminology in our field.
You will definitely want to tune in for this one as we examine words like bipolar, psychotic, and sociopath and talk about what they really mean vs. the way that people frequently use them.

12/07/2020

Listen to GPB now on Podbean, Apple podcasts, Amazon, or tell Alexa to play Grappling with Popular Belief Podcast (my personal favorite, hehe).

https://grapplingpopularbelief.podbean.com/

Grappling with Popular Belief is a podcast about popular and controversial ideas in society relating to human development and mental health. The author will be untangling some of the messages that we are sent daily through media and our communities....

12/07/2020