D.E.N.I.A.L.

Denial Says...
“I’m not the problem, they just Don’t understand me!”
“DeprEssion is normal; I know a lot of people who don’t leave their house for days when they are sad!”
“There is Nothing wrong with looking at naked women all night; I’m only late for work/school three times a week and my wife need to leave me alone.”
“I’m not hurting anyone else, I’m just hurting myself with my drinking”
“I don’t use cocaine As much as she does, only one of my children was born addicted!”
“I can pay that biLl on next week; I just need to buy this today because it’s on sale!”
“This medication has been helping me with my back pain for years and I can stop taking it anytime.”

Denial is so powerful and it is a part of everyone’s psychological makeup. When a person is in this state they tend to lose their ability to accurately judge situations because denial distorts the truth. Some how a person that is in denial does not recognize the “true” issue, but point their finger out to others or blame their physical or emotional dilemmas on other things; denial is self-deception.

Think of a moment when you were in denial. What caused you to wake up or become aware of your true reality? Most would think life hardships such as lost of job, failing grades, divorce, lost of driving license, parents fussing you out, or lost of home. There are more items that can be on this dreadful list and all of them may not be tangible. These sad situations do not ALWAYS open the eyes of a person that’s in denial, especially a person with a chemical dependency.

Nevertheless, it is 2010 and many desire to make changes in their lives. We may have a behavior, thought, or something we severely depend on that could be holding us back from making those changes. We could be in a state of denial and need someone to help us acknowledge our core issues. We have decided that we wanted to stop blaming, minimizing, rationalizing, generalizing, or hiding our blockers in order for us to awake and live in 2010. Please know The Bridges Center desire to help you, your friends, or your family members with this process.

Happy New Years!

Nancia Leath, LPC NCC
Clinical Director

Breast Cancer Awareness Month - October - Have you Been Impacted?

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The Bridges Center lost a dear staff member in March of 2009 due to breast cancer. We know if she was here today she would encourage every female that is 35 and older to get their mammograms. Please review video below and spread the word, "GET YOUR MAMMOGRAMS!"

Are You Mentally or Emotionally Healthy?

How do you know if you are mentally or emotionally healthy? Many strongly believe your emotional health is correlated to your attitude, behaviors, and decisions you make every second. Over the years as a mental health provider I found that many people do not know when they might need assistance in maintaining good emotional or mental health. Nevertheless, I came to the conclusion that many are not aware of the warning signs. You may ask yourself, what are the warning signs? Most of our lives are a routine; we make sure we eat, pay bills, handle life issue, attend parties, spend times with friends and family, work, or try to be productive. However, sometimes handling life issues can be very stressful, which affects our attitudes, behaviors, and coping ability, especially if children or teenagers are involved in the denominator. What are we doing to make sure we are emotionally stable in a world where we have to produce in order to maintain our families or take care of ourselves? There are many doors we can walk through to help us maintain good emotional health, but first of all lets identify when we need to seek emotional or mental health or those warning signs.

• If you feel life is overwhelming and believe you can’t move forward
• If your thoughts are continuing going and you find it difficult to focus – end up losing your job or failing classes
• If you’re hearing voices or seeing people or things you know are not real
• If you’re feeling like a failure and believe the only way you can escape extreme sadness, depression or anxiety is by death or defeating habits (drugs, alcohol, cutting of self, unsafe sex, etc.)
• If you have frequent or constant feelings of hopelessness and extreme doubt
• If you are continually feeling alone and powerless
• If you cry easily and often for no apparent reason
• If you can’t sleep – or sleep too much
• Have thoughts of death or suicide – PLEASE GET HELP NOW!

Now that we are aware of a few warning signs, what can we do to help maintain good emotional or mental health? Please read a list of ideas below but know there are many more positive things you can do.

• Get a therapist that you feel comfortable talking to and will not judge you
• Join a group that will allow you to talk and learn from, find a meet and greet, or people that you can relate to and do activities with
• Find a friend(s) that you can develop a good relationship with; a person that will support you and allow you to vent when you need to
• Try to gain balance with all your activities such as – exercising, work, play, or relaxation
• Learn different techniques to cope with stress – writing, walking, listening to music, singing, exercising, driving, praying, etc
• Get enough rest and try to eat healthy meals
• Find time to do things you enjoy that will not harm you
• Try not to develop stress and anxiety because of procrastination, get tasks done on time
• Listen to what others have to say and find someone to help or give out to

These are just a few things you can do, but please don’t ignore the signs or not help yourself due to pride. We all find ourselves in a place we need more than what we can offer ourselves. So I repeat my question to you, are you emotionally or mentally healthy? All you have to do is look at your life...

Nancia Leath, LPC, NCC
Clinical Director

The Pursuit Of The Goal

“Many are stubborn in the pursuit of the path they have chosen, few in the pursuit of the goal” – Nietzche

When we find ourselves chasing only the path we are traveling and not understanding the purpose of why we are traveling a particular path, we may find ourselves having feelings of despair or frustrations. The key is for us to know our purpose or our goals for the things we do in our lives in order to help maintain meaning and harmony. This also goes for our clients and our staff at The Bridges Center (TBC). It is hard for a clinician to provide mental health services to a client who believes he/she does not have mental health disturbances, because our goal is to provide the best mental health services to our clients. A client could possibly state, “I do not need counseling.” This is true from the client’s perspective, because at that moment the client may not consider their thoughts of suicide or cutting on themselves to be a “real” problem, until they find themselves in the hospital getting their stomach pumped because of taking excessive medication. However, when the client is at a place he/she understands the need for mental health services or agrees with the purpose of having weekly therapy sessions to address their need to change most likely the client’s feelings of frustration towards the services tend to decrease drastically.

Not only is it beneficial for a client to see purpose for treatment, it is also imperative for the staff at TBC to understand the purpose for providing mental health services to our clients. In order for TBC staff to be productive mental health agents and fulfill our wonderful CEO/COO mission we will need to know the goals, have a wiliness to live them out, and understand how to do them. Chasing the mission or Nietzche would say “pursuit of the goal” gives the work we do at TBC LIFE!

(TBC Staff Training)

It was good to hear Vanessa Herbert, our Intake and Referrals Specialist state the reason why she enjoyed working for TBC, “What I like about The Bridges Center is the purpose of the agency, helping children and adults work toward emotional and mental well being” or Kimberly Taylor, LPAC our Interim Clinical Manager for Core Services convey, “I enjoy working with a team of dedicated people who have a heart for the children, their families, and the communities they live in. Their passion for what they do drives me to contribute my best every day.” These are not just words from TBC staff, but their contributions in helping fulfill the goal of TBC and not focusing on the challenges of doing their job are seen on a daily basis. (Photo: Kimberly Taylor, LPAC and Nancia Leath, LPC)

We are moving in the Right Direction, taking steps towards our goals at TBC, but most of all WE ARE FAMILY!

Nancia Leath, MA, LPC
Clinical Director