Health anxiety, also known as illness anxiety disorder or hypochondria, is anxiety that is specifically about one’s health. Someone with health anxiety may find they struggle with moderate to severe anxiety that something is or will be wrong with their health. For example:
They may worry that they have an undiagnosed cancer.
They may worry that a mild illness is really a more serious illness.
They may worry that that a “normal” sensation is a sign of a larger problem.
People with panic attacks often struggle with this type of thinking. They may have chest pain caused by their panic attacks, but worry that their chest pain (and panic attacks!) are actually caused by a heart issue – either one that hasn’t been diagnosed or one that is likely to cause them a major medical event.
Many, many people struggle with illness anxiety disorder. Some people put the exact percentage at anywhere from 5% to 15%, and even that may be an undercount if we include people that have more mild health anxiety issues.
We can – and will! – continue to talk about health anxiety at length, but one interesting thing to think about is the way that health anxiety may have changed since the COVID-19 pandemic first started.
Currently, there is no science about this, so this is solely a thought exercise.
Health anxiety covers any anxiety over one’s health. It doesn’t if the person fears the idea of illness or fears they already have one – all of these can be found under the umbrella of Health Anxiety.
Health anxiety also likely increased in frequency given the availability of information online on websites like WebMD. People were taking symptoms they were experiencing, such as knee pain, and self-diagnosing a more serious condition rather than the simpler, less dangerous explanation. Many doctors have reported that patients come in asking about rare conditions only to find out that either nothing is wrong, or that they have a much more mild and more common issue instead.
Since the pandemic, many people worry that more mild, more common colds and flus could actually be COVID-19, which overall is a much more dangerous condition. It’s difficult to truly fault this fear since COVID-19 has similar symptoms in its mild form and is common, but it can cause anxiety nonetheless.
However, one thing that does appear to be an interesting change since COVID-19 is the fear of catching illness from others. Typically, those that were afraid of “Contamination” were more likely to be struggling from obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), and their fear of contamination was considered irrational.
Now, there are many people that live in fear of catching COVID to a degree where they fear coughing, fear the sounds of sniffling, and fear any news that someone at an event they went to found out they were sick.
In some ways, this fear can be considered justifiable given the dangers of catching COVID-19. But still, living in fear of others spreading disease to us is certainly a different presentation of health anxiety. It’s also one that is partially rational, which can make it harder to overcome.
If you struggle with health anxiety, no matter how it manifests, reach out to Flourish Psychology, today. We are here to talk to you about your illness anxiety challenges, and determine the best way to reduce your fears.
We live immensely busy lives. Not only are we busy with work, kids, and more, but even our relaxation activities tend to be more stressful now than before. There is a lot less quiet reading of books, for example, and our endless distractions (phone, TV, etc.) mean that we’re always feeling behind and always have more to do.
So what happens?
There’s a term called “Revenge Bedtime Procrastination” that encompasses what happens to many people that are struggling with this. The term “revenge” in this context reflects the subconscious motivation to take back control of one’s schedule. This phenomenon, commonly associated with people who have demanding schedules or lack control over their daytime hours, is increasingly recognized as a form of self-compensation for missed leisure time.
Revenge bedtime procrastination is where individuals “steal” time late at night for activities like watching TV, scrolling through social media, or reading, *despite* understanding the consequences of reduced sleep. Instead of going to bed as they should, they stay up very late at night and then still have to wake up the next morning, leading to extreme tiredness and the challenges they entail.
Why Does Revenge Bedtime Procrastination Happen?
Revenge bedtime procrastination occurs for a variety of reasons. Several psychological and lifestyle factors contribute to revenge bedtime procrastination. Common causes include:
Lack of Daytime Autonomy – People with busy schedules, demanding jobs, or caretaking responsibilities may have limited time for personal relaxation. Late-night hours become a way to reclaim freedom and control over personal time.
Desire for Leisure and Escape – Many use this time to engage in enjoyable activities as a counterbalance to a day filled with responsibilities. This form of escapism often feels necessary for mental well-being.
Poor Sleep Habits – Some individuals struggle with establishing consistent sleep routines. Without a structured bedtime, it becomes easier to drift into nighttime activities that delay sleep.
Stress and Anxiety – The emotional toll of high-stress days can make winding down challenging, leading people to delay bedtime rather than face the pressures of the next day.
Relaxation Habits Not Working – Lastly, it should be noted that the activities we engage in to experience this “revenge bedtime procrastination” also do not really work that well, which means that the time you’re spending taking your time back isn’t necessarily time well spent. This means that you might be staying up later because you weren’t relaxing in the time you have.
All of these are some of the many possible reasons that people may struggle with revenge bedtime procrastination. Other people may have more personal reasons as well.
Effects of Revenge Bedtime Procrastination
Part of us feels like this is self-care. We feel like taking this time back is helpful for us to feel like we’re doing something for ourselves. But while it may feel that way at times, it tends to have problematic effects, including:
Sleep Deprivation – Chronic sleep deprivation leads to reduced cognitive performance, impaired memory, mood swings, and a heightened risk for mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression.
Physical Health Consequences – Lack of sleep is linked to a higher risk of chronic conditions, including obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and immune system dysfunction.
Reduced Daytime Productivity – Ironically, staying up late to gain personal time can lead to fatigue that impairs productivity and enjoyment the following day, potentially creating a cycle of stress and continued bedtime procrastination.
This can also be quite cyclical. When you are stressed, you feel like you need more time to relax. When you are not as productive, you stay busier. When you’re overtired, you more trouble sleeping, and when you can’t sleep, you may do activities that keep you up even later.
How to Manage Revenge Bedtime Procrastination
For those experiencing revenge bedtime procrastination, developing strategies to improve sleep habits and regain balance is essential. Helpful approaches include:
Setting a Consistent Bedtime Routine – Sticking to a regular bedtime and wake time, even on weekends, can establish a natural sleep rhythm and reduce the urge to delay sleep.
Scheduling Personal Time During the Day – Allocating time for breaks or brief leisure activities throughout the day can help individuals feel less deprived of personal time at night.
Using Calming Pre-Sleep Activities – Engaging in relaxation techniques such as deep breathing, meditation, or light reading can help the mind and body wind down for bed.
Limiting Screen Time – Reducing exposure to screens before bed can prevent overstimulation and make it easier to feel sleepy.
It’s also important to remember that the act of sleeping can help someone feel so much more rested and comfortable that they are able to get more personal time and self-care time in during the day. Trying it for an extended period of time can thus be immensely beneficial.
Finding Balance Between Personal Time and Rest
While revenge bedtime procrastination stems from a natural desire for autonomy and relaxation, prioritizing adequate rest is essential for mental and physical health. By finding ways to incorporate self-care and relaxation into daily routines, individuals can reduce the tendency to delay sleep and achieve a healthier balance.
If you’re interested in learning more about revenge bed time procrastination, contact Flourish Psychology, today.
There are many psychological struggles that can come up in a person’s life. Some people struggle with depression. Others struggle with ADHD. Others struggle with issues related to trauma. These issues can be so overwhelming that they become unmanageable.
Anxiety can be a little different. Severe anxiety and panic attacks can certainly be unmanageable as well. Many people struggle with anxiety that can be debilitating and dramatically impact a person’s life. But there are others that have a more generalized anxiety that is upsetting, disruptive, and uncomfortable, but on a day to day basis they can manage it.
But should you?
Benefits of Treating Anxiety
Many people live with anxiety without seeing a therapist because they can “manage it.” Despite feeling symptomatic of anxiety on the day to day, they are still able to do their jobs, spend time with their family, laugh, engage in a social life of some kind, and otherwise live what they view as a “normal” life.
Still, what you’re struggling with is not “normal.” You are living with and managing anxiety. It is affecting how you feel, your health, your ability to cope with things, and much more.
You deserve to live your *best* possible life – not just one that feels normal to you. Anxiety of all kinds can affect that. Treating that anxiety can help you:
Feel Healthier – Anxiety causes issues like upset stomach, headaches, even random aches like eye pain. If you have anxiety, chances are you do not feel your best, and that’s something that you can improve by learning to control and reduce anxiety through therapy.
Stress Management – Sometimes, we do not realize how our emotions are affected by our mental health. If you have anxiety, your mind and body are under constant stress. If you’re ever feel easily upset, overwhelmed, irritable, angry, or other negative emotions, it may be because you are already under constant stress from anxiety.
Memory and Happiness – Anxiety, quite literally, has an effect on our memory. We are less likely to remember the enjoyable activities we completed and less likely to form memories. When treat anxiety, we can feel happier, experience happiness for longer, and remember more happy memories in the future.
Better Sleep – When we have less anxiety, we tend to fall asleep more easily and stay asleep longer. This is important not only for our physical health, but our mental health as well, as it reduces anxiety symptoms and makes it easier to cope with stress.
Prevention of Worsening Anxiety – It’s a good thing that your anxiety is manageable now. But psychological health is not static. It can change depending on experiences, health, and things like sleep. Learning to cope with your “manageable” anxiety can make it less likely your anxiety will get worse in the future.
Above all, even if you *can* live with your anxiety, you should not have to. Anxiety does not have to be something you live with. There are many mental health strategies that we can implement together to help improve the quality of your life and your overall psychological health.
Start Today – Learn More About Managing Anxiety
Anxiety is not destiny. There are many effective mental health tools that we have available to address and reduce anxiety. If you feel like you’re struggling with anxiety symptoms and want to learn more about how we can provide you with effective treatments, please reach out to Flourish Psychology, today.
Experiencing a panic attack can be an intensely overwhelming and distressing event. While panic attacks are psychological events that can often be addressed with therapy, the effect they have on the body can not only feel very physical, but actually have physiological and psychological consequences beyond the attack itself.
One example is memory loss. Though severe memory loss is rare, partial memory loss is a common issue for those with panic attacks, from basic forgetfulness to missing or inaccessible memories.
What Causes Memory Loss?
There are actually several mechanisms for memory loss in those that struggle with panic attacks, increasing the risk in those that struggle with them. These include the following.
Acute Stress Response and Memory Function
The body’s acute stress response, often referred to as the “fight or flight” response, plays a significant role in the onset of a panic attack. This response involves a surge of adrenaline and other stress hormones, such as cortisol, which prepare the body to face an immediate threat. While this response is essential for survival, it can adversely affect brain regions involved in memory processing, such as the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex.
Hippocampal Function – The hippocampus is crucial for forming new memories and retrieving existing ones. High levels of cortisol, released during a panic attack, can impair hippocampal function, leading to difficulties in forming new memories and retrieving existing ones.
Prefrontal Cortex Function – The prefrontal cortex is involved in working memory and executive functions. During a panic attack, the overwhelming stress can disrupt the functioning of the prefrontal cortex, leading to issues with attention, decision-making, and memory retrieval.
In theory, those that experience more severe or more frequent panic attacks could also be more at risk for these issues.
Emotional Overload and Memory Encoding
Panic attacks are characterized by intense emotional experiences, including fear, anxiety, and a sense of impending doom. The emotional overload can interfere with the process of memory encoding, which is the initial step in creating new memories.
Attentional Narrowing – During a panic attack, the individual’s focus narrows to the source of threat or discomfort, leading to a phenomenon known as attentional narrowing. This focus shift can result in a lack of attention to other details and experiences, making it difficult to encode these into memory.
Emotional Hijacking – The amygdala, a brain region involved in emotional processing, becomes hyperactive during a panic attack. This hyperactivity can “hijack” cognitive resources needed for memory encoding, leading to gaps in memory for events occurring during or around the time of the attack.
When someone struggles with a panic attack, their thoughts, feelings, and more are all focused on the experience of the panic attack and its aftermath. While some people may still be able to function and pay some attention to the world around them, that attention may not be enough to encode into memory.
Sleep Disruption and Memory Consolidation
Quality sleep is vital for memory consolidation, the process by which short-term memories are stabilized into long-term storage. Panic attacks, especially those occurring at night, can disrupt sleep patterns, leading to insufficient REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, where significant memory consolidation occurs.
Sleep Architecture Changes – Panic attacks can alter the architecture of sleep, reducing the duration and quality of REM sleep. This disruption can impair the consolidation of memories formed during the day, leading to difficulties in recalling these memories later.
Anxiety and Rumination – The anxiety and rumination that often follow a panic attack can further interfere with sleep quality, compounding the effects on memory consolidation. The cyclical nature of anxiety, sleep disruption, and memory impairment can create a challenging pattern to break.
The mechanisms contributing to memory loss in individuals experiencing panic attacks are multifaceted, involving acute stress responses, emotional overload, and sleep disruption. These factors can impair memory encoding, consolidation, and retrieval, leading to gaps in memory and difficulties in recalling events related to or occurring during a panic attack.
However, it should be noted that memory loss of any kind could also be due to other factors. It is important to always seek out advice from specialists to determine the cause of any memory loss, and what the best approach is to address it. For help with anxiety and panic attacks, please reach out to Flourish Psychology, today.
Every year, right around this time, thousands of people in NYC struggle with depression that did not have depression only a few months ago. Sometimes, this depression is caused by recent life experiences. But other times, it’s caused by a condition known as “seasonal affective disorder,” often referred to in shorthand as “Seasonal Depression.”
Seasonal depression is caused by two distinct factors that often work together:
Low Light Exposure – Light is one of the ways our brain “wakes up” and positively processes the world. It needs light in order to create good feeling neurotransmitters and hormones.
Stresses and Traumas – The holiday season is a time when there are family stresses, personal traumas, and more that can make it more difficult to cope.
Seasonal depression can affect anyone, anywhere, during the colder winter months. But it is especially a challenge here in New York City, and it’s important for those in the region to understand why so that they can identify the issues as they arise and make the necessary steps to address them.
How Could NYC Be at Greater Risk of Seasonal Depression?
Seasonal affective disorder is primarily caused by a lack of access to sunlight. Though this is not the only cause – nor the only one that affects people in New York City, which we’ll get to in a moment – it is one that specifically affects people here more so than some other areas of the country.
Skyscrapers – Winter means that the days grow shorter, which means there is less light after 4pm. Most of us are working during the only sunny hours. But what can make that worse is that whatever light there is can sometimes be blocked by the large buildings and skyscrapers in New York. It means that we aren’t even seeing as much light as other people are during the day.
Cold – NYC gets extremely cold. Cold keeps people indoors, which in turn means less light exposure. Cold is not unique to this region, but there are certainly some areas of the country – especially down south and in California – that experience more warmth than we do which makes it a bit easier to be outside.
Lack of Green Areas – Even if someone wanted to be outside in the colder weather, it’s harder here, because there aren’t many green areas to explore. Outside of Central Park, most of the activities in New York City take place indoors, which means that many are already receiving less light simply because of the activities available.
Winter is also rainy season, which can sometimes mean more clouds and even less lighting. Winter, throughout the entire country, means that there is less light and thus an increased risk of seasonal affective disorder, but here in NYC, that risk is even greater.
Other Uniquely New York City Factors for Seasonal Depression
Seasonal depression’s link to light is the primary reason we are at greater risk for issues here in New York City. But it is not the only reason. There are other factors that are more common in New York than other places, including:
Financial Stress – NYC is expensive. Many people, even those with good incomes, are doing their best to get by. Gift buying and hosting cost money, increasing the likelihood of financial stress.
Shopping – As you look for gifts, you may also notice that – in our heavily populated city – shopping is harder. There are more people to push through. Introverts that may struggle in groups can find this season very difficult.
Limited Stress Relief Time – We all know how busy and active NYC is, more so than other cities in the United States. Because the holidays can be a stressful time, many of us need to find time to unwind. But here in New York, it can be hard to find that time, which means you have fewer opportunities to refresh.
These are only some of the reasons that seasonal affective disorder can be more difficult in NYC.
Treatment for Seasonal Depression in NYC from Flourish Psychology
Flourish Psychology is committed to helping those with seasonal depression – and those that are struggling to manage their day to day life – find relief and value in themselves. We are a boutique private practice that offers several distinctive treatments for season depression through therapy and other mental health approaches. If you would like to learn more, or you feel like you may be suffering from seasonal affective disorder, contact Flourish Psychology, today.
Seasonal affective disorder (SAD), often called “Seasonal Depression,” is a type of depression that occurs almost entirely in the winter months. Although it is a psychological disorder, studies do seem to show that it is linked directly to earlier nightfall and more time spent indoors (away from natural light) during the colder winter season.
This link is so strong that “light therapy,” where a person exposes themselves to artificial light, can reduce the symptoms of seasonal depression. As a psychological disorder, it is still recommended that a person seek out mental health treatment, because the symptoms of depression can linger in their own way, but there is no denying that seasonal depression and winter are strongly interlinked.
However, just because there is a link between the two conditions does not mean that a person’s seasonal affective disorder is entirely related to darkness and cold weather. Many people that struggle with SAD also find that there are other mental health issues occurring during this time that are also playing a role.
Why Might Someone Feel Depression in Winter?
Winter, for many reasons, is a season when people may be more at risk for experiencing depression. Seasonal affective disorder is very likely to play a role, but there are other issues during this time as well that may affect a person’s mental health. For example:
Family trauma is more likely to arise during this time. Thanksgiving, Christmas/Channukah, and New Years are holidays where many people get together with family and friends – sometimes after not seeing them for an entire year. This is a time when those that have unresolved family issues can experience depression as a result.
The holidays are often a very busy time. Many people find themselves overwhelmed by holiday planning, or the cost associated with gift giving, or any of the many other needs that are specifically associated with the holidays. It is not uncommon to find this time very stressful, which would cause depression to occur more often during this time.
College students often have finals, and children have busy schedules with very limited vacation time. We are months away from summer, which can often serve as a reset, so winter months are a time when the stresses of a busy life become more prominent.
Many of us find that our exercise levels decrease in the winter. We spend less time outside and going on walks. We may overeat (possibly due to the holidays) or see our friends less knowing that it is cold and most of our spring to fall activities are closed. These can all lead to issues related to depression.
Some people also find that they feel more alone during the holiday season, when others are spending time with family. These are all potential contributors to depressive symptoms that appear to arise in winter.
Depression, as a condition, also changes how you feel about events, people, and other things in your life. A person with seasonal affective disorder may then be more likely to experience additional depression related to past family traumas (for example) in a way that does not occur during summer. This means that the cause of a person’s winter blues may be multifaceted, and not limited to just winter-related weather.
Seeking a Therapist for Better Mental Health
There are many reasons that a person may experience poor mental health in the winter. Seasonal depression is likely to be the primary cause, but what creates those feelings of depression may be more than just lack of light alone. If you often feel like you struggle in winter, contact Flourish Psychology today for mental health support.
Location: 300 Cadman Plaza West Floor 12 - Brooklyn, NY 11201
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