Blog Home - Learn to Live Blog

Seasonal Mental Health

Setting an Effective New Year’s Resolution & Proper End-of-Year Self-Evaluation

New Years resolutions can be beneficial for people looking to improve their lives in 2014, but an effective New Year’s resolution requires more consideration than we often intentionally dedicate to the task. In order to choose a New Year’s resolution that is realistic and achievable, I recommend starting with a good end-of-year self-evaluation.

Dr. Russ MorfittDecember 27, 2013

Seasonal Mental Health Stress & Anxiety

Anxiety, Social Anxiety & the End-of-Year Review

Is it healthy for people who suffer from Anxiety and Social Anxiety to participate in the end-of-year reminiscing that is so popular in our society? Every holiday season, it seems, is filled with "Year-in-review” commentaries highlighting the previous twelve months.

Dr. Russ MorfittDecember 16, 2013

Seasonal Mental Health

Dealing with Social Anxiety: Holidays, Birthdays & Social Gatherings [video]

I received such a positive response to my Five Tips for Dealing with Social Anxiety During the Holidays, that I decided to get on video to elaborate on some of my most effective quick tips for social anxiety sufferers. Watch the video below for tips on dealing with social anxiety during holidays, birthdays, and other social gatherings. For more social anxiety related videos, subscribe to the Learn to Live YouTube channel.

Dr. Russ MorfittDecember 13, 2013

Research on Social Anxiety and the Effectiveness of CBT

Two questions that people often ask me relate to my use of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for social anxiety and the effectiveness of its use online. The research on social anxiety and CBT is pretty clear: dozens of gold-standard trials demonstrate that sufferers experience reduced anxiety and improved lives through the principles of CBT.

Dr. Russ MorfittDecember 6, 2013

Seasonal Mental Health

Five Tips for Dealing with Social Anxiety During the Holidays

The holiday season can be both a blessing and a curse, especially the latter for those suffering from Social Anxiety Disorder. I am brought to tears by the stories my patients have shared with me, stories about being the only one missing at family gatherings, missed opportunities with a loved one before they passed, and the myriad consequences people experience by avoiding the holiday dinner. I wanted to share five quick tips based on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) that might help reduce your social anxiety at the next family holiday. For more tips, watch my video on Dealing with Social Anxiety: Holidays, Birthdays & Social Gatherings. 1) Choose a…

Dr. Russ MorfittNovember 20, 2013

Mental Health Stress & Anxiety

What’s the Worst that Could Happen?

One of the most common misconceptions needing clarification in CBT is the belief that challenging one’s thoughts --we call it “Thought Inspection” at Learn To Live—is the same as “Positive Thinking.” The two are very different. Every day I work with people who have no interest in pretending that the world is perfect, that everything is great.

Dr. Russ MorfittOctober 29, 2013

On the Difference Between Introversion and Social Anxiety

If you’ve been reading past blog entries, you know that I have touched on the distinction between problematic social anxiety and introversion before. The difference between the two is subtle but important. Sometimes people assume that social anxiety is simply another word for shyness.

Dr. Russ MorfittOctober 2, 2013

Mental Health

Of Veggies and CBT

We psychologists, and our cousins in related disciplines, are notorious for creating terms that we enjoy but that others struggle to comprehend. One such term is locus of control. It refers to a source of power or influence or, rather, where we perceive the power or influence to be.

Dr. Russ MorfittSeptember 19, 2013

Seasonal Mental Health

Of Resolutions and TeamMates

A friend of mine makes a resolution every year at about this time. He’s a bit countercultural and so prefers the new school year to the New Year. His newest determined action got me thinking about our resolve as people, in general. Do you remember your most recent resolution?

Dr. Russ MorfittSeptember 10, 2013

Archives

Categories