You Can Never Have Too Much Information

It is a truism that you can never have too much information. Given that fact I have after substantial thought and conversations with several people have determined to create a daily letter to those people interested in learning a psychologists take on issues of the day and other valuable insights. I have been working diligently, writing my fingers to the bone to prepare these Daily Words of Wisdom from Dr. Beth.

To demonstrate the value of this information I am initially giving it away for free. For the first 30 days after you sign up each morning you will have an article delivered to your inbox.

Features:

• After you sign up, you will receive in your e-mail inbox daily (that means all 7 days a week!) Daily Words of Wisdom from Dr. Beth posts written by yours truly on a range of topics of interest.
• They are mind candy for you to chew on as you go about your days.
• For the first 30 days after you sign up, the Daily Words of Wisdom from Dr. Beth will be free. In that time, I believe you will come to recognize the value of the insights I’m sharing from my 35+ years of learning, teaching, and helping couples, families, and individuals overcome impediments to their happiness and success.
• After the first 30 days, the cost is only $1.49 a week.
• Your credit card will be billed $6.46 for each succeeding 30-day period.
• You can sign up by going to my web site (http://www.drbetherickson.com/). On the bottom left of Dr. Beth’s home page you will find a link to take you directly to the sign up page.
• If you unsubscribe, you will receive no
more Daily Words of Wisdom from Dr. Beth during the free period and if it is during a paid period the daily posts will stop after the final day of the paid period. No refunds will be provided for cancelled subscriptions.
• Of course, I believe you will find great value and will continue. I invite you to dialogue with me, and even suggest potential topics you’d like me to write about. You may do this either by going to www.AskDrBethErickson.com or by sending me an e-mail at drbetherickson@aol.com.
• You may find that some Daily Words of Wisdom from Dr. Beth posts are more interesting to you than others. That is only natural. I have deliberately varied the topics I write about, so just wait a day or two, and I’ll bet another one will strike your fancy.

Benefits:

• These Daily Words of Wisdom from Dr. Beth posts provide food for thought on a wide range of topics as you go about your daily activities, such as commuting, doing chores, or planning your company’s next initiatives.
• With them, you will be able to capitalize on my over three and a half decades as a practicing psychotherapist on news of the day, such as the self-destruction of the political careers of Anthony Wiener, John Edwards, John Ensign, and Mark Sanford, or the aftermath of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear plant meltdown in Japan.
• You will also get a psychologist’s perspective on important topics such as the impact on children of their parents’ descent into poverty and homelessness, or on children of incarcerated parents, or the impact of technology on kids’ brain development.
• Likewise, some Daily Words of Wisdom from Dr. Beth posts will be on important relationship enhancing skills and how to build them, such as appropriate ways to share feelings, top five secrets for staying in love, the uses and abuses of anger, and talking to children about death.
• Bottom line, you’ll be smarter and better informed on a wide range of topics when you subscribe.
• So let me do your homework for you.

Check out this 30 DAYS ARE FREE exciting offer!!! It’s a subscription-only Daily Words of Wisdom from Dr. Beth SIGN UP TODAY AT (http://tinyurl.com/3rafcld)

Dedicated to your health and happiness,
Dr. Beth

Better Marriages Fiesta in Albuquerque New Mexico

On Saturday, July 9, at 8:30 am I will be at the Better Marriages Fiesta in Albuquerque New Mexico presenting my Relationship Boot Camp. I will teach you the seven basic skills couples need to learn and practice in order to have a healthy, happy marriage. This workshop will discuss and demonstrate these skills, and allow participants to practice them. To register and learn more about this event go to http://www.bettermarriages.org/

What Is Posttraumatic Stress Disorder?

On my radio show that airs today, I interview a man who has struggled with Posttraumatic Stress Order (PTSD) since 1979 when the airplane he was flying crashed. I listed a few of the prominent diagnostic indicators of this condition on air and promised that I would post the rest on my web site. Here they are, excerpted from the Diagnostic Criteria from DSM-IV. The DSM is the clinician’s Bible for diagnosing mental illnesses.

A. The person has been exposed to a traumatic event in which both of the following
were present:

(1)The person experienced, witnessed, or was confronted with an event or events that involved actual or threatened death or serious injury, or a threat to the physical integrity of self or others.

(2)The person’s response involved intense fear, helplessness, or horror.

B. The traumatic event is persistently reexperienced in one (or more) of the following ways:

(1)recurrent and intrusive distressing recollections of the event, including images, thoughts, or perceptions;

(2)recurrent distressing dreams of the event;

(3)acting or feeling as if the traumatic event were recurring (includes a sense of reliving the experience, illusions, hallucinations, and dissociative flashback episodes, including those that occur on awakening or when intoxicated);

(4)intense psychological distress at exposure to internal or external cues that symbolize or resemble an aspect of the traumatic event;

(5)physiological reactivity on exposure to internal or external cues that symbolize or resemble an aspect of the traumatic event.

C. Persistent avoidance of stimuli associated with the trauma and numbing of general responsiveness (not present before the trauma) as indicated by three (or more) of the following:

(1)efforts to avoid thoughts, feelings, or conversation associated with the trauma;

(2)efforts to avoid activities, places, or people that arouse recollections of the trauma;

(3)inability to recall an important aspect of the trauma;

(4)markedly diminished interest or participation in significant activities;

(5)feelings of detachment or estrangement from others;

(6)restricted range of affect ( e.g., unable to have loving feelings)

(7)sense of a foreshortened future (e.g., does not expect to have a career, marriage, children, or a normal life span).

D. Persistent symptoms of increased arousal (not present before the trauma), as indicated by two (or more) of the following:

(1)difficulty falling asleep;

(2)irritability or outbursts of anger;

(3)difficulty concentrating;

(4)hypervigilance

(5)exaggerated startle response;

E.Duration of the disturbance (symptoms in Criteria B, C, and D) is more than one month.

F.Disturbance causes clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.

Acute: if duration of symptoms is less than three months

Chronic: if duration of symptoms is three months or more

With delayed onset: if onset of symptoms is at least six months after the stressor.

As you look over this list of symptoms of PTSD, imagine the stress that this condition places on the individual who has this illness, as well as on his/her intimate relationship.

Do You Know - Number Two

DID YOU KNOW . . .

Family spending on a child born in 2009 would total $286,050 by age 17. A two-child family would cost about $600,000.

*Source: Newsweek August 16, 2010

What I don’t know is what makes up that number. Is it only specific expense outlays for the child or does it include a pro rata share of the family vacations, cost of housing, the family car(s) or what? The average annual cost then is $16,853 for a child and $35,294 for two children.

Hard to image any average middle class family having that much money, I would just like to have a breakdown of how those numbers were compiled.

You know the old expression by Mark Twain, “there are lies, damned lies and then there are statistics.

One more U.S. statistic for you to ponder. In 2005, the median personal income for the population age 25 or older was $39,336. (Median means the one in the middle so half of the workers earn less and half of the workers earn more.)

For more information, feel free to contact me at drbetherickson@aol.com or 888-546-1580.

Do You Know - Number One

DID YOU KNOW . . .

Children who eat dinner with their families at least five times a week are 40 times less likely to be overweight.

I hypothesize that this is because the shared family connection nourishes them far better than sweet or salty snacks.

Ideally, each person gets an opportunity to add to the conversation that goes on around the table. Even babies can be encouraged to join the conversation, even if only gibberish.

A shared family meal gives everyone the vehicle for keeping in touch with each other and therefore, it offers the opportunity to strengthen the fabric of that family’s life. At the same time, it builds the self-esteem and sense of belonging of even the smallest family member.

Failure to Fearless

YOU HAVE THE POWER!
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SO WHAT!
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Make a POWER CHOICE to change.
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You get to attend and listen for FREE! That is not hype...it is a fact!
If you truly want to change the direction of your thinking today...
Register for FREE NOW:
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You can listen to all 22 interviews for FREE...
In fact, you can attend ALL 22 calls in the Failure to Fearless telesummit series as my GUEST.
Remember, you get to attend and listen for FREE!
The REALLY BIG NEWS is...Suzanna has decided to continue the Failure to Fearless telesummit series
throughout the month of November!
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Register here:
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Groundbreaking Failure to Fearless Series with 22 one-hour sessions…
World renowned speakers and personal success experts and so much more!
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No obligation. No strings attached.
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If you act quickly, you can also take advantage of a special offer that will allow you to get your hands on the entire series of incredible unadvertised Bonus Gifts (worth $197 for *FREE*) . . .
To learn more and to register today, check out the site:
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I promise, you will be AMAZED at what you will learn in every session.
I do hope you take advantage of this opportunity and FREE is a very good price. I am always looking for ways to help change the world and I believe this is one. Empower yourself to take charge of your future. I implore you to invest the time to listen to these teleseminars. Knowledge is priceless.
Dr. Beth

Dr. Beth’s Book Nook

Today I am instituting a new feature on my blog called Dr. Beth's Book Nook. Because I get so many wonderful books from potential guests who want to come on my radio show, I have access to some great titles. And that is how I found Chris Tatevosian’s book LIFE INTERRUPTED – IT'S NOT ALL ABOUT ME.

In his memoir, Chris shares what he has learned through his own personal mistakes in being self-absorbed with his own illness. And this, more than anything, destroyed his first marriage.

Chris has had Multiple Sclerosis for thirty years. As a consequence of this dreadful, degenerative disease, he lives his life in a wheel chair and is legally blind. And yet, he remains undaunted.

Through my decades of being a therapist, I can understand the stresses that a chronic physical disability can cause in any relationship, especially when a spouse or loved one becomes a care giver by default. It often isn't practical or affordable to hire care givers. And so the needs required to care for someone with a physical disability often fall on the spouse. It is easier to see the difficulties of the person with the disability, so we may fail to see the stress that this causes on the care giving spouse.

Chris's book openly and honestly discusses these issues and shares many personal examples to support his ideas in the book. It is well-written and worth reading. Even if you are thinking, "This doesn't apply to me," unfortunately any one of us can find ourselves in Chris's situation. In a single second, an accident can place you in a wheel chair, incapacitated for the rest of your life. It even happened to Superman, a.k.a. Christopher Reeve.

You can obtain this book directly from Chris's website at: www.lifeinterrupted-nolonger.com. It truly is a profile in courage.