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ANNOUNCEMENT: Our New Offices Are Now Open!

ANNOUNCEMENT: Our New Offices Are Now Open! 784 588 Long Island Counseling Services

Long Island Counseling Services has expanded! We are thrilled to announce that we have opened up two new offices, to make it easier for those on Long Island to find a therapist near them. Only a few years ago we operated an office in Melville and an office in Bellmore, though we moved our Bellmore office to East Meadow. Now, we have offices in two new locations: Rockville Centre, NY Huntington, NY Some of our…

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Anger Management, and What Happens When Dogs Have No Productive Outlet for Their Emotions?

Anger Management, and What Happens When Dogs Have No Productive Outlet for Their Emotions? 2560 1539 Long Island Counseling Services

Anger is, in many ways, one of the strangest emotions we have as human beings. It is a common one, yet also frequently unproductive. Happy makes you feel good. Sad helps release tension and emotions. Even emotions like anxiety can help drive you to change. But anger rarely has a positive benefit. Some people believe it might help motivate people to change. Others feel like it offers some form of protection. But anger, especially sudden…

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Does Anxiety Affect Your Long Term Heart Health?

Does Anxiety Affect Your Long Term Heart Health? 2560 1349 Long Island Counseling Services

Anxiety is a mental health condition. One of the symptoms of anxiety for many people, however, is fear over the person’s health. Anxiety causes such a wide variety of physical symptoms related to the heart – such as a rapid heartrate, trouble breathing, and lightheadedness – that it’s easy to understand why so many people have heart-related anxieties develop. Rest assured, your heart is designed to handle this. While everyone’s individual heart health may vary,…

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Why Neurotransmitters Are So Difficult for People To Understand

Why Neurotransmitters Are So Difficult for People To Understand 2560 1575 Long Island Counseling Services

Within our brain are chemicals, called neurotransmitters, that affect mood and mental health. When they’re functioning properly, we typically feel decent, we can cope with stress, and we respond properly to different emotional experiences. But many of us have neurotransmitters – especially serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine – that are not balanced properly. You may have too many of one, you may have not enough of another, but they are out of balance to what your…

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Social Anxiety, Halitophobia, and More On What Makes Us Confident

Social Anxiety, Halitophobia, and More On What Makes Us Confident 2560 1707 Long Island Counseling Services

The last post we made spoke about how and why addressing our phobias is important, even if it’s a phobia of something we do not often encounter. Today, let’s expand on the ways that phobias can affect our long and short term mental health. Let’s talk for a moment about social anxiety. Social anxiety is, itself, often considered a phobia. It is often referred to as “social phobia,” though it is sometimes treated differently than…

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Why it’s Not Just a Phobia – and Why You Deserve Treatment

Why it’s Not Just a Phobia – and Why You Deserve Treatment 2560 1703 Long Island Counseling Services

Phobias are a form of anxiety where a specific “thing,” called a stimuli, results in significant and extreme anxiety. For example, a person could have “Acrophobia,” which is a fear of heights. Or they could have “arachnophobia,” which is a fear of spiders. A person experiences a phobia when there is a specific living thing, item, event, or situation that causes them this fear. These anxiety responses can be intense – so much so that…

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Learning to Train Yourself Out of the Mindset of Neurotypical Parenting

Learning to Train Yourself Out of the Mindset of Neurotypical Parenting 1707 2560 Long Island Counseling Services

We live, in many ways, in a society built around being neurotypical – being a person whose brain develops and functions in a way that we expect them to function on average. Not only are there very few resources and support systems for someone that doesn’t fit the mold of what an individual should be, but the way that we’re taught to do teach, train, parent, and more are all designed around neurotypical individuals. If…

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Election Anxiety, Depression, and Worsening Seasonal Affective Disorder

Election Anxiety, Depression, and Worsening Seasonal Affective Disorder 2560 1707 Long Island Counseling Services

For many of us, December is the peak of seasonal affective disorder (SAD), more commonly known as “seasonal depression.” Seasonal depression is a condition where a lack of natural sunlight, holiday stress, trauma, isolation, and other mental health issues cause depression that tends to get worse in late fall, and continue until the weather gets warmer. For those with untreated seasonal depression, the development of symptoms is as reliable as… well… the seasons. It is…

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Why and How Could Panic Disorder Be Hereditary?

Why and How Could Panic Disorder Be Hereditary? 2560 1708 Long Island Counseling Services

Panic disorder can be overwhelming, leaving those who experience it feeling frightened and confused by the sudden and intense physical and emotional symptoms. Panic attacks are also unique in that they are very physical and difficult to understand. While panic attacks can be brought on by extreme stress during major life events, many times they appear to be first triggered by almost nothing at all. While environmental factors and personal experiences often contribute to the…

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How Mental Health Can Affect Sleep

How Mental Health Can Affect Sleep 2208 1473 Long Island Counseling Services

Most of us know, at least in a general way, that our mental health can affect sleep. We know that on days we’re feeling anxious, for example, it may be hard to fall asleep. On days that we’re feeling depressed, it may be hard to get up, etc. But this connection goes much, much deeper. Mental health has a sizeable, significant affect on sleep. And that’s a problem for a variety of reasons, not the…

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