Showing posts with label abuse. Show all posts
Showing posts with label abuse. Show all posts

Thursday, May 2, 2013

Help Someone You Love Deal with Abuse Simply and Effectively


abuse, deal with abuse, child abuse, effects of abuse, emotional abuse, abuse women, abuse on women, self-helpVictims of ongoing abuse really should get help immediately.
There’s a link in the resource area at the bottom to help you find assistance in protecting yourself. If the abuse has ended but the memories persist, you can find personal peace in a simple and effective way right there in the privacy of your home computer, laptop, iPad, or smart phone.

You’re not alone if you carry deeply embedded memories of past abuse. These memories make the recollection almost as painful as the original offense.

Abuse is particularly destructive because it touches so many areas in our lives.

  1. It’s a trust issue when someone in whom we trusted betrayed us by abusing us.
  2. It’s a fear issue when we worry about a recurrence of the abuse even though it may have been years ago.
  3. It’s a self-esteem issue when we blame ourselves for somehow bringing the abuse upon ourselves or for making our abuser angry.
  4. It’s an anger issue when rage against the outrage against us becomes overwhelming.
  5. It’s a relationship issue when the violence done against us blocks our ability to have intimacy with another person even though they weren't part of the abuse.
The abuse may have occurred in a place that we expected to be secure: in our home, in our marriage or relationship; in the school yard. This is particularly offensive because it damages our ability to trust again.

The abuse may have been perpetrated by a total stranger. This leaves us with a very small comfort zone which may in fact be a room or a chair or bed. It may leave us afraid to speak our opinion for fear a recurrence of domestic abuse.

All these reactions are triggered by a thought that brings the abusive act to the front of our attention once again. The thought could be triggered by a word, a smell, a sound, almost anything.

If we let those thoughts of abuse lead us to anxiety, to becoming overwhelmed, or to being incapable of dealing with the required daily routine of life, we need to do something about it.

In a moment, you’ll see a very simple process you can use as often as you like to overcome your abuse-inspired anxiety. Because I don’t want to leave you upset, I’m going to tell you about it and then direct you to try it – after you know what to expect.

I have probably caused some negative emotions especially if you are the victim of past abuse. I want to do say to yourself, out loud, right now, “I’m not going to think about that.” If it recurs, say it again; and again, and again. “I’m not going to think about that.”

You’ll soon discover that the negative thoughts of being abused will diminish and even disappear over a period of time. They will go away every time you demand that they go away.

You can deal with abuse anxiety in a way so simple that many people have trouble accepting it. The most effective way to control negative thinking is to say to yourself, out loud, "I will not to think about that." Do it as often as necessary every time a thought pops up that typically causes you pain.

Someone said, “That’s easier said than done.”

Not really. You have the innate authority to decide what you want to think about. If a thought causes you pain, don’t think that thought! It’s your choice. As you make that choice again and again, your subconscious remembers how you like to respond and will start to make your response automatically.

This can become automatic in days or weeks.

Furthermore, you were made with a subconscious mind that has over time formed the opinion that you like thinking about your abuse. Your subconscious, being ever helpful, will continue to give you thoughts to help you do what it thinks you like to do, think about abuse.

The process of choosing not to dwell on those thoughts will, over time, convince your subconscious that you do not want to think about that those things anymore. It’s this process that creates the habit of peace and breaks the habit of victimness.

At some point, you won't even realize you are thinking negative thoughts because your subconscious is automatically responding to the thoughts before they become conscious thoughts.

Nothing could be more effective than having your subconscious mind handle your abuse anxiety for you before you even think about it.

Resources you can use

If someone you love could deal with abuse effectively, would you take 3 minutes to learn more at http://findingpersonalpeace.com/s007?

You can use this idea for just about any negative emotion or habit that bothers you including dealing with abuse.

If you need help with an ongoing abuse situation, click http://findingpersonalpeace.com/student/hotlines.pdf to find resources that can help you.

I hope Finding Personal Peace helps you in dealing with your abuse anxiety as much as it helped me with my anger.

abuse, deal with abuse, child abuse, effects of abuse, emotional abuse, abuse women, abuse on women, self-help

Rod Peeks

Thanks for reading our blog today. I invite you to respond in several ways: (1) Comment in the space below if you agree or disagree with what I've said. A dialogue could be interesting for all; (2) Share the post with your friends using the buttons below; and (3) sign up to get an email with each new post. There’s a place to do that on the right. Then you won’t have to remember to look for our subsequent posts. Thanks again!

Sunday, February 10, 2013

Relationships - You Have Great Power

Golden Rule give great power in relationships
The Power in Relationships

You have the power to make or break people. How do you wield it? 


How beautiful is the bond and trust that exists in a strong relationship, whether it be spouse to spouse, parent to child, or friend to friend. That bond and trust also makes you vulnerable to being hurt yourself.

Marriage 

Maybe you've experienced the pain and anguish when a spouse is unfaithful to the vows taken.

Maybe you know the loneliness that comes when your spouse is with someone else rather than you.

Maybe you know the physical and emotional pain of an abusive spouse.

Maybe you’re the spouse who is unfaithful, absent, or abusive.

Maybe you know the guilt that comes from blaming your spouse when the problem is really yours.

The power you have is your choice to be one or the other of the spouses described above.

Do you routinely put your wants and needs ahead of your spouse? Exercise your power to build up and sustain your spouse. Exercise your power to forgive and forget if necessary. Exercise your power to keep your vows, forsaking all other commitments, as long as you both shall live. To do anything less is an abuse of your power.

Parent and Child

You have the power to make or break your child’s spirit by your response to them.

Maybe you've felt the lash of an abusive parent.

Maybe you've known to pain of rejection or neglect.

Maybe you've felt the burden of performing beyond your capacities to please your parent.

Maybe you've felt the loneliness created by an unapproachable parent.

Maybe you've cried because your parent doesn't trust you; and wondered why they don’t.

Maybe you've tried to be good enough to win your parent’s approval and never quite succeeded.

You have the power to neglect or build up your child. Do you react to your child in the same way your parents reacted to you? You have the power of choosing to be responsible for seeing the fragile souls you created becoming competent, independent, adults; or you may choose to add another generation to the legacy of pain and neglect that has been your life.

Friend and Friend 

Maybe you know the feeling of having a friend prove untrustworthy.

Maybe you've felt the pain, like the death of a thousand paper cuts, when a friend makes fun of you; or belittles your relationship; or misrepresents you to others.

Maybe you know how it feels to be squeezed out of a relationship and not understanding why.

You have the power of choosing whether you will do the same things to another friend – maybe just to get even – or of choosing to be supportive of your friends.

The Culprit

In all the examples above, the typical reason for the misuse of your power is “doing unto others like it has been done to you,“ a classic misuse of the Golden Rule.

Or it may be your misconstruing the rule to be “do unto others before they do it unto you.

In either case, the baggage you bring to your current relationships from the past probably causes you to misuse the Golden Rule; and that baggage can be totally destructive to someone you love and respect or someone who depends on you.

There’s another way 

You don’t have to carry that baggage around any longer. The baggage most likely manifests itself in negative thinking about the pain you felt from prior relationships. You get so caught up in reliving the pain of your past that it becomes the reality of your present.

You can dump that negative thinking. You can start dumping it today. Let Finding Personal Peace show you how to do that. Use the power you have to build and confirm people, not hurt them.

Make people, don’t break them.

God bless,
Rod Peeks on The Power of Relationships
www.findingpersonalpeace.com

Thanks for reading our blog today. I invite you to respond in several ways: (1) Comment in the space below if you agree or disagree with what I've said. A dialogue could be interesting for all; (2) Share the post with your friends using the buttons below; and (3) sign up to get an email with each new post. There’s a place to do that on the right. Then you won’t have to remember to look for our subsequent posts. Thanks again!

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Relationships - Fight or Forgive?

Our response to slights is the key to strong relationships.


Forgive and Forget In Relataionships
Fundamental Truth in All Relationships
How often do all of us feel the heat of an offense in a relationship? It may be from a spouse, a friend, a child, a co-worker, a business relationship, or even the driver in the next lane or tailgating too close.

It may have been accidental or intentional; a minor irritant or a major infraction. It may have been a misspoken word; a bad joke; gossip; disrespect; or a broken trust. The easiest reaction is to take offense; easy because it is a natural reaction.

Our sympathetic nervous system gives us fight or flight as a protective response. The adrenalin flows and the battle is joined. When that happens, the relationship suffers.

That’s not what we intended. We just wanted to get even; we wanted to right a wrong; we wanted to defend our honor. A combative response can turn an innocent offence into full-blown war.

Pride rushes in and reminds us that we don’t have to take it. And before we know what’s going on, we’re tumbling pell-mell down the slippery slope to a broken relationship.

A Better Response 

Moses told Israel in Exodus 23 that “if they see their enemy’s donkey in a ditch, they were to help it out and return it to the enemy.” Then for emphasis, he said it again. There may have been a very practical reason for this teaching. Israel was out in the wilderness surrounded on all sides by people and circumstances that wanted to destroy them. It could have been disastrous for them to start fighting among themselves for all the reasons that two million people can find for fighting. The responsibility to the community was to put aside differences and pull together for the common good.

We have that same responsibility if we value a relationship. It’s not easy to forgive because our pride tells us that forgiving is giving up and giving in. We think that forgiving someone means admitting they were right in whatever they did to us. Forgiving is seen as weakness. So we don’t often forgive.

Beyond Forgiving to Forgetting 

To forgive and forget means to both pardon the wrong and to carry no resentment concerning it into the future. The phrase dates from the 1300s and was a proverb by the mid-1500s. You could also say let bygones be bygones.

Forgiving is not admitting that the offender was right. It is simply pardoning an offense. Forgetting is deciding that you’re not going to stew over the offense any more. I’m not saying that is easy; I’m just saying that it’s necessary from time to time if you want to maintain a relationship.

If an offense is ongoing, such as abuse, it is necessary to take steps to remove oneself from harm by seeking competent help; but if the offense it history, so much more is to be gained by deciding that you will not perpetuate the offense by continuing to respond to the memories of it.

Have you ever noticed in football, the flag is more often thrown on the player who responds or retaliates. The original offense is sometimes not seen, but the retaliation is always seen. We’ll always be lessened if we respond in kind to an offense.

Better to walk away. 

If the relationship has value, it’s better to walk away by pardoning the offender and forgetting about the offense. And what relationship doesn't have value. Few of us have so many friends that we can afford to lose any of them because we refuse to forgive and forget.

Having trouble doing that? Do memories of past offenses keep replaying over and over again? Finding Personal Peace speaks directly to being free from the burden of such memories. Give it a try!

God bless,
 Rod Peeks on Forgive and Forget in Important relationships
www.findingpersonapeace.com

Thanks for reading our blog today. I invite you to respond in several ways: (1) Comment in the space below if you agree or disagree with what I’ve said. A dialogue could be interesting for all; (2) Share the post with your friends using the buttons below; and (3) sign up to get an email with each new post. There’s a place to do that on the right. Then you won’t have to remember to look for our subsequent posts. Thanks again!

Monday, November 12, 2012

We Need Your Help!

Finding Personal Peace has been published for aboutHelp Wanter two months now. The response has been gratifying. Just today a pastor who reviewed it described it saying, “This is incredible. It's so well done and the potential for helping people is enormous.”

We'd like to make an effort over the next few weeks to seriously validate the course.

To that end, we're posting the following advertisement on several of the social media sites and forums.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Would Some Personal Peace Today be Nice?

We're looking for 100 volunteers to help us validate a promising new on-line course, Finding Personal Peace, that shows you how to find some personal peace in just about any emotional circumstance.

We will make it worth your while to volunteer by offering some valuable coupons that you can redeem. The value of the coupons may be as much as $500 or more.

If you want to know more about the project and about volunteering to help, please send an email to volunteer@findingpersonalpeace.com. We'll send the details right back to you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you know someone who would be willing to help us, please pass this along to them.


We need a strong test to make sure the course works under the kind of load we expect to have as the word gets around.


If you know someone who would like some personal peace; or who would like the chance to redeem some pretty valuable gifts; or who would simply like to help us help others; please send an email to the email address below. Thanks

All the best!

Rod Peeks

Rod @ Finding Personal Peace
volunteer@findingpersonalpeace.com

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Do You Have Emotional Pain?

We all understand physical pain. We get hurt; it heals; the pain goes away. Very few of us relive the physical event again and experience the pain again. It remains in our mind as“an awareness that it was indeed at one time painful,” says Dr. Kip Williams from Purdue University.

On the other hand, emotional pain tends to linger, in no small part, because we continue to rethink the emotional hurt that caused the pain. The event remains fresh in our minds; and, in fact, may become more intense with the replaying of it.

In the brain, pain is pain.

Studies show that to the brain, heartbreak and emotional torment are no different from having hot coffee spilled on your hand. The stimuli produce nearly identical brain reactions." The understanding growing among pain researchers is that, in your brains, physical and social pain share much the same neural circuitry. In many ways, in fact, your brain may scarcely make a distinction between a verbal and physical insult.

CNN reported that “getting burned and getting dumped feel exactly the same.”

Researchers at the University of Florida found that acetaminophen (the major ingredient of Tylenol) relieved emotional pain similarly to how it relieved physical pain.

Emotional Pain is Natural

Emotional pain is as natural as physical pain. How can we not feel grief at the loss of a loved one or remorse at the loss of dreams? How can we not be resentful when we are ill-treated? Who isn't sad when circumstances cause us to be alone or financial loss causes us to fear for the future?

The danger is not in feeling the natural emotional pain. The danger is reliving the emotional pain through rumination with the impact of the emotional pain growing until it becomes debilitating.

Most physical pain is temporary – it happens and it heals. Some people of the ability to absorb an emotional blow, hurt temporarily, and then let the wound heal just as if it were physical.

Many, if not most, of us don't handle emotional pain so readily. My own story is that I carried around anger for years against someone who had hurt my family. I replayed that pain every time a thought popped up that reminded me of the hurt.

Can you identify with that? Do you know someone living with recurring emotional pain?

We've already seen in earlier posts that negative emotions can lead to depression, stress, and physical illness. They can lead to broken relationships, shame, and guilt; even to self-mutilation and suicide.

Common wisdom says that pain must be pursued to its source and dealt with much like a wound has to be lanced to clear out the infection.

The irony is that such treatment causes us to explore and relive the event and thus reinforces the pain rather than relieving it.

A better way might be to learn how to properly handle the negative thinking that launches us into episodes of reliving the pain. I handled my negative thinking and was so impressed by how well it worked that I wrote the online course, Finding Personal Peace. I want to share this concept with anybody in the grasp of emotional pain.

Click here to learn more.

God bless,

Monday, November 5, 2012

Are You Stressed?

Stress is a normal physical response to events that make you feel threatened or upset your balance in some way. When you sense danger – whether its real or imagined – the body's defenses kick into high gear, causing stress.

Survival Stress - You may have heard the phrase "fight or flight" before. This is a common response to danger in all people and animals. When you are afraid that someone or something may physically hurt you, your body naturally responds with a burst of energy so that you will be better able to survive the dangerous situation (fight) or escape it all together (flight).

Internal Stress - Have you ever caught yourself worrying about things you can do nothing about orImage worrying for no reason at all? This is internal stress and it is one of the most important kinds of stress to understand and manage. Internal stress is when people make themselves stressed. This often happens when we worry about things we can't control or put ourselves in situations we know will cause us stress. Some people become addicted to the kind of hurried, tense, lifestyle that results from being under stress. They even look for stressful situations and feel stress about things that aren't stressful.

Environmental Stress - This is a response to things around you that cause stress, such as noise, crowding, and pressure from work or family. Identifying these environmental stresses and learning to avoid them or deal with them will help lower your stress level.

Fatigue and Overwork - This kind of stress builds up over a long time and can take a hard toll on your body. It can be caused by working too much or too hard at your job(s), school, or home. It can also be caused by not knowing how to manage your time well or how to take time out for rest and relaxation. This can be one of the hardest kinds of stress to avoid because many people feel this is out of their control.

The effects of chronic stress

The body doesn’t distinguish between physical and psychological threats. Whether you're stressed over a busy schedule, an argument with a friend, a traffic jam, or a mountain of bills, your body reacts just as strongly as if you were facing a life-or-death situation. If you have a lot of responsibilities and worries, your emergency stress response may be “on” most of the time. The more your body's stress system is activated, the easier it is to trip and the harder it is to shut off.

Long-term exposure to stress can lead to serious health problems. Chronic stress disrupts nearly every system in your body.

  • It can raise blood pressure

  • It can suppress the immune system

  • It can increase the risk of heart attack and stroke

  • It can contribute to infertility

  • It can speed up the aging process.

  • It can leave you more vulnerable to anxiety and depression.


Since internal stress is a normal reaction to your worrying or stewing over mostly negative issues, does it make sense that having a good way to control how you think about negative issues would be beneficial to you?

That's what we offer you through Finding Personal Peace. Controlling the negative thinking that results in stress could make you a much happier person.

Think about it.

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P.S. When you’re done thinking, click here for more information.

Are You Agoraphobic?

A person with agoraphobia fears being in places where there is a chance of having a panic attack that people may witness, and getting away rapidly may be difficult. Because of these fears the sufferer will deliberately avoid such places - which may include crowded areas, special events, queues (standing in line), buses and trains, shops and shopping centers, and airplanes.

The physical symptoms of agoraphobia, which usually occur when people find themselves in a situation or environment that causes them anxiety may include accelerated heart beat, rapid and shallow breathing (hyperventilating), feeling hot, flushing, stomach upset, diarrhea, trouble swallowing, breaking out in a sweat, nausea, trembling, dizziness, feeling light-headed, as if one were about to faint, and ringing in the ears.Image

Physical symptoms are rare because most people with agoraphobia avoid situations that they believe will trigger panic,

There may also be a fear that people will notice a panic attack, causing humiliation and embarrassment; fear that during a panic attack their heart might stop, or they won't be able to breathe, and may die; and fear that the sufferer himself/herself is going crazy.

There may be other general symptoms such as low self-confidence and self-esteem; a feeling a loss of control; depression; a feeling of dread and anxiety; thinking that without the help of others the sufferer himself/herself would never be able to function or survive; and a dread of being left alone.

Symptoms may range from mild shyness to never leaving home for fear of a panic attack.

Typical treatments include a range of medications and psychotherapy.

Wouldn't it be nice if the agoraphobic had a simple way of recognizing when the negative thoughts pop up and dealing with the negative thought immediately before all the other symptoms manifest themselves?

That's what Finding Personal Peace offers you – a way to deal with issues at the initial thought level before the onset of physical and psychological symptoms.

Are you agoraphobic or do you know someone who is? Pass the post along and then click here for more information.

God bless,

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Sunday, November 4, 2012

Are You Addicted? Are You Sure?

I asked the second question in the title because I had always thought of addictions in the very narrowPerplexed Young Man scope of drugs, alcohol, or the like which could radically impair or kill me. My reading tells me that I am addicted because I have other actions that I do almost compulsively to avoid pain or to restore happiness.

Most contemporary resources like psychologytoday.com define addiction thusly: “Addiction is a condition that results when a person ingests a substance (alcohol, cocaine, nicotine) or engages in an activity (gambling) that can be pleasurable but the continued use of which becomes compulsive and interferes with ordinary life responsibilities. That definition takes the responsibility for addiction away from the individual and puts it on the drug or the pleasurable activity that ensnares us so readily. True, we must first make the decision to try the substance or activity. But its the drug or activity that addicts us.

Why do we seek these pleasurable things?

Ex-addict, William, in his blog, says, “At the root of all addiction is pain.” He goes on, “It is humans who get addicted out of fear of the darkness within, and not drugs that are addictive.”

Dr. Richard Carlson says in “You Can Be Happy, No Matter What” that “a habit is a thought that you have accepted as truth.”

He goes on to say that “Happiness is a positive feeling that exists inside you.” When we lose touch with that positive feeling, we knowingly or unknowingly attempt to get it back. “When you don’t understand the dynamics of your own mind, you innocently attempt to get your positive feeling back through outside sources – which can be the beginning of bad habits.” Carlson uses the words “addictions” and “habits” interchangeably.

When we accept our thoughts as truth and our thoughts are negative, then the truth can become something very frightening or dark as William described it in his blog.

Carlson says, “Some popular substitutes for a contented state of mind are alcohol, drugs, cigarettes, food, exercise, gambling, sex, and work. A few of the more subtle forms include arguing, proving yourself, and seeking approval.”

So by this very-common-sense definition of addiction, it becomes apparent that many of us have allowed ourselves to become addicts to something in an attempt to restore happiness. In my case, I am addicted to fast food and work.

For your convenience, I've published a partial list of addictions whereby you can decide for yourself if some of your “habits” might in fact be addictions. Click here for the list. Oh, after reviewing the list, I'll have to add chocolate as one of my addictions.

It appears that when we lose our feelings of happiness, which typically happens when we allow ourselves to ruminate more and more on negative things, we begin to search for things to restore that lost happiness or to block the fear or loss. The things that make us feel happy, even for a short period of time, are the things we tend to do again and again until the quest for happiness becomes a habit or addiction.

Some of these habits are simply annoying. Others are disruptive of a productive lifestyle. Others are destructive to ourselves or others; and others have the capacity to become criminal.

Think about this. Instead of masking the unhappiness with a substitute substance or activity, wouldn’t it be better if we could stop the negative thinking that is stealing our unhappiness? Or wouldn't it be nice to deal with the thoughts of the pleasure that precede the addictive act before it's repeated?

That's exactly what we show you how to do in “Finding Personal Peace.” We show you how to restore “peace” or “happiness” by appropriately handing the negative thinking that destroys your happiness.

Did you find yourself on the list? Are there habits/addictions from which you would like to be free? That's entirely possible for you. Take a look at Finding Personal Peace.

God bless,

Rod Peeks

Are You Angry?

Everybody has to deal with anger from time to time. But what's the best way to handle it? To answer thatangry man question, we must first understand what anger really is. Anger is an emotion often characterized by feelings of great displeasure, indignation, hostility, wrath and vengeance. Many times, reacting in anger is how we express our dissatisfaction with life. It’s defined in the Greek language as the strongest of all passions. Anger begins with a feeling that’s often expressed in words or actions. We feel something and it causes a reaction.

Ruminating, or dwelling, on your anger isn't actually helpful. Studies show that, among other things, those who have a tendency to ruminate over situations that have made them angry in their past tend to experience higher blood pressure as a result, putting them at greater risk for organ damage and associated health problems. Trying to solve a problem is a good idea, but stewing in your anger is not.

We're always encouraged to talk through our anger. Discussing your anger is a tricky thing. Talking about your anger with a trusted friend can be an effective strategy for dealing with anger -- to a point. It can help you better understand your feelings, brainstorm problem-solving strategies, and strengthen your relationship.

But there's also evidence that repeatedly discussing your anger with your friends can actually make you both feel worse, and increase stress hormones in your blood for both of you. Most of us have been involved in conversations that are basically complaint sessions or downward spirals of negative emotion. We can show you a more effective way.

Anger can make you sick

Like poorly managed stress, anger that isn’t handled in a healthy way can be not only uncomfortable, but even damaging to one's health and personal life.

Yelling at wifeOne study looked at anger problems in husbands and wives. There is evidence that anger problems and depressive symptoms have been linked to all major causes of death, but found that wives specifically found a greater association between anger and symptoms of depression, while men tended to instead experience an association between anger and health problems.

According to another study, those who had less control over their anger tended to heal more slowly from wounds.

Yet another study showed that men with higher rates of hostility not only had poorer pulmonary functioning (breathing problems), but experienced higher rates of decline as they aged.

We don't have room here to mention the social implications of anger: broken relationships, transferring anger to spouse, children and friends; spontaneous acts that can lead to hurting someone and maybe criminal behavior, and much more.

Because poorly managed anger presents such a significant problem in so many areas of life, it's important to take steps toward learning an effective way of dealing with anger.

Every angry episode begins with a single negative thought. ‘Finding Personal Peace’ shows you how to effectively deal with angry thoughts before they escalate to a more painful level.

You really can find personal peace starting today.

God bless,

Rod Peeks

P.S. Click here to begin your quest to defeat anger in your life.
P.P.S. BTW, you know you can share these posts, don’t you? Even through Facebook and Twitter. Please feel free to share.

Saturday, November 3, 2012

Are You Depressed?

According to the Surgeon General, depression is the number three health problem in America. Yet many of us simply don't realize or admit that we are depressed.Image

Depression may be described as feeling sad, blue, unhappy, miserable, or down in the dumps. Most of us feel this way at one time or another for short periods.

More than just a bout of the blues, depression isn't a weakness, nor is it something that you can simply "snap out" of. Dr. Richard Carlson says, “You can't think yourself out of depression.”

Depression is usually treated with antidepressant medications and short-term, goal-oriented psychotherapy.

Not only are women more prone to depression than men, but the causes of female depression and even the pattern of symptoms are often different.

Men also suffer from depression but are often less willing to admit it and seek help because they consider depression a “female” disease.

Teens may show their pervasive sadness by wearing black clothes, writing poetry with morbid themes, or having a preoccupation with music that has nihilistic themes. They may cry for no apparent reason. Children and teens that cause trouble at home or at school may actually be depressed but not know it. Because the child may not always seem sad, parents and teachers may not realize that the behavior problem is a sign of depression.

Some depression is based on chemical imbalances in our bodies and this depression can be treated medically.

Another and perhaps more common form of depression involves the numbing of emotions, especially grief, fear, anger and shame. Depression occurs when these emotions loop back on themselves, having bad feelings about bad feelings, sometimes without limit.

When we dwell on painful experiences again and again, the “looping-back” effect takes place again and again.

Finding Personal Peace shows us how to avoid the looping effect; how to break the cycle of negative thinking building on previous negative thinking.

This can be the ideal solution for people who hate taking medications and for people, particularly men, who don't want to admit depression, but nevertheless experience the symptoms of negative emotions.

Hope this helps!

Rod Peeks

P.S. Find out about relieving depression by clicking here.

Victims of Abuse

Abuse is approaching epidemic proportions today. We'll mention three common forms of abuse: domestic abuse; child sexual abuse; and bullying. There are others but space is limited.

Domestic violence and emotional abuse are behaviors used by one person in a relationship to control the other. Partners may be married or not married; heterosexual, gay, or lesbian; living together, separated or dating.

Examples of abuse include:

  • name-calling or put downsImage

  • keeping a partner from contacting their family or friends

  • withholding money

  • stopping a partner from getting or keeping a job

  • actual or threatened physical harm

  • sexual assault

  • stalking

  • intimidation


Violence can be criminal and includes physical assault (hitting, pushing, shoving, etc.), sexual abuse (unwanted or forced sexual activity), and stalking. Although emotional, psychological and financial abuse are not criminal behaviors, they are forms of abuse and can lead to criminal violence.

Child sexual abuse is a form of child abuse in which a child is abused for the sexual gratification of an adult or older adolescent. In addition to direct sexual contact, child sexual abuse also occurs when an adult indecently exposes their genitalia to a child, asks or pressures a child to engage in sexual activities, displays pornography to a child, or uses a child to produce child pornography.

Effects of child sexual abuse include guilt and self-blame, flashbacks, nightmares, insomnia, fear of things associated with the abuse (including objects, smells, places, doctor's visits, etc.), self-esteem issues, sexual dysfunction, chronic pain, addiction, self-injury, suicidal ideation, somatic complaints, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, other mental illnesses (including borderline personality disorder) propensity to re-victimization in adulthood, and physical injury to the child, among other problems. Victims of child sex abuse are over six times more likely to attempt suicide and eight times more likely to repeatedly attempt suicide. The abusers are also more likely to commit suicide. Much of the harm caused to victims becomes apparent years after the abuse happens.

Sexual abuse by a family member is a form of incest, and results in more serious and long-term psychological trauma, especially in the case of parental incest.

Bullying is a form of abuse. It involves repeated acts over time attempting to create or enforce one person's (or group's) power over another person (or group), thus an "imbalance of power". The "imbalance of power" may be social power and/or physical power. The victim of bullying is sometimes referred to as a target. Bullying types of behavior are often rooted in a would-be bully's inability to empathize with those whom he or she would target.

In all cases of ongoing abuse of any form, the primary objective is to get help. We've compiled a listing of resources available by telephone or on-line that victims can use. These resources are respect your privacy and are equipped and trained to guide the victim to safety. Click here to see the list of resources.

The context of our mission is to provide relief for people who are suffering from abuse from the past. Prior abuse exists primarily in the memories of the victims. Yet when the victim replays those memory, which is often done, it can be as traumatic as experiencing the abuse again.

But it's not happening again. The pain is a response to the thought about the abuse. Any form of pain that results from a thought can be alleviated greatly if one knows what to do about the thought.

That's what Finding Personal Peace is good at doing – helping one learn how to deal with negative thoughts before the pain is re-created and very often enhanced.

If you're a victim of abuse or you know a victim of abuse, consider Finding Personal Peace as a viable tool. We WILL NOT MAKE YOU RELIVE THE PAIN!!!

God bless,

Rod Peeks

P.S. Click here for more information about Finding Personal Peace.