Sunday, July 29, 2012

Family Time

I'm getting ready to leave for the British Virgin Islands in a few days to visit family.  I'll be gone for abut two weeks.  I will try to post a couple of time while I'm there since I'll have more time on my hands but I'm not sure what my Internet access is looking like right now.  I'm currently working on a paper, cleaning my house, doing laundry, and packing at the same time LOL!  Once I get back, I'll be posting more frequently.  If I don't check in before I leave, take care!

-Kimmy

Monday, July 23, 2012

Mental Health 101: Fetishism

People get sexually aroused in different ways...some are "normal" and others are well, not so much...


Fetishism is the term used to describe atypical sexual behavior, was noted in the writings of 19th century French psychologist Alfred Binet. Fetishism or fetishes describe an intense sexual attraction of either non-living objects and/or speciļ¬c body parts that were symbolically associated with a person. Fetishes, as with other paraphilic disorders, are almost exclusively found in men. Fetishes typically develop in childhood or early adolescence and are usually persistent into adulthood.  Fetishes can co-occur with other paraphilic (sexual arousal and gratification depend on fantasizing about and engaging in sexual behavior that is atypical and extreme...more on those in another post) behaviors, especially sadism and/or masochism but are uncommon among sexual offender paraphiliacs.   Someone with a fetish can have one or several fetishes including sexual attraction to body parts and non-living objects.  Common fetishes are female undergarments, body parts especially feet, footwear including socks, shoes and boots, and leather objects; the most popular fetish in the world is high heels.  Someone with a fetish can be sexually aroused by smell, taste, touch, insert, rub or be visually aroused of the object or body part but the object is needed in order.  


Most people do not have any issues with their fetish however it may be a problem if it interferes with your everyday life or you are harming others.  Remember, an issue is not a mental health disorder until you are unable to function in your everyday life normally.  If that's the case, it's a good idea to seek treatment from am mental health professional.  Treatment approaches have included traditional psychoanalysis, hypnosis, cognitive and behavior therapy as well as medication.  There are also support groups you can find online.  Here are a couple I found.


http://www.allinthefamilycounselling.com/index.php/groups/partners-of-sex-addictionfetishes
http://www.dailystrength.org/groups/bdsm-fetish-body-mod-and-alternative-lifestyles

I hope you guys learned something new :) until next time...

Take care,
-Kimmy

Work in progress

Hey all!

Just wanted to let you know that I'm still around.  I'm working on a post on fetishism but I don't think it's a good idea to work on it from a work computer.  I'm at a temporary location at work and I don't want to bring my personal laptop because it's too chaotic where I'm at otherwise I'd work on stuff during my lunch breaks.  I'm going to finish editing it tonight after I get my workout on (I'm trying to make that one of my priorities).

School is kicking my butt and I'm getting ready to go see my family in the British Virgin Islands next week.   It's been hectic but I'm getting there little by little. 

I've joined IBOsocial yesterday after seeing a friend talk about it on Facebook.  We'll see how that goes and whether it helps me.

Until I get the new stuff out, check out my old posts and comment with suggestions of what you want me to write about because it'll help me out a lot as to what I write about next and I don't take as long :)

Take care,
-Kimmy

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

School, Supervision, and Board Exams

I started school this week and once of my classes is a major thorn in my side.  I have assignments due almost every weekend this quarter including while I'm in the BVI visiting family (I haven't seen them in five years because I was working on my Master's).  I have to buy an international air card which are not cheap at all so I'm pretty peeved about that.  I also switched professors in one of my classes because my professor (by mistake I assume) stated that the class was supposed to be taken towards the end of the program and did not address my and other students' concerns about being in the wrong class quickly (it was the weekend for goodness sake) so I wanted out because I'm not trying to be in the wrong class right now.  After some back and forth with my academic adviser, she agreed to switched professors.  My new professor appears to be more together but the class is still hardcore.  Ugh.  Story of my life.  Before you think I'm being a brat, I'm not a fan of my program because the database search functions Capella uses are not sensitive, making it a royal pain in the ass to find articles for assignments.  I took a seminar on searching through databases so I know I'm not losing it.  Something I could find in 30 minutes at Webster takes 90 minutes at Capella using the same databases.  My boss, who also attends Capella, agrees with me on this one too.

I'm also studying for my state board exam because I want to get that out of the way before the holidays and we start the new fiscal year at work.  That is going pretty okay I just need to work on the treatment interventions part since I used that knowledge sparingly since I graduated school.

Once I get around to looking at my DSM-IV (not looking forward to buying the DSM-5 because those suckers are NOT cheap but I digress) and pick my next disorder, I'll post another mental health 101 post.

Hope everyone is doing well...until next time...

Take care,
-Kimmy

Thursday, July 5, 2012

social network sites

Hi all,

I just wanted to let you know that I'm going to deactivate my Facebook and Twitter accounts.  This is because I do not have many followers and with school I don't have much time to tweet and post consistently on a regular basis.  I'm going to wait until I start making decent money on this blog before I reactivate them.  If you were following me on Twitter, my apologies.  I'm currently looking into other ways to promote this blog so I can make some mula!  Clinical supervision isn't cheap you know! 

I hope everyone had a wonderful Independence Day!

Take care,
-Kimmy

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Anger


Think about the last time you got angry.  There's probably a good chance that you were feeling other emotions before or while you were angry even if you didn't notice at the time.  This is because anger is a secondary emotion.  Anger is often called a secondary emotion because people get angry to protect themselves from or cover up vulnerable feelings. What people feel immediately before getting angry is called a primary emotion; we almost always feel something else first before we get angry.  We might first feel scared, attacked, offended, disrespected, forced, trapped, hurt, or pressured. If any of these feelings are intense enough, it's easy to confuse them with anger.  


Many cultures and societal norms have taught people to not show "negative" emotions such as fear, sadness, or confusion so people become angry because it is the more accepted response.  However expressing anger instead of what one is truly feeling can create more stressful situations and misunderstandings with other people.


If you're always angry and you are having issues with it, it's important to find out what is underneath the anger in order to control it.  Once you figure that out, you then need to learn how to cope with the underlying emotions.  As always, a counselor or anger management group can help you with that journey.  I also provided a link below if you want to go the online route.


http://www.angermanagementonline.com


As always, take care!


-Kimmy :)