Getting to the Cause of Depression and Anxiety

Family First | VoiceAmerica™

It seems that more and more people today are being diagnosed and treated for depression and anxiety. The media advertisements for pharmaceuticals for these emotional states have increased dramatically. At the same time, the ads warn not to drive or work with dangerous machinery while under the influence. Yet people who are being medicated for anxiety and depression can’t afford to stop their work and home functions. And often the effects of the drugs shift over time. Is there another way? My guest this week on Family First is Dr. Jonathan Brower, who has pursued life-long study of the inner-workings of the unconscious and of how people suffer when they put up walls to avoid being conscious of their real feelings and impulses. His counseling practice focuses on helping people to discover the source of their anxiety or depression, so that they can overcome it by addressing the root cause. He specializes in a therapeutic process which can have dramatic results in a very short time.

To hear the program, simply click on the link above or this link::http://www.voiceamerica.com/show/1916/family-first Friday at 1 PM PT, 2 PM MT, 3 PM CT, 4 PM ET, or any time afterwards on demand, for podcast download, or RSS.

 Dr. Jonathan Brower experienced important people in his early life being “nervous.” He didn’t have the word "anxiety" in his vocabulary, but what he experienced was very real and disturbing. In addition to the nervousness, some of the people around him had low energy and would withdraw from others. He wanted to know more. At ten, he became a voracious reader of biographies and novels that involved the emotional struggles people tried to overcome. By age 16, he was reading books by and about Sigmund Freud. For the first half of college he was a psychology major, but he found that many courses were not about the human struggle toward optimal mental health. He changed his major to sociology, where he learned about the social psychology of emotions and relationships. He went on to earn his Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Says Dr. Brower, “We all have had some degree of emotional pain during our lives, but we don’t have to let it cause us to suffer.”

To hear the program, simply click on this link::http://www.voiceamerica.com/show/1916/family-first or the link above, on Friday at 1 PM PT, 2 PM MT, 3 PM CT, 4 PM ET, or any time afterwards on demand, for podcast download, or RSS.

Take Home Tip from Randy Rolfe: Emotional states which cause pain and suffering need to be addressed first by seeking the cause and getting help to reverse the cause. Too many people today, even youngsters and young adults, are being medicated without proper attempts to correct the underlying causes. Teach your children that pills are a last resort except in crisis situations and seldom have long lasting relief without serious side effects. Emotional conditions instead need to be worked out with a trusted relative, friend, or professional if at all possible.

Help for Special Needs Kids

Please join me, Randy Rolfe, for Family First on Voice America, tomorrow, 1 PM PT, 4 PM ET, or later in archive or download, for a great discussion of how to get the educational assistance a child with special needs deserves. Many parents today find that there children need special attention because of various disabilities which make it harder for them to benefit from conventional school programs. With all the cuts in school budgets today and classroom size increasing, special education seems even harder to arrange. Yet autism and related disorders is on the increase, and we have children with hearing and visual impairment, as well as slowed development in various areas, and other health and learning impairments. There are federal and state laws that require special education programs for these children, but obtaining appropriate help can seem overwhelming. Today I am pleased to welcome a true expert in this field, Attorney Tanya Alvarado, who will help us understand what resources are available under the law, what the process looks like, and when to seek an experienced attorney to help with the process. Just about everyone knows someone who has a child who needs extra help, so do listen in. Here's the link:

http://www.voiceamerica.com/episode/55094/when-your-child-needs-more-special-education

Great news! I just got the first copy of the new edition of my book - The seven Secrets of Successful Parents. I have had so many parents tell me it was one of the best books they ever read on how to really tap into their own wisdom and give the best of themselves to their children. Please share this book with all the parents you know! more to come.

Take Home Tip from Randy Rolfe: The home environment is as important if not more so for kids who are finding schooling challenging. Let your child see you reading, doing figures, interacting with others. speak in normal tones and sentences, so they can pick up easily the sounds and structures of our language. Kids learn best by imitation and example by people they can trust.

How Your Home Spaces Can Improve Family Mood!

This Friday July 24, 2011 I, please listen in as I Randy Rolfe, have the pleasure of interviewing Denny Daileler, international expert on creating environments which foster comfort, respect, productivity, peace, chesiveness and great family relationships! Here's the link:

http://www.voiceamerica.com/episode/54647/how-small-changes-in-your-home-environment-reap-big-rewards-in-improved-family-relationships

The show is also archived and downloadable at your convenience.

Small changes can make a big difference in how your familoy members interact. Ask your children how they would like to rearrange the familoy room for example. This gets them to invest in the arrangement and to feel they have some say. Also, let them arrange their bedrooms, within your comfortable limits.

Take Home Tips from World Ambassador for Family Randy Rolfe: Keep fresh air in each room and comfortable chairs for each member of the famiy. Use bright and light relaxing colors so that indoors the family is surrounded with as much full spectrum light as possible.
To learn more about taking care of children's basic needs by tending to their physical environment, see Randy's book The Seven Secrets of Successful Parents. For more information, go to www.randyrolfe.com.

When Grandma Is Gone

Parenting author and family expert Randy Rolfe, that's me, is working on a new book about what happens when a mother loses her mother. Having lost my mother a year or so ago, I discovered that many women around me were going through the same time of life and I wanted to honor our mothers and ourselves by writing about it. Could anything be more profound that the creative force of motherhood passed on from one generation to the next? I am having a wonderful time, though deeply moving and sometimes too emotionally heavy to bear – have to take some time out - talking to these wonderful women. One thing which stands out is the deep love and respect which permeates their stories, along with all the mixed feelings and impressions one might imagine when you have shared half a life-time with a beloved parent. For me, it was my sociologist mother who got me interested in observing and teaching about family in the first place, when she invited me to do a fifth grade project for my American history class not on some battle or some heroine but on the history of the American family! What a project for a ten year old! My life’s goal has always been to facilitate world peace, having grown up during the Cold War, but I soon discovered that world peace begins in the home. Anyhow, here is just one tidbit from the book right now – spend as much time as you can comfortably spend with your parents and your children together. The memories made now will last and last.

Check out Randy’s other books at www.randyrolfe.com.