Today, it seems like we’re told all over the media to protect our mental health. Take care of your body, eat your veggies, get enough sleep, and seek a counselor are all tips that are almost on repeat every day. As helpful as the intent is to spread this healthy message, I honestly feel that the media is pushing the topic of mental health so much to the point that it is becoming oversaturated. It’s in the news, the topic of many new Netflix shows, sang about in mainstream rap music, and depicted in several popular commercials as well. I’m not complaining, as the people who truly need help with improving their mental health and anxiety disorders need to feel encouraged.

However, to create a truly positive impact, what we need are specific recommendations for treatment, awareness, and prevention that don’t appear to box mental health problems as some sort of untouchable disease. Mental health shouldn’t be glamorized as some spiritual journey that brings life events that would make an entertaining TV show. It should be talked about in a relatable manner so the people who actually feel the shame and embarrassment that different types of anxiety brings can feel boosted to take action.

One area of anxiety disorders that is less talked about is the symptoms that victims go through. Since mental disorders are fairly invisible, to a stranger’s eye a person may look normal and completely healthy. Yet, on the inside, they could feel absolutely crushed and frantically searching for a viable answer to their physical and mental struggles. Knowing the warning signs of an oncoming anxiety attack, how to manage them is incredibly important so you can hopefully help yourself or someone you know in the future. Being educated about mental health is always a good thing and there’s never a time you don’t have to keep learning. Let’s dive in to some of the key red flags of anxiety disorders.

• If you have an anxiety attack, it can be triggered from anything that causes internal stress to the body. It could be from thinking about a negative memory, person, place, exercise that is too intense, dehydration, and sometimes nothing at all. A person could start sweating much more than usual, begin trembling from out of nowhere, have shortness of breath, and an extremely quick heart beat. They may start talking faster, or suddenly fall silent and freeze up depending on their personality. If someone around you appears to experience this, don’t be alarmed or bombard them with questions as it can likely lead to even more stress.
• Anxiety attacks can last anywhere from about ten minutes to a couple hours depending on the person. It leads to fatigue and emotional draining after the attack is over. You may feel like you’re going to lose your mind, faint and fall over, or even die. However, rest assured that there’s no way this will happen unless you happen to do something that truly puts you in harm’s way during the attack.
• You can cope with anxiety symptoms. If you start to feel some of the signs coming on, take a moment to stand up and stretch your body so you can tame a potential attack. Remember that you are in control, and your mind is a powerful tool to overcome what signals you are experiencing in the rest of your body. Focus on your breathing and inhale as deeply as possible so you can feel more relaxed. Another great tip from people with anxiety disorders to stay hydrated by drinking a glass of cold water. The icey temperature of the water can help reduce the rising body temperature that often comes with stress and anxiety. As you start to feel more at ease, make sure you type in your iPhone’s notes or write down the root of your anxiety attack. What were you doing at the time, where were you located, and what was running through your mind? These are all details that can point you to why you may feel anxiety symptoms from nowhere.
• Diagnosis is doable. In the past, it might have taken several months or years for someone to get a proper diagnosis on their anxiety disorders. Mental health now is set as a priority and you don’t have to be afraid to tell a doctor what you’re going through so frequently.  You won’t appear stupid, weak, or dependent for reaching out. Instead, asking for health is a sign of being wise and strong enough to take charge of your personal health. If you don’t, you can risk suffering from your anxiety symptoms alone and in silence. You could start distancing yourself from friends, social events, and fall into a spiral of destructive thinking patterns of not being able to improve. My hope is that with enough education, people can feel empowered enough to discuss their anxiety symptoms with an expert who specializes in dealing with anxiety disorders. Remember, it’s never too late!

Face the Facts

You’re an amazing, powerful, and enduring human being who has the potential to grow every day. If you are struggling with anxiety symptoms or know someone who does, it’s time to face the reality of the effect it causes on your body. Gain as much information as you can on the symptoms you are dealing with and take an online anxiety quiz as well to get a better idea of your mental health. You hold the capability to sink deep into anxiety disorders, so there’s no reason you can’t pull yourself out of one and come out stronger than ever before.

A drug addict can look like a man clutching a vaporizer on the side of the road, the kid sitting on the back of the bus covering his habits, or a dressed up girl who keeps her drugs in her purse wherever she goes. No matter what your age is, gender, or background, anyone can become addicted to using drugs for the mental benefits it provides. Teenagers and adults who are going through stressful environments are even more prone to abusing drugs and take on symptoms of an addict after using intense substance long enough. They may keep these symptoms a secret, or it could unfold into a chain of disastrous events. One thing that rings true about drug addictions is that the negative consequences it creates are never pretty. The addict can feel and behave like a total wreck, run through their entire bank account, and ruin important relationships that took years and energy to develop.

In order to prevent an addict from going too far, acknowledging their signs of addiction and other important symptoms of drug abuse is highly important. You need to know about what environmental factors could trigger them as well, especially if they’re a close family or friend. If you simply just want to know more about addiction itself, you’ve come to the right place. Let’s break down the top signs of addiction and how they can be better understood.

Signs of Addiction

• The addict takes more of a drug over time. Biologically we develop a tolerance level to foreign substances that enter our body so we don’t react in an extreme way. The same goes for chemicals we often don’t think about that are found in things like coffee, candy, desserts, or fruit. With repeated use of a drug like cocaine, marijuana, or adderall, an addict begins to go through long term changes. Overall, their body develops a strong desire for a high more frequently and achieves it by increasing the dose with each consumption. With several instances of exposure to a certain drug, an addict’s body can be placed into an extremely dangerous situation and can easily lead to an overdose.
• The addict starts to look different. They won’t be growing blue hair or six inches taller, but you will definitely see a change in their character, daily habits, and physical appearance overall. They may be walking around with eyes that look glazed or bloodshot from the drug, dilated pupils, a lighter or much heavier weight than usual, and bruises that seem to come out of nowhere. Other symptoms of drug use include sleeping less or much more than normal, behaving more irritable towards others who question their whereabouts, and being oddly defense to the most innocent of questions.
• The addict starts falling short of life. They can’t keep up with the normal responsibilities they had to manage before, whether it’s from a job or school. The same goes for maintain important relationships, as seeking out a drug is now their priority over human connection. With continuous isolation and a vicious cycle of dependence, signs of addiction often include depression and episodes of anger. It’s no surprise that within thousands of homes, many cases of violence often overlap with a mom, dad, sibling, or spouse who is abusing drugs and can’t manage their high.
• The addict is slowly going broke. Another key feature of drug addiction signs includes a swindling bank account. Financing drugs on a regular basis is not for someone who can barely make it on a minimum wage job. If a person normally doesn’t spend much money, you’ll have to question if they’re making amends with their dealers or whatever resource they’re receiving their drugs from. As uncomfortable as the conversation may be, asking the addict to open up about their relationship with drugs could be first step in the right direction. If they seem reluctant to talk, invest in their long term health by booking an appointment with a rehab counselor yourself so they aren’t bothered with the mundane details. The addict then won’t have an excuse to not confront their signs of addiction with drugs either.
• The addict has their head in the clouds. No matter what they are trying to focus on, they may have trouble with focusing on anything else but the drug they are addicted to. It could be about how to get more of the drug, how to cover up their tracks, or how to get a better high the next time around. You will notice that an addict will look unfocused and out of touch with what is going on around them. Asking them a simple question could cause them to look extremely startled or confused.
• The addict avoids treatment to deal with their signs of addiction. The addict needs to know about what their options are for getting help so their health doesn’t completely fall down the drain. Seeking a local rehab counselor, attending an in person or online Alcohol Anonymous group, or visiting a
  holistic health center are all great ways to deal with even the most intense of drug addictions. If you’ve been meaning to talk to an addict in your life, make sure you can bring along a team of family and friends who genuinely care to see them get through the substance abuse. Together, you can recommend treatment methods with the addict and explain why all of you have noticed such a negative change in his or her life.

Assess Your Situation

Even if you or someone you know is taking a drug, understanding where the line falls between occasional use to a full on addiction is important. Take an online addiction quiz to get a better sense of your thought process for using the drug and why you may be so dependent on it. While it seems like a waste of time, the insight you gain on your inner workings is only beneficial for long term growth. We all want to know more about ourselves to make better decisions for the future, so don’t hesitate!

A smart home can be controlled from one central place instead of having to move from place to place to get things done. One computer tablet you can carry with you can control a variety of things such as lighting, climate, entertainment systems and appliances. This makes for a very simplistic home environment when all of your devices and appliance can be controlled from a central hub. If you want your bedroom warmer before you get there, just notch it up on the tablet before you head upstairs and it will be nice and cozy for you when you roll into bed. Want your garage to be open before you get to the car to leave? Just hit a button to get the door open and you can glide right on out to work on time every day. These small things make for much easier living for the entire family.

Do you need a certain home for a smart home to work?

The answer to this question is: certainly not! You can have any type of home and it can be set up to be compatible with whatever smart home options you would like. Old, new, big, small, modern, there is no requirement for the type of home that you need to live in for you to be able to make it a smart home. These features can be easily installed by professionals and you just have to wait a few days for the magic to happen. When deciding on how you want to set up your smart home you can choose to add as many or little features as you want. You could have it just control the lighting and heating if you wanted to keep it simple, or control almost everything and anything around your house if you wanted to.

Safety and children

Having a smart home is super child friendly and this shouldn’t be something to deter you. There is a way to put a passcode lock on the central device so that no unauthorized person can change anything around the house without the owner’s permission. Families with young children may not want to do it as they think their children may mistake it for a game and start to press random button, especially younger children who just play with anything. However, with the passcode feature, this should not be a worry as they would not be able to change anything on it.

A few home automation options

There are a few choices you have for smart home tech ideas. One of these ideas is for your bathrooms. Imagine that before you even walk into to your bathroom, the floors start warming up. In a cold house, this would be perfect to ensure you don’t have to be cold getting out of the shower. Imagine that the lights turn on in your bathroom before you’re in there, or the same for any room in your house. Installing a smart shower in your house can save a lot of water for you. A smart toilet can flush the exact right amount of water needed every time.

Imagine that you automated your kitchens so that you can push a single button and turn all the lights on. Or you automate a program that could turn the TV on for you when you’re cooking so you can see your favorite cooking show and it will adjust the volume perfectly for you.

Or how about installing automatic blackout shades in your living room, that automatically go down when needed to reduce glare? On top of this adding, consider a motorized projector that descends from the ceiling and a screen that rolls down the wall — this is all part of what you could experience in your living area.
Finally, outside can also have automated features linked to the security of your home. This should be an  

especially important consideration for any family. Automation can do everything from control your

home’s security cameras and link them to your phone to announce when the pool gate is open or

automatically turn sprinklers off when rain is coming. You can be alerted if any suspicious activity is

happening in your house if you are out with your wife and you are worried about your child. These are all

great reasons to start to act on installing a smart home today!

What is the cost of a smart home?

A quick note on cost, the average US family spends about 500 to 2500 dollars on smart home installation.

This is a small price to pay for the great benefits that automating can bring you and your family!

Process addiction is when someone begins to repeat certain behavioral habits that they cannot get out of and this becomes a vicious cycle. This is typically used to describe situations in which the addiction is detrimental to the person’s health or overall well-being in life. These habits could be a shopping addiction, gambling addiction, smartphone addiction, etc. These addictions can sometimes be tough to pin point, because if Jeff Bezos (the creator and owner of Amazon) goes on a shopping spree with his 120 billion dollars, it has a much lesser impact than if one of your friends goes on a spree with a credit card and puts themselves in debt for it. When does a hobby cross from fun activity to a dangerous and debilitating addiction? Is going to the casino twice a week regimentally an addiction or is it when they go four times a week and lose every time? This is why process addiction can be one of the tougher addictions to tackle as there can sometimes be a very fine line. However, with any addiction, it is always best to err on the side of caution and make sure the person you love or care about is not becoming a cog in the vicious cycle of process addiction.

Who is most susceptible to process addiction?

There are a few types of people who are a lot more susceptible to these types of addictions than others. Typically someone with OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) would be much more likely to become obsessed with a certain activity and get sucked into repetitive behavioral habits than others. However, process addiction can happen to anyone and it is imperative that friends and family members understand what it is and the best way to handle it.

Why is important to understand process addiction?

I believe process addiction is one of the most discrete types of addictions there can be. This means that it is not easy to spot or uncover and therefore is more important that someone can notice it to be able to put a stop to it. Something like alcohol or drug addiction is easy to notice: being drunk every night, or high way too
often, are very obvious signs someone has a substance abuse problem. But when someone has a shopping addiction, this is much tougher to point out and then handle. What constitutes a shopping addiction? What level of shopping is ok that it doesn’t constitute an addiction and is just leisurely shopping once in a while? What type of buying is a necessity rather than an addictive type of buying? These are all the tough questions people have to face when dealing with discrete process addictions and not other more obvious additions like alcohol addiction.When someone has an addiction, it can be described as having repetitive behavioral habits that are created when the sense of the reward or excitement leaves and then not having enough self-control to stop the urge to do it again. A person getting into credit card debt or gaining weight, or someone that has a chance of drug overdose, are all practicing habits that are terrible for them. If someone was addicted to work and making money for his family, I can’t say that is a terrible attribute. I think becoming obsessed with an idea is how great people become so successful. But if that is channeled in the wrong manner, it can be a very dangerous character trait to have.  

What to do about process addiction

If you find out someone you know is suffering from process addiction, then it’s best to take action and speak out about it. Leaving the situation unhandled for too long may only make it worse and the person could have reached a point where it is really tough to get back to a normal way of life. Once confronting them, it’s best to start to seek steps to handle their process addiction and tackle their behavioral habits that they are suffering from. It varies from case to case as each addiction is unique so it’s hard to have one single answer for all the types of process addiction there could be. Definitely make sure to monitor them when you can and try to give them other more beneficial tasks to focus on. From here, the addiction will hopefully slow if they are forced to change in the beginning. Never be afraid to seek help if the problem gets way out of hand also. Addiction is dangerous and should not be taken lightly!

Are you obsessed with all the blockbusters? Having a properly planned and well-built home theater will give you endless hours of entertainment with your family and friends in the comfort of your own home. It also saves you hundreds of dollars otherwise spent on sky high prices at the movie theaters in town. Think about it, how many times can you anticipate spending more than one hundred dollars at the movies with all your kids attending? Even if you just enjoy watching all the latest movies, having a theater is a great investment and improves the quality of your home’s value. Moreover, installing quality audio system is key to getting the best media experience possible. These days, wireless surround sound systems are all the rage as they don’t require being plugged into an outlet and can be moved around anywhere as long as it’s connected to Bluetooth. Having your home theater integrated with great speakers for a sound system enhances your engagement with whatever movie you’re watching.

No matter what, there’s so many variables to also consider, both technical and financial when you’re building a home theater. For example, it’s estimated that investing in a quality home theater can cost you anywhere from $1,000 to $25,000 alone. Let’s break down some key things to remember as you setup your own home theater system.

1. Have a great projector. Big-screen TVs can take up a lot of space, as you can’t take them outside, around your home, and they don’t deliver the full cinema experience you’re looking for. Having a LED project is great as it lasts over twice as long as a standard projector and will bring you that high quality audio experience without breaking the bank. You can now even spend less than $1,500 on a great LED projector that will give you at least one hundred diagonal inches or more of eye-popping visuals. On the other hand, buying a modern 88-inch OLED TV will set you back a great amount of cash. And while TVs can offer benefits and special features that projectors can’t, like Internet apps, the decreased flexibility can cost you in the long run.
2. Surround yourself with sound. Quality audio systems are the key to watching a great movie with ease. Although there is a large variety of portable and compact wireless powered Bluetooth and Wifi speakers designed for personal music listening, more home theater designers than ever are turning to using wireless surround sound speakers designed specifically for watching movies. Running long and ugly speaker wires that are required to connect speakers for a surround sound can easily make your theater less comfy than it’s supposed to be. Today, people are more attracted to home theater system options that promote wireless speakers as a way to solve that problem. Make sure to do your homework about what inputs are required for each brand’s model, as it doesn’t always run consistent across the market.
3. Remote control your functions, but not with the hold handheld device you remember from home as a kid. Nothing can ruin your home theater or quality audio system quicker than a cumbersome remote control. Many of today’s theater components, even the high-end ones, come with extremely basic controllers that don’t provide an integrated user experience. That’s why you want to invest in a handy universal remote or an advanced control system to control all your devices. Today, a majority of control platforms aren’t limited to the gear in your home theater either, as DIY systems like Logitech’s Harmony platform allow you to manage even applications throughout the rest of your house. Ranging from multi-room music to lighting around the house, you’d be surprised what your options are with a universal control system.
4. Create your theater vibe. Having extremely comfy recliners, decently soundproof walls, easily adjustable lighting and even a snack or concession stand are among the most important features that give your room a true theater feel. Hopefully, any type of outside sound shouldn’t be able to enter the theater room easily or escape from inside. This means that you should look into building a home theater that has R30 insulation for the walls, floor and ceiling which serves as a barrier to sound waves. Home theater lighting also often includes recessed lighting in the ceiling or low-profile fixtures along the side walls that can be controlled by a remote. If you’d like to feature stadium style seating instead, you’ll also need floor lighting so your family can easily walk around the space when the lights are dim. As for furniture, you can generally choose from a variety of armchair seating, sofas, and other items that fit every budget.

Take a seat

When it’s planned carefully, home theaters can really pay off.  A custom entertainment space can exceptionally add to your home’s resale value as well as its positive experience. You’ll have a prime gathering space for family members and guests alike for years to come, so don’t be hesitant to take your time to implement the right technology, lighting, furniture, and control systems.