Mad River Behavioral Health

 I’ve always advised parents to be like Jello.  Jello is firm, yet fun and fruity.  *** There are three primary parenting styles - authoritarian, authoritative, and permissive.  Each are effective in raising children to become productive adults. Each has strengths and weaknesses.  Permissive parenting generally produces adults who have  higher self-esteem and tend to be high achievers.  While still children, there may be more behavioral problems.  Authoritarian parents (strict, often harsh and punitive) produce adults that have lower self-esteem and tend to be lower achievers. As children, there are fewer behavior problems - while adults are watching - although covert behaviors (lying, being sneaky) tend to be higher.  Authoritative parents produce the most successful adults. Authoritative parents are firm, but willing to discuss rules and expectations. Authoritative parents use a lot of verbal reasoning from a very early age. Their children ...

 Optical illusions exploit the way our brains process visual information, leading to a perception that doesn't match the actual reality. Here's how they work: 1. Brain's Interpretation: Our brains constantly try to make sense of the world around us. They use past experiences, assumptions, and shortcuts to interpret visual input quickly. 2. Conflicting Cues: Optical illusions present conflicting or ambiguous visual cues. This could involve lines, shapes, colors, or shadows arranged in a way that tricks the brain. 3. Misinterpretation: The brain, trying to reconcile these conflicting cues, makes an interpretation that is incorrect, resulting in a distorted or illusory perception. Types of Illusions:  * Ambiguous Figures: Images that can be perceived in multiple ways, like the famous "My Wife and My Mother-in-Law" illusion.  * Distorting Illusions: Illusions that distort our perception of size, length, or shape, such as the Müller-Lyer illusion.  * Paradoxical Illusi...

  Train yourself and your team in overcoming functional fixedness.  Functional fixedness is a cognitive bias that limits a person to using an object only in the way it is traditionally used. For example, if someone needs a paperweight, but they only have a hammer, they may not see how the hammer can be used as a paperweight. Functional fixedness is this inability to see a hammer's use as anything other than for pounding nails; the person couldn't think to use the hammer in a way other than in its conventional function. This phenomenon was first described by Gestalt psychologist Karl Duncker in 1935. In a classic experiment, Duncker gave participants a candle, some tacks, and a box of matches and asked them to attach the candle to the wall so that it would burn without dripping wax on the floor. The solution involved using the box as a platform for the candle. However, many participants failed to see this solution because they were fixated on the box's traditional function a...

 Five  steps to improve personal morale We all get demoralized now and then.  It can be a real struggle.  He are five things you can do to keep yourself moving in a constructive direction or to get your self unstick.  1. Set achievable goals. Breaking down large tasks into smaller, more manageable ones can make you feel more accomplished and motivated.  2. Focus on your strengths. Identifying and using your strengths can boost your confidence and make you feel more positive about yourself.  3. Practice self-care. Taking care of your physical and mental health through exercise, healthy eating, and relaxation can improve your overall mood and outlook.  4. Surround yourself with positive people. Spending time with supportive and encouraging people can help you feel more optimistic and motivated.  5. Celebrate your successes. Acknowledging and rewarding yourself for your accomplishments, no matter how small, can boost your morale and encourage yo...

Which cognitive distortions do you do? I used one in my previous post. I didn’t see it when I was thinking and typing. I saw it when I went back to the post later.  Oooops.  Cognitive distortions just sort of slip into our thinking process, like little ninjas, insidiously disrupting the clarity and accuracy of our thoughts, feelings, and beliefs.  Cognitive distortions impact our perceptions and decision-making.  Cognitive distortions are common thought patterns that can lead to negative emotions, behaviors, outcomes.  Here are some common cognitive distortions:  1. All-or-Nothing Thinking (Black-and-White Thinking): Seeing situations as either completely positive or negative, with no gray areas.  2. Overgeneralization: Drawing broad conclusions based on one or a few isolated events.  3. Mental Filtering: Focusing only on negative information while ignoring positive aspects.  4. Discounting the Positive: Minimizing or dismissing positive expe...

  Is Our Intuition Trustworthy  We all have a negativity bias that causes us to notice and process negative information more than positive information. As a result we tend to over-emphasize risk / danger when there is none present.  This isn’t a bad thing, but it is important to be aware of. We may make some bad decisions in situations that really matter if we fly by intuition alone.   Intuition is the combination of our subconscious interacting with our current perceptions and tilted by our negativity bias - a stew of inaccuracies. Confirmation bias provides the “proof” that our intuitions are accurate by recalling the very few times when we didn’t listen to our gut and got burned, but confirmation bias ignores the vast number of times in which we ignored our intuitions and everything worked out really well.  A very few super talented people can use intuition effectively because their intuition is absolutely packed with a shit ton of evidence, knowledge, and ...

Marching Bands & Silent Ninjas In politics: Our personal and political biases make us vulnerable to the misinformation / disinformation / propaganda / ideas / beliefs that fit into our world view. It slips in unnoticed and unchallenged. This impacts our political decision-making, even when the information, ideas, beliefs are bad*.  We are predisposed to dismiss and reject information of all kinds, ideas, and beliefs from an alternative perspective, even if they are good ideas. In fact, you may be predisposed to accept or reject the ideas I am presenting here without much consideration. At work:   The same thing happens.   We are predisposed to easily accept - without question - ideas and information that are congruent with our professional perspectives, even when they are bad. And, we are predisposed to reject ideas that conflict with our perspective, even when they are good.  This is why it is important to override our natural predispositions, inclinations, tend...