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Alternative therapies refer to any medical treatments that are not traditional medicine techniques. Alternative therapies could either be used alongside conventional medicine or instead of it. The term is often used interchangeably with “complementary medicine.” In medical spaces, the practice is referred to as Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM). 

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) does make a distinction between complementary and alternative medicine. According to them, when it’s used alongside traditional medicine, it’s complementary, but if it’s used in place of conventional medicine, then it’s considered alternative. However, most people are likely to use these therapies alongside traditional medicine.

When a licensed healthcare provider uses both alternative therapies and conventional medicine, then it’s called integrative medicine. A doctor or healthcare provider who uses integrative medicine uses all therapeutic methods to ensure their patients are healthy.  

Alternative Therapy Categorization

There are many types of alternative therapies. Over the years, many of these therapies have shifted into conventional medicine. Alternative therapies can be classified into many categories. The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health classifies complementary and alternative therapies into:

• Nutritional approach: This includes any diets, dietary supplements, probiotics and herbs used in alternative and complementary therapies.  
• Physiological approach: This includes alternative therapy practices like meditation and hypnosis.
• Physical approaches: This includes practices like acupuncture and massages. 
• Combination of physiological and physical: These are therapies that affect the mind and body simultaneously. They include yoga, tai-chi, dance therapy, and a host of others. 

Most forms of alternative therapies fall under one of those categories. Some of the most widely practiced are discussed below.

Ayurveda

Ayurveda focuses on using specific herbs, massages, and diet techniques to treat conditions. It’s an ancient Indian practice and has been in use for thousands of years.

Ayurveda treatments typically involve a purification process, herbal remedies, special diets, yoga, massage, and meditation. Research shows that Ayurvedic medicine can help with conditions such as osteoarthritis, type 2 diabetes, and colitis (an inflamed colon).

Meditation 

The practice of meditation has been used for many centuries. There are many types of meditation, but the primary aim of meditation practice is to help you focus your attention and achieve a state of calm and relaxation. This, in turn, can help you cope with certain disorders and improve your overall health and well-being. 

Meditation effectively treats symptoms of health conditions such as high blood pressure and mental health conditions like depression and anxiety. It can also help boost immunity and combat stress.

Homeopathy 

Homeopathy involves using very watered-down substances to treat a host of ailments from asthma to high blood pressure. It’s based on the principle that a substance that causes symptoms can also treat those symptoms.

Homeopaths, that is, people who practice homeopathy, believe that the more a substance is diluted, the more power it has to treat symptoms of a condition. There’s a lot of skepticism around the practice of homeopathy in traditional medicine circles.

Hypnotherapy

Hypnotherapy makes use of hypnosis to treat certain conditions. The hypnosis process involves being guided into a deeply relaxed state, where a hypnotherapist will access your subconscious thoughts and beliefs.

A hypnotherapist will give you suggestions to help encourage behavioral change or relieve your symptoms when you are in this state. For instance, hypnotherapy can be used to help treat addiction or stress management.

Research also suggests that hypnotherapy can be helpful for:

• Relieving pain
• Managing some characteristics of ADHD
• Relieving nausea and vomiting caused by chemotherapy
• Managing symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome

Acupuncture 

Acupuncture is a traditional Chinese medicine technique that involves sticking finely pointed needles in areas of your body known as acupuncture points. This practice has historically been used as a natural pain-relieving technique. It’s believed that the needles stimulate specific nerves and muscles, releasing natural pain-relieving hormones in your body.

In a 2016 study, researchers found that acupuncture was somewhat effective in treating tension and chronic headaches. Some research also suggests that acupuncture may provide some benefits for relieving symptoms of anxiety.

Yoga

Although some might consider yoga simply a form of exercise, yoga has been used for centuries as a healing technique. This ancient Indian practice has been proven to improve the physical and mental well-being of people who practice it.

Yoga has also proven to help relieve stress, manage anxiety, and pain management. Yoga is relatively safe; however, it’s advisable to practice with a certified instructor to avoid any sprains or strains if you are new to it.

Massage

You are most likely already familiar with massages. You might not just consider it as a treatment option. Therapeutic massages are more focused on helping to treat physical symptoms like pain in certain body parts. They are done by kneading the soft tissues of your body until you feel relief.

Research suggests that massage therapy can have a number of benefits, including helping people deal with symptoms of anxiety, stress, and depression.

There are different types of massages, and the kind you get typically depends on the goal you seek to achieve with it.

Herbal Medicine

With herbal medicine, parts of a plant such as its leaves, seeds, or roots are processed into treatment for conditions like chronic pain and allergies. Herbal medicine can come in different forms, from tea to lotions or pills and powders.

Some common herbal treatments include: 

• St John’s Wort, for treating mild symptoms of depression 
• Green tea to help with weight loss and lower cholesterol 
• Gingko biloba for poor circulation 
• Saw palmetto to treat enlarged prostates

Chiropractic Medicine

Chiropractic medicine is practiced by a chiropractor. This form of alternative therapy aims to ease pain and improve body function. It uses specific techniques to manipulate the spine, joints, and skeletal system and helps align the body.

Chiropractic medicine is similar to traditional medicine because chiropractors review your medical history, conduct tests and interviews, and provide an official diagnosis before developing a treatment plan.

Reiki

Reiki is an ancient Japanese form of alternative therapy. It’s based on the belief that you have a “life force energy” flowing within your body. When this energy is low, you become sick.

Reiki aims to restore this energy by laying hands on different parts of the body. Doing so helps with any physical or psychological problems you have. It’s a form of energy therapy.

A 2022 study found that Reiki was more effective than a placebo in relieving some mental health symptoms. The authors of the study suggest that Reiki may be helpful as a complementary approach when used alongside traditional therapy for people experiencing depression, anxiety, and stress.

Uses of Alternative Therapies

Research suggests that between 25% and 75% of people use some type of complementary and alternative therapy, product, or practitioner each year. While such estimates are high, researchers suggest that these numbers may underestimate the actual use.

Alternative therapies have been either alongside or instead of traditional medicine to treat a host of conditions that affect you.

Alternative therapies like yoga, acupuncture, meditation, massage, and herbal remedies have been used to treat conditions like depression, anxiety, hypertension, and chronic pain.

Are Alternative Therapies Safe and Effective? 

More research needs to be done on the safety and effectiveness of alternative therapies. While some, such as meditation, yoga, and massages, have been used for years and are widely accepted in traditional medicine circles, others, like homeopathy and Reiki, are still met with skepticism.

Concerning safety, many alternative therapies have been used for centuries with little or no safety concerns. But it is important to remember that just because something is labeled as “natural” does not necessarily mean it is safe.

Most importantly, alternative therapies should not be considered a replacement for traditional treatments. If you are experiencing symptoms of a medical or mental health condition, it is important to talk to your doctor about which treatment options might be best for you, whether that includes conventional approaches or the addition of complementary and alternative therapies.

Keep in Mind

It’s also essential to research the safety and effectiveness of specific alternative therapies before opting for them.

It’s also essential to do extensive research into the safety and effectiveness of specific alternative therapies before choosing them. Some alternative therapies, such as meditation, yoga, and acupuncture, have been used for years and are considered safe and beneficial.

Even though your doctor is more likely to suggest conventional medicine for you, it doesn’t hurt to get their opinion on an alternative therapy you want to try before you do so. 

Assimilation is the cognitive process of making new information fit in with your existing understanding of the world. Essentially, with assimilation, when you encounter something new, you process and make sense of it by relating it to things you already know.

There are many benefits of adapting to the world around you, such as through assimilation, which includes building increased resilience. Keep reading to learn more about how assimilation works and examples of this process.

How Assimilation Works

Assimilation refers to a part of the adaptation process initially proposed by Jean Piaget. Through assimilation, we take in new information or experiences and incorporate them into our existing ideas. The process is somewhat subjective because we tend to modify experiences or information to fit our pre-existing beliefs.

In assimilation, children make sense of the world by applying what they already know. It involves fitting reality and what they experience into their current cognitive structure. A child’s understanding of how the world works, therefore, filters and influences how they interpret reality.

In early childhood, children are constantly assimilating new information and experiences into their existing knowledge about the world. However, this process does not end there. As people encounter new things and interpret these experiences throughout life, they make both small and large adjustments to their existing ideas of the world around them.

Assimilation vs. Accommodation

Piaget believed that there are two basic ways that we can adapt to new experiences and information: assimilation and accommodation.

Assimilation is the easiest adaptation method because it does not require a lot of adjustment. Through this process, we add new information to our existing knowledge base, sometimes reinterpreting new experiences so they will fit in with existing information.

For example, imagine your neighbors have a child you have always known to be sweet, polite, and kind. One day, you glance out your window and see the child throwing a snowball at your car. It seems out of character and rather rude.

How do you interpret this new information? If you use the process of assimilation, you might dismiss the child’s behavior, believing that it’s something they witnessed a classmate doing and they do not mean to be impolite.

If you were to utilize the accommodation method of adaptation described by Piaget, the young child’s behavior might cause you to reevaluate your opinion of them. With accommodation, old ideas are changed or even replaced based on new information.

Assimilation and accommodation work in tandem as part of the learning process. Some information is incorporated into our existing schemas through the process of assimilation, while other information leads to the development of new schemas or total transformations of existing ideas through the process of accommodation.

Equilibration

Piaget also believed that as children learn, they strike a balance between the use of assimilation and accommodation. This process, known as equilibration, allows children to find a balance between applying their existing knowledge and adapting their behavior to new information.

According to Piaget, the learning process involves the following:

• Assimilation: Attempting to interpret new information within the framework of existing knowledge
• Accommodation: Making small changes to that knowledge to cope with things that don’t fit those existing frameworks
• Equilibration: Eventually adjusting existing schemas or forming new ones to adjust to a new understanding

Assimilation and accommodation are complementary learning processes that play a role at each stage of cognitive development. During the sensorimotor stage, for example, some information is assimilated, while some experiences must be accommodated. It is through these processes that infants, children, and adolescents gain new knowledge and progress through the stages of development.

Examples of Assimilation

Piaget did not believe that children just passively take in information. He argued that they actively try to make sense of the world, constantly forming new ideas and experimenting with those ideas. Examples of assimilation include:

• A child sees a new breed of dog they’ve never seen before and immediately points to it and says, “Dog!”
• A chef learns a new cooking technique
• A computer programmer learns a new programming language

Another common example would be how children learn about different types of animals. A child might begin with a schema for a dog, which in the child’s mind, is a small, four-legged animal.

When the child encounters a horse, they might assimilate this information and immediately call the animal a dog. The process of accommodation then allows the child to adapt the existing schema to incorporate the knowledge that some four-legged animals are horses.

In each of these examples, the individual is adding information to their existing schema. Remember, if new experiences cause the person to alter or completely change their existing beliefs, then it is known as accommodation.

Reasons for Assimilation

Assimilation can be viewed as a mental shortcut that lets us process and categorize massive amounts of information at one time. It plays a significant role in allowing humans to adapt to and learn about their environment—especially during childhood when we’re constantly learning new things.

Of course, assimilation can have its drawbacks. There are times when new information doesn’t neatly fit into an existing category or schema in our minds, which may lead to errors in judgment.

An example would be a child calling a skunk a “kitty.” However, when the child is taught that this animal is, in fact, a skunk, the animal will be removed from their existing cat schema and enter a new mental category.

Ativan (lorazepam) is a prescription drug used to treat anxiety disorders, seizures, and insomnia. As a benzodiazepine, discontinuing Ativan use can result in withdrawal symptoms such as headache, heart palpitations, sweating, muscle pain and stiffness, and more.

If you’re concerned about Ativan withdrawal, here’s what you need to know about its signs and symptoms, warnings, and long-term treatment. We also share ways to cope with Ativan withdrawal symptoms, providing some relief.

About Ativan Dependence

Ativan belongs to a class of drugs called benzodiazepines. Benzodiazepines are central nervous system depressants that have a sedating and relaxing effect. These medications can also lead to tolerance and dependence, even when taken at therapeutic doses.

Ativan is one of the most widely prescribed benzodiazepines. In 2017, doctors wrote almost 26.5 million prescriptions for Ativan alone. As of 2018, an estimated 5.4 million people over the age of 12 misused prescription benzodiazepines like Ativan. Ativan can lead to dependence even if you take it exactly as prescribed.

Many people take Ativan regularly for years without realizing how dependent they have become. It is only when withdrawal symptoms emerge after they try to stop taking the medication that this dependence becomes clear.

Overview of Ativan Withdrawal

Benzodiazepines like Ativan were originally intended for short-term use, but their long-term use for anxiety and insomnia has become more commonplace. The issue is that taking Ativan for as little as three to six weeks, even at therapeutic doses, can cause physical dependence and mild withdrawal symptoms.

Ativan withdrawal can be a challenging, uncomfortable experience. Around 40% of people on benzodiazepines for more than six months have moderate to severe withdrawal symptoms if they stop taking the drug abruptly. The other 60% have mild symptoms.

The severity of withdrawal symptoms is also associated with your current dose. If you are on a high dose of Ativan or if you mix Ativan with other benzodiazepines, your withdrawal symptoms may be more severe.

Ativan Withdrawal Timeline

When your daily dose of Ativan is suddenly stopped or significantly reduced, withdrawal symptoms can appear in as little as eight to 12 hours. Acute symptoms or lorazepam withdrawal typically last between one and four weeks.

Research indicates that the severity and duration of withdrawal symptoms depend on the medication’s half-life, how long it was taken, and the daily dose used. Although, you can expect to feel extremely anxious and irritable for several weeks.

The anxiety you feel during Ativan withdrawal will probably be worse than the level of anxiety you were experiencing before you started taking it, a phenomenon known as the rebound effect. Insomnia can compound the effects of anxiety and it can feel like your sleep patterns will never return to normal.

Signs and Symptoms of Ativan Withdrawal

Some of the most common benzodiazepine withdrawal symptoms include:

• Anxiety or panic attacks
• Cognitive issues (trouble with memory or concentration)
• Confusion
• Depression
• Dizziness or unsteadiness
• Gastrointestinal issues (nausea, diarrhea)
• Headache
• Heart palpitations
• Irritability
• Increased sweating
• Muscle pain and stiffness
• Nightmares
• Tremors
• Vision issues or ringing of the ears

In severe cases of high-dose withdrawal, some people experience serious side effects such as hallucinations, delirium, and grand mal seizures. 

Coping and Relief for Ativan Withdrawal

The best way to deal with benzodiazepine withdrawal is to taper your medication slowly under the supervision of a physician instead of trying to quit “cold turkey.” You can avoid the worst of Ativan withdrawal by working with your care provider to taper your dose, taking progressively smaller amounts of Ativan over several weeks or months.

Quitting Ativan takes time and planning. Before tapering begins, your physician may switch you to a longer-acting benzodiazepine such as diazepam. A long-acting drug helps stabilize you and can make your taper go more smoothly.

Once you are stabilized on a lower dose of diazepam, your physician may reduce your dose by roughly 10 to 20% every week. They might also prescribe small amounts of the medication at a time to prevent you from taking more than you should.

If you have been using Ativan for longer than six months, tapering is the only safe way to stop taking the drug. While tapering will help reduce your withdrawal symptoms, it won’t get rid of them entirely. You may still have symptoms each time your dose is reduced.

To help you cope with these symptoms, consider the following options:

Warnings About Ativan Withdrawal

Quitting Ativan cold turkey can be dangerous. While it may not feel like a serious drug, especially if you only take it as directed, it has powerful effects on your brain.

However, most people don’t need to undergo inpatient detoxification. Instead, consulting with your primary care physician or psychiatrist on an outpatient level is often sufficient. Your physician can monitor your tapering progress through frequent visits and phone calls.

An inpatient setting may be a better approach if you have a history of complicated withdrawal, seizures, or severe mental illness. This can involve living at a detoxification or rehabilitation facility for several weeks, where you can be monitored for complications.

Return of Psychiatric Symptoms

Ativan withdrawal can coincide with the re-emergence of psychiatric symptoms that may have been dormant while you were using the drug. This can include symptoms associated with severe anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and clinical depression.

Inpatient treatment may be required if severe psychiatric symptoms begin to return. Talk to your psychiatrist or psychologist about helping you work with your insurance company to get treatment. If you are uninsured, certain inpatient facilities may still be an option.

Pregnancy

The FDA prescribing label for Ativan warns that there are potential risks to taking Ativan during pregnancy. As a result, it is recommended that the decision to continue or discontinue its use be made with the help of a medical professional.

If you are pregnant, talk to your psychiatrist or obstetrician about both the risks of continuing the drug and the risks of quitting while pregnant. If you do want to quit while pregnant, a medically supervised taper is the safest way to do so.

Long-Term Treatment for Ativan Withdrawal

Ativan withdrawal can feel long and arduous because it tends to come and go during the course of your taper. Some people finish tapering their dose within three to four weeks, while others may stretch their taper out for as long as 12 months.

Longer tapers are not associated with better outcomes but may be more comfortable for some people. Either way, it is very important to complete your taper without reversing direction. An Ativan taper should move continuously forward with decreasing doses.

For those who have been misusing Ativan, tapering alone may not be enough to maintain abstinence. Cognitive behavioral therapy and other psychotherapies can help you understand why you feel the need to use Ativan and can help you make healthier decisions.

If total abstinence is causing psychological distress, some people may aim for a reduced dose. Tapering toward a reduced dose can reset your tolerance level and help you avoid the negative side effects of high doses.

Before Stopping Ativan Use

If you are interested in stopping or reducing your Ativan dose, start by talking with the prescribing physician. Primary care providers and psychiatrists are both excellent resources.

To make your dose taper easier on yourself, plan to work with a healthcare provider who is conveniently located and easily accessible. The reason for this is that you may need to make a number of office visits when discontinuing Ativan use.

While the psychology of today reflects the discipline’s rich and varied history, the origins of psychology differ significantly from contemporary conceptions of the field. In order to gain a full understanding of psychology, you need to spend some time exploring its history and origins.

How did psychology originate? When did it begin? Who were the people responsible for establishing psychology as a separate science?

Why Study Psychology History?

Contemporary psychology is interested in an enormous range of topics, looking at human behavior and mental process from the neural level to the cultural level. Psychologists study human issues that begin before birth and continue until death. By understanding the history of psychology, you can gain a better understanding of how these topics are studied and what we have learned thus far.

From its earliest beginnings, psychology has been faced with a number of questions. The initial question of how to define psychology helped establish it as a science separate from physiology and philosophy.

Additional questions that psychologists have faced throughout history include:

• Is psychology really a science?
• Should psychologists use research to influence public policy, education, and other aspects of human behavior?
• Should psychology focus on observable behaviors, or on internal mental processes?
• What research methods should be used to study psychology?
• Which topics and issues should psychology be concerned with?

Background: Philosophy and Physiology

While psychology did not emerge as a separate discipline until the late 1800s, its earliest history can be traced back to Egypt, Greece, China, Persia, and India. In the 17th century, the French philosopher Rene Descartes introduced the idea of dualism, which asserted that the mind and body were two entities that interact to form the human experience.

Many other issues still debated by psychologists today, such as the relative contributions of nature vs. nurture, are rooted in these early philosophical traditions.

Physiology also contributed to psychology’s eventual emergence as a scientific discipline. Early physiological research on the brain and behavior had a dramatic impact on psychology, ultimately contributing to applying scientific methodologies to the study of human thought and behavior.

Psychology Emerges as a Separate Discipline

During the mid-1800s, a German physiologist named Wilhelm Wundt was using scientific research methods to investigate reaction times. His book, published in 1873, “Principles of Physiological Psychology,” outlined many of the major connections between the science of physiology and the study of human thought and behavior.

He later opened the world’s first psychology lab in 1879 at the University of Leipzig. This event is generally considered the official start of psychology as a separate and distinct scientific discipline.

How did Wundt view psychology? He perceived the subject as the study of human consciousness and sought to apply experimental methods to studying internal mental processes. While his use of a process known as introspection is seen as unreliable and unscientific today, his early work in psychology helped set the stage for future experimental methods.

An estimated 17,000 students attended Wundt’s psychology lectures, and hundreds more pursued degrees in psychology and studied in his psychology lab. While his influence dwindled as the field matured, his impact on psychology is unquestionable.

Structuralism: Psychology’s First School of Thought

Edward B. Titchener, one of Wundt’s most famous students, would go on to found psychology’s first major school of thought. According to the structuralists, human consciousness could be broken down into smaller parts. Using a process known as introspection, trained subjects would attempt to break down their responses and reactions to the most basic sensation and perceptions.

The Functionalism of William James

Psychology flourished in America during the mid- to late-1800s. William James emerged as one of the major American psychologists during this period and publishing his classic textbook, “The Principles of Psychology,” established him as the father of American psychology.

His book soon became the standard text in psychology and his ideas eventually served as the basis for a new school of thought known as functionalism.

Both of these early schools of thought emphasized human consciousness, but their conceptions of it were significantly different. While the structuralists sought to break down mental processes into their smallest parts, the functionalists believed that consciousness existed as a more continuous and changing process.

While functionalism quickly faded as a separate school of thought, it would go on to influence later psychologists and theories of human thought and behavior.

The Emergence of Psychoanalysis

Up to this point, early psychology stressed conscious human experience. An Austrian physician named Sigmund Freud changed the face of psychology in a dramatic way, proposing a theory of personality that emphasized the importance of the unconscious mind.

In his book The Psychopathology of Everyday Life, Freud detailed how these unconscious thoughts and impulses are expressed, often through slips of the tongue (known as “Freudian slips”) and dreams. According to Freud, psychological disorders are the result of these unconscious conflicts becoming extreme or unbalanced.

The psychoanalytic theory proposed by Sigmund Freud had a tremendous impact on 20th-century thought, influencing the mental health field as well as other areas, including art, literature, and popular culture. While many of his ideas are viewed with skepticism today, his influence on psychology is undeniable.

The Rise of Behaviorism

Psychology changed dramatically during the early 20th century as another school of thought known as behaviorism rose to dominance. Behaviorism was a major change from previous theoretical perspectives, rejecting the emphasis on both the conscious and unconscious mind. Instead, behaviorism strove to make psychology a more scientific discipline by focusing purely on observable behavior.

Behaviorism had its earliest start with the work of a Russian physiologist named Ivan Pavlov. Pavlov’s research on the digestive systems of dogs led to his discovery of the classical conditioning process, which proposed that behaviors could be learned via conditioned associations.

Pavlov demonstrated that this learning process could be used to make an association between a neutral environmental stimulus and a naturally occurring stimulus.

An American psychologist named John B. Watson soon became one of the strongest advocates of behaviorism. Initially outlining the basic principles of this new school of thought in his 1913 paper Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It, Watson later went on to offer a definition in his classic book “Behaviorism“ (1924), writing:

“Behaviorism…holds that the subject matter of human psychology is the behavior of the human being. Behaviorism claims that consciousness is neither a definite nor a usable concept.”

The impact of behaviorism was enormous, and this school of thought continued to dominate for the next 50 years. Psychologist, B.F. Skinner furthered the behaviorist perspective with his concept of operant conditioning, which demonstrated the effect of punishment and reinforcement on behavior.

While behaviorism eventually lost its dominant grip on psychology, the basic principles of behavioral psychology are still widely in use today.

The Focus on Human Potential

While the first half of the 20th century was dominated by psychoanalysis and behaviorism, a new school of thought known as humanistic psychology emerged during the second half of the century. Often referred to as the “third force” in psychology, this theoretical perspective emphasized conscious experiences.

American psychologist Carl Rogers is often considered to be one of the founders of this school of thought. While psychoanalysts looked at unconscious impulses and behaviorists focused on environmental causes, Rogers believed strongly in the power of free will and self-determination.

Psychologist Abraham Maslow also contributed to humanistic psychology with his famous hierarchy of needs theory of human motivation. This theory suggests that people are motivated by increasingly complex needs. Once the most basic needs are fulfilled, people become motivated to pursue higher-level needs.

Cognitive Psychology

During the 1950s and 1960s, a movement known as the cognitive revolution began to take hold in psychology. During this time, cognitive psychology began to replace psychoanalysis and behaviorism as the dominant approach to the study of psychology. Psychologists were still interested in looking at observable behaviors, but they were also concerned with what was going on inside the mind. 

The introduction of brain imaging tools such as MRI and PET scans have helped improve the ability of researchers to more closely study the inner workings of the human brain.

Psychology Continues to Grow

As you have seen in this brief overview of psychology’s history, this discipline has seen dramatic growth and change since its official beginnings in Wundt’s lab. The story certainly does not end here.

Today, the majority of psychologists do not identify themselves with a single school of thought. Instead, they often focus on a particular specialty area or perspective, often drawing on ideas from a range of theoretical backgrounds. This eclectic approach has contributed new ideas and theories that will continue to shape psychology for years to come.

Women in Psychology History

As you read through any history of psychology, you might be particularly struck by the fact that such texts seem to center almost entirely on the theories and contributions of men. This is not because women had no interest in the field of psychology but is largely due to the fact that women were excluded from pursuing academic training and practice during the early years of the field.

A number of women made important contributions to the early history of psychology, although their work is sometimes overlooked. 

A few pioneering women psychologists included:

• Mary Whiton Calkins, who rightfully earned a doctorate from Harvard, although the school refused to grant her degree because she was a woman. She studied with major thinkers of the day like William James, Josiah Royce, and Hugo Munsterberg. Despite the obstacles she faced, she became the American Psychological Association’s first woman president.
• Anna Freud, who made important contributions to the field of psychoanalysis. She described many of the defense mechanisms and is known as the founder of child psychoanalysis. She also had an influence on other psychologists, including Erik Erikson.
• Mary Ainsworth, who was a developmental psychologist, made important contributions to our understanding of attachment. She developed a technique for studying child and caregiver attachments known as the “Strange Situation” assessment.

We all have goals that feel like they’re just out of reach. It could be landing a big promotion, crushing a fitness goal, finding a soulmate, buying a dream house, or feeling more confident about ourselves. But, how do we bridge the gap between wishing and achieving? Enter: manifestation.

Manifestation is a process by which we achieve our goals through positive self-talk and visualization. For example, if we want to be successful, we think, act, and believe we are already successful, in order to make it happen.

The 369 method is one such manifestation technique. It involves repeating an affirmation a certain numbers of times each day, either out loud or in writing.

“The 369 method is a manifestation technique designed to help you attract what you want into your life by using the power of intention and focused repetition,” says Juliette Kristine, a manifestation coach.

Steps to Practice the 369 Method

Your personal goals might range from the simple to the complex. Whether you’re chasing a career goal, looking for a relationship, trying to be healthier, or seeking personal growth, the 369 manifestation method may be able to help.

Here’s how to practice the 369 method to manifest your goal.

Identify Your Goal

Start by clearly stating the goal you want to manifest. It could be related to your health, relationships, career, or any other aspect of your life.

The trick? Be as specific as possible. So, instead of saying something like, “I was to be successful,” you might say, “I want to land a job in my chosen field.”

Create an Affirmation

The next step is to create an affirmation that assumes the goal has already been achieved. For instance, you could say:

• I am confident, skilled, and successful in my work.
• I am fit and strong.
• I am healthy and my immunity is protecting me.
• I am loved and cherished.
• I am surrounded by people who care about me.
• I attract abundance and opportunities. 

To make the exercise work effectively, it’s important to phrase your desire in present tense, Kristine explains. She says adding emotive words to it also helps. The more you feel it, the more likely you are to believe it!

Repeat the Affirmation

Once you’ve decided on the affirmation that represents your goal, you need to say or write it down:

• Three times in the morning: This helps set a positive outlook on your day
• Six times in the afternoon: This helps keep your mind focused on your goal as you go about your day
• Nine times in the evening: This helps to reinforce your intentions before you go to sleep

You can do this any way you choose. For example, you can look at yourself in the mirror while you say the affirmation. Alternatively, if you prefer writing instead, you can either write it in your journal or on sticky notes that you then stick all around.

Do this continuously for 21 days, says Kristine. Be patient as you work toward your goals. With time and consistent practice, you may find that your intentions become much closer to reality.

How the 369 Method Works

The 369 method is based on the following principles:

Intention Setting

When we set an intention, we define our goal, articulate it, and commit to it. This clarity can be a powerful first step. Otherwise, the goal is simply a hazy mirage in the distant future.

Positive Affirmation

By translating the goal to a positive affirmation, we reprogram our brain to believe we can achieve it. On the other hand, if we think it’s not possible, we might not even try.

Repetition

By repeating the affirmation multiple times per day, we reinforce the idea. When we think and believe we can achieve something, we automatically start to work toward it.

Law of Attraction

According to the law of attraction, when we focus our attention on something, we’re more likely to attract it into our life. For example, someone who’s actively spending time and energy looking for a job is more likely to find one than someone who hates their job but isn’t really scouting for a new job.

Tips for Success With the 369 Method

These are some tips that can help you practice the 369 method successfully:

• Be clear and specific: Be very clear and specific about your goal when you outline it. The better you understand your goal, the more you align yourself toward it.
• Visualize success: As you write your affirmation, visualize yourself achieving your goal and tap into the positive emotions associated with it. Picture a detailed scene in your mind of what life will be like when you have manifested what you want, says Kristine. She explains that the more you’re able to tap into the feeling that your goal has already manifested, the more powerful it becomes.
• Practice consistently: Make the practice a daily habit. Set aside a few minutes each morning, afternoon, and evening to repeat your affirmations and reflect on your goal.
• Stay positive: Focus on gratitude, positivity, and optimism, as these emotions attract more positive experiences and opportunities into your life.
• Trust the process: Manifestation takes time, so be patient and trust in the process. Don’t get discouraged if results don’t appear immediately. Be open to unexpected avenues.
• Track your progress: Keep a journal to document your journey. Write down your affirmations and any insights or ideas that pop up, and track your progress toward your goal. This can help you stay focused and motivated.

You can also try combining the 369 method with other goal development practices. Vision boards, for example, can be a great way to keep your mind centered on your aspirations. Joining support groups, practicing manifestation meditation, and using guided imagery can also be helpful.

Journaling, in particular, can help make the 369 method even more effective. Writing down your affirmations and goals helps you stay focused. It also allows you to track your progress and ensure you repeat your affirmation regularly.

Pros and Cons of the 369 Method

It’s important to note that while manifestation techniques like the 369 method can have advantages, there can also be a few pitfalls to watch out for. In general, people who believe that manifestation works tend to have high aspirations for success and believe in themselves. Such self-efficacy *can* help you achieve your goals.

But caution is also warranted. Research also suggests that people who have a strong belief in manifestation also tend to be drawn to riskier investments, are more likely to experience bankruptcy, and tend to believe they’ll achieve an unlikely level of success more quickly.

Watching porn can be a sign of a healthy sexual appetite. However, if you find yourself watching it excessively, this might signify that you have a porn addiction.

While having a porn addiction might seem harmless, it can be detrimental to your general well-being and can have some serious negative effects on your romantic relationships. People with porn addictions often use it as an unhealthy coping mechanism for stressors in their lives or as a replacement for having a healthy sexual life.

Pornography can actually affect your brain in a similar way to addictive drugs—flooding your reward center with dopamine in a way that provides gratification but can make it all-too-easy to come back for more.

To stop watching porn, it’s important to first understand and embrace your reasons for giving it up, take action to limit your access to pornography, and even enlist help from an accountability buddy. Read on to learn more about these strategies and others below.

Signs of a Porn Addiction 

A person who has an uncontrollable desire to watch porn at any time of the day and in any space, especially where it might not be considered appropriate, might have a porn addiction.

Here are some other signs that point to porn addiction:

• You find that it’s impossible to stop watching porn even when you desire to stop
• You experience immense guilt or shame about the time and resources you put into watching porn
• You start to neglect work and personal relationships to spend that time watching porn
• You find it difficult to enjoy sex or any sexual acts without involving porn
• You notice that watching porn has begun to interfere with your daily functioning

There has been some controversy around recognizing porn addiction as a real addiction. However, there is enough research to point to people having real struggles with porn. Like with any addiction, if porn addiction is ignored, it can have negative consequences.

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How to Stop Watching and Overcome Your Addiction

If you think you might be dealing with a porn addiction, below are some tips to help you to stop.

Understand Why You Are Giving It Up

You don’t have to have a porn addiction in order to decide that you are giving up porn. You could be doing so for religious or ethical reasons. You could also be doing so because it’s causing a rift between you and a romantic partner, or simply because you just no longer want to watch porn.

Coming to terms with the reason you are giving it up helps you stay accountable whenever you are tempted to watch it. As long as those reasons are more important to you than watching porn, they will be a strong motivating factor.

Accept That You Have a Problem If There Is One

If any of the signs of a porn addiction listed in the section above resonate with you, then you might be dealing with a porn addiction.

Many people keep a porn addiction problem to themselves as they feel they’ll be judged by society, but remember that you are not alone. It’s important to focus on the things you can control, and the things you can’t control will follow.

Get Rid of the Porn

This includes any physical or digital evidence of pornography content in your life. You need to make a clean sweep of all of that kind of content. There’s no excuse to hold on to any of it, even those vintage porn magazines that might have some sentimental value.

Have someone you trust create the passwords that keep pornographic content on your devices blocked. That way, if you find yourself desperately trying to access pornography, you won’t be able to remove the filters yourself. This is a major step to breaking the hold that pornography has over you.

Get an Accountability Buddy

This could be a close friend who you trust or even an app on your phone that reminds you of how long you’ve come in your recovery journey and why you are doing it. Taking things one day at a time isn’t just for people with drug and alcohol addictions.

Rewarding yourself and celebrating even for the small wins is one of the most important things you can do for yourself as you work to undo your habits.

Join a Support Group

A support group helps you remember that you are not alone. It also eases your recovery journey if watching porn isn’t just a habit that you want to quit but has risen to the level an addiction.

These groups provide a safe, anonymous, and judgment-free zone for you to share your struggles with pornography and hear from other people who are going through similar experiences. If you have difficulty sharing your struggles with others in fear of being stigmatized, a support group is a great place to find acceptance and understanding.

Don’t Beat Yourself Up If You Fall Off the Wagon

Trying to break a habit or recover from a porn addiction is a journey, and it’s not usually a straight path from addicted to not. On that journey, you might find yourself slipping back into old habits. Whenever that happens, don’t waste any time beating yourself up.

Keep trying to find the coping mechanisms that will work best for you, and don’t fixate on the relapse. You can’t change the past, but you can always change what you do moving forward.

Replace Watching Porn With a Different Habit

A trusted way to rid yourself of a bad habit is to replace it with a more desirable habit whenever you begin to feel the urge to indulge in that bad habit. For instance, going for a run when you feel the familiar urge to watch porn is a great way to healthily distract yourself. You might try a meditation, or engage in deep breathing, which convey some serious mental health benefits of their own.

Soon enough, the pornography urge will fade, and you may have some healthy new habits to enjoy instead!

Treatment for Porn Addiction

If you think you have a porn addiction, then simply trying to stop watching porn will prove to be incredibly difficult. So the first thing to do when considering treatment for porn addiction is to speak to a therapist. They will be able to recognize if you do indeed have an addiction and plan the next steps to take with you.

This typically includes a combination of psychotherapy and, in some cases, medication. Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is a commonly used approach with people who are living with addictions. CBT aims to help you recognize and change negative thoughts and behaviors.

Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is another popular form of psychotherapy used in addiction treatment. ACT focuses on helping you identify and accept the urges associated with watching porn and use value-based interventions to manage urges and symptoms.

Keep in Mind

If you or someone you love is displaying signs of porn addiction, it’s important to get help, as it’s challenging to overcome addiction alone. However, it’s also important to remember that watching and enjoying porn in healthy doses is perfectly fine, and can even be a great way to spice up your sex life. As with all things, finding the right balance is key.