LINKS FOR SELF-ASSESSMENT
The VIA Character Strengths Inventory
Click here to visit my page on the VIA Institute on Character website devoted to positive psychology and identifying our strengths and virtues. Research shows that VIA character strengths can be used to address a variety of life challenges and achieve positive personal and professional outcomes. Use your VIA character strengths to help you:
• Be happier
• Strengthen relationships
• Manage Problems
• Boost Confidence
• Reduce Stress
•Accomplish goals
Click either of these two links for The NCADD Online Alcoholism Self-Test and The NCADD Online Drug Abuse/Addiction Self-Test.
NCADD is the leading advocacy organization in the world addressing alcoholism and drug dependence. Since its founding in 1944, NCADD has raised public awareness about addiction throughout the United States and increasingly across the global community. A self-test is not conclusive or diagnostic, and it is not a substitute for professional advice. However, the questions on this test are simple, basic, and helpful for many people worried about their drinking.
Click this link for The MHA Mental Health America Online Screens.
Mental Health America (MHA) – founded in 1909 – is the nation's leading community-based nonprofit dedicated to addressing the needs of those living with mental illness and to promoting the overall mental health of all Americans. There are basic online self-assessment tests here for:
• Depression
• Anxiety
• PTSD (traumatic stress)
• Bipolar Disorder
• Alcohol and Substance Abuse
LINKS FOR PSYCHIATRY, PSYCHOLOGY, PSYCHOTHERAPY, & ADDICTION MEDICINE
The links below are reliable for information about psychiatry, brain health, spirituality, positive psychology, mindfulness, and other topics. There is even a link to site about identifying quackery and snake oil. This list is not ranked or ordered. These are sites I visit frequently. What you read on these sites is carefully thought out, and the writing is generally done by authors with recognized expertise. I don't agree with everything on every site, but I count on these sites to publish reliable information and responsible opinions.
The Center for BrainHealth at The University of Texas Dallas
The Center for BrainHealth was created in 1999 and has flourished because of its unique commitment to its mission and the most significant cause of the century: To understand, protect and heal the brain. Scientific exploration at BrainHealth is leading edge, innovative and transformative, improving lives today and changing how the public thinks and acts about the brain and its health. I am Senior Medical Advisor for this fine organization.
PsychCentral
Psych Central is the Internet’s largest and oldest independent mental health social network. Since 1995, this award-winning website has been run by mental health professionals offering reliable, trusted information and over 200 support groups to consumers.
National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH)
The mission of NIMH is to transform the understanding and treatment of mental illnesses through basic and clinical research, paving the way for prevention, recovery, and cure.
WebMD Mental Health Center
Reliable information and readable articles written by psychiatrists, psychologists, and counselors across a range of subjects.
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is the agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that leads public health efforts to advance the behavioral health of the nation. SAMHSA's mission is to reduce the impact of substance abuse and mental illness on America's communities.
The National Alliance on Mental Illness
NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, is the nation’s largest grassroots mental health organization dedicated to building better lives for the millions of Americans affected by mental illness.
The Quackwatch Website - Your Guide to Quackery, Health Fraud, and Intelligent Decisions
Operated by Stephen Barrett, M.D. - Dedicated to exposing therapies, hucksters, and places you should probably avoid. Quackwatch is now an international network of people who are concerned about health-related frauds, myths, fads, fallacies, and misconduct. Its primary focus is on quackery-related information that is difficult or impossible to get elsewhere.
Bipolar Disorder (NIMH) The specific NIMH pages devoted to bipolar disorder.
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) is one of the 27 institutes and centers that comprise the National Institutes of Health (NIH). NIAAA supports and conducts research on the impact of alcohol use on human health and well-being. It is the largest funder of alcohol research in the world.
Beck Institute for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Beck Institute for Cognitive Behavior Therapy is a leading international source for training, therapy, and resources in CBT. Their Center for Training delivers workshops to a worldwide audience of mental health professionals, researchers, and educators, and our Philadelphia-based Center for Psychotherapy provides state-of-the-art therapy and consultations.
The University of Pennsylvania Positive Psychology Center
Positive Psychology is the scientific study of the strengths that enable individuals and communities to thrive. The field is founded on the belief that people want to lead meaningful and fulfilling lives, to cultivate what is best within themselves, and to enhance their experiences of love, work, and play.
The Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Healthcare, and Society
The mission of The Center for Mindfulness at the UMass Medical School is to explore, understand, articulate and further mindfulness in the lives of individuals, organizations and communities through clinical care, rigorous scientific research, professional training, and informed public discourse.
SDI: Spiritual Direction International
Spiritual direction explores a deeper relationship with the spiritual aspect of being human. Simply put, spiritual direction is helping people tell their sacred stories everyday.Spiritual direction helps us learn how to live in peace, with compassion, promoting justice, as humble servants of that which lies beyond all names.
American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM)
ASAM's Mission
- increase access to and improve the quality of addiction treatment;
- to educate physicians (including medical and osteopathic students), other health care providers and the public;
- to support research and prevention;
- to promote the appropriate role of the physician in the care of patients with addiction;
- and to establish addiction medicine as a specialty recognized by professional organizations, governments, physicians, purchasers and consumers of health care services, and the general public.
Alcoholics Anonymous is an international fellowship of men and women who have had a drinking problem. It is nonprofessional, self-supporting, multiracial, apolitical, and available almost everywhere. There are no age or education requirements. Membership is open to anyone who wants to do something about his or her drinking problem. The website for AA in North Texas, including maps and links to meetings in and around DFW, can be found by clicking here.
The Child Mind Institute
The Child Mind Institute is dedicated to transforming mental health care for children everywhere. Founded by Dr. Harold S. Koplewicz and Brooke Garber Neidich, our organization is committed to finding more effective treatments for childhood psychiatric and learning disorders, building the science of healthy brain development, and empowering children and their families with help, hope, and answers. The Child Mind Institute does not accept funding from the pharmaceutical industry.
