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Hey guys. This is Aime Lynn with Flipswitch’s Erasing Negative Thoughts. On each edition of Erasing Negative Thoughts, we identify one way of stinkin' thinkin' and show how it’s more often than not, ether completely untrue or extremely exaggerated. On this edition of Erasing Negative Thoughts, we’ll cover the thinking pattern known as All-or-Nothing Thinking, otherwise known as Black and White Thinking.

“I’ll die if I don’t buy that new coat” Seriously... going without a new coat is going to kill you... I highly doubt that, unless maybe you’re a bum on the street, don’t own a coat, and are living in 10 degree weather... which I seriously doubt.

“If I fail this exam like I always fail in this class, I’m going to fail out of school and end up living on the streets!”

Last time I checked, people take more than 1 class in school, so unless you are receiving Fs in EVERY one of your classes and don’t have the skills to work at McDonalds (which is unlikely) and you don’t have family members to help support you succeed in getting help for your classes, I don’t think you’ll end up on the side of the street.

“I can’t do well on this project, so what’s the point in even trying” Have you even started the project? What do you have some secret way of knowing the future that I don’t know about? How exactly do you know you won’t do well? Well, you definitely will not do well if you don’t even try.

You know... the ARE grey areas where you could be a little cold without a coat or look a little dorky in your old coat, but you’re not going to DIE. And first off, you could do well on that exam, you don’t know for sure, and even if you do fail the class, you could still take it over. You’re not automatically going to be thrown on the streets. As for the project, the only way you can secure a failing grade for sure, is by not even trying to do it. All-or-Nothing Thinking is when you don’t see the middle ground or grey areas that actually do exist. There is a possibility that things will not go horribly wrong and yet, you are right, they may not go exactly perfect, but you will survive. This is a problem for depression because often people will use these lies and tell themselves that things are always going to be that way and that they will never get out of their depression. That’s actually not true so start allowing yourself to see things as they are rather than contributing to the depression enforcing the belief that it will always be like this.

Things are rarely so black and white. Find the middle ground.

Well, that’s all for now. Now, go and work on telling yourself that things may change and you can succeed.

Kourosh Dini is the author of Video Game Play and Addiction: A Guide for Parents, which helps parents navigate the benefits and potential detriments of video games and virtual spaces. Dr. Dini is a psychiatrist with a diverse array of interests, trained and practicing in the Chicago area. He maintains a blog titled Musings on Mind, Music, and Technology where he discusses his thoughts on multiple forms of media, technology and artistry and how they interweave. Dr. Dini comes at video games with a positive focus in mind, himself a gamer during much of his life.

You can link directly to his book at http://videogameplayandaddiction.com.

Lot’s of people talk or joke around about video game addiction, but Ryan Van Cleave knows about it firsthand, and it’s anything but funny. By falling down the rabbit hole of video game addiction, Ryan lost his job and came very near to losing his family and even his life once suicidal thoughts entered the picture when he realized the magnitude of his problems. He’s fought his way back to overcome those problems and has released Unplugged: My Journey Into The Dark World of Video Game Addiction; a memoir about his dark struggle with gaming.

You can check out the book at http://www.ryanvancleave.com

Welcome, Champions Online fans!

The Balanced Mind Parent Network improves the lives of families raising children and teens with bipolar disorder and related conditions such as depression and ADHD. Over 80% of our funding comes from individuals like you. Please consider a small donation in support of The Balanced Mind Parent Network families.

In our continuing series on video game addiction, we talk to renowned video game designer Bill Roper. Currently, Roper is an executive at Cryptic Studios where he oversees MMORPG's like Champions Online and Star Trek Online. We get an insider's perspective on what goes into creating a successful game, including game mechanics, demographic considerations, and more. We specifically ask him his thoughts on video game addiction as well.

Roper has worked on tons of the most famous MMORPG's ever created. You can sample his current work at http://crypticstudios.com/.

Shavaun Scott is a therapist practicing in California with a specialty in addictions and technology. In 2009, along with co-author, Neils Clark, she released the book Game Addiction: The Experience and The Effects, a book which takes a neutral look at the phenomenon of video game addiction from multiple angles. Not only a therapist that has worked with gaming addictions, she also been a gamer herself logging many hours on games like Everquest.

You can find her webpage at www.dreamtreader.com/shavaunscott

You can find her book, Game Addiction: The Experience and The Effects, online at http://amzn.com/0786443642

We follow up with Neils Clark, co-author of Gaming Addiction: The Experience and The Effects.

We recently interviewed author Shavaun Scott about her book, “Gaming Addiction: The Experience and The Effects. In this interview, we talk with her coauthor Neils Clark. Neils is a researcher, gamer, game designer, and commentator on the topic of video game addiction. Currently a professor at DigiPen Institute of Technology, a school specializing in game development and design, he comes at the topic of video games both empirically and with an more neutral tone. He has written for the Escapist and Gamasutra.

We continue our interviews of various video game personalities with Phil Frazier, senior producer of the Madden Football franchise from EA Sports. Madden Football every year outsells not only the competition of other football games but virtually all video games. We discuss with Phil what goes into making a game that gets large groups of people to plunk down money each year for a new edition and we get his thoughts on video game addiction.

www.easports.com

Chris and new youngest Co-Host Phil talk about the fact that how family and friends react and help deal with a loved one's diagnosis dramatically affects how well or not so well that person does in life. Literally, the literature suggests the prognosis (how problematic the disorder will be) of a disorder can be much better if family and friends don't band together to take on a mood disorder head on. It turns out that we really are all in it together.

Also, we preview our upcoming interview with Cinda and Linea Johnson, a dynamic mother-daughter team that are a living testament to the power of a unified and proactive family unit in combatting bipolar disorder.

Phil talks about the Diathesis-Stress Model, a model that clinicians and researchers use when thinking about bipolar disorder. As it turns out, the positive and proactive support of family and in friends really can be crucial in determining how a disorder progresses... for the better or the worse.

Interview with Linea and Cinda Johnson, a dynamic mother/daughter team that speak openly and honestly about their struggles with Linea's diagnosis of bipolar disorder. They've seen the ups and downs that go along with bipolar disorder and have helped Linea bounce back. They advocate ending stigma, that treatment really does work, and the crucial aspects of family and friends coming together to battle the disorder.

Check out their website at http://www.lineacinda.com