Today marks the end of a 25 year-long journey that started at Penn State University in 2000. I literally had very little idea what I wanted to do when I graduated high school, so after 5 years at PSU, I left degree-less. I earned my A.S. in Social work from a community college in 2007 but always had regretted not finishing my bachelor’s degree.

I had the good sense last August to enroll at @SNHU and pursue my Bachelor’s in Child and Adolescent Psychology. Today, that dream became a reality! Never doubt the things that you can achieve, no matter how long they may take, a brighter future is right around the corner!

Photo Credit: Dan Larson, 2024.

Next up, my Master’s in Counseling Psychology!

psychology #bachelorsdegree @snhu #pittsburgh #photoshoot #accomplished #brighterfuture #opportunities #goals #education #counselor

Children’s mental health should be at the forefront of our kids’ overall health and wellbeing. The healthier our children are will set them up for a successful and easier the transition will be from moving to a child to a teenager and then adult. What do we do though when a child’s behavior becomes negative and violent? Effective parenting skills sometimes aren’t enough to combat these excessive behaviors, leaving parents exhausted and needing somewhere to turn for assistance. Conduct disorders in children is a serious mental health conditions that fits a wide spectrum of behaviors. In general, Conduct Disorder, according to the DSM-V/TR is ‘a repetitive and persistent pattern of behavior in which the basic rights of others or major age-appropriate societal norms or rules are violated.’ Obivously, this definition goes beyond the notion of just ‘being mad’ or someone having a bad day. The specific behaviors that are attached to someone with a Conduct Disorder can go from very iinocent to very gruesome extrememly quick.

In the United States, around 3% of children and teenagers suffer from Conduct Disorder and is twice as common among males than females. What causes a conduct disorder though? There are a few different factors than we can narrow it down to. Brain damage, traumatic events, genetics, child abuse, social problems or past school failures. Some experts believe that a series of traumatic experiences occurs for a child to develop a conduct disorder. These experiences then often lead to depressed mood, behavior problems, and involvement in a deviant peer group. The children who are most at risk for developing conduct disorders and conduct behaviors come from a few groups such as the disadvantaged, dysfunctional families and disorganized lifestyled individuals.

Also, children with ADHD, PTSD, mood/anxiety disorders, substance use disorders and learning problems/disabilities are likely to have conduct disorders moreso than other children. Children or teens who are considered to have a difficult temperament are more likely to develop behavior problems. Conduct disorder can be diagnosed in children by a child psychiatrist or mental health expert who is qualified to make a definitive diagnosis for the child. These professionals will then, after making the diagnosis, will explain the different types of therapies available to help manage the conduct issues the child is exhibiting.

Treatments for conduct disorder include Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT), in which a child learns how to better solve problems, communicate, and handle stress. He or she also learns how to control impulses and anger. Family therapy is also recommended to help make changes in the family. It improves communication skills and family interactions. Peer group therapy helps a child develop better social and interpersonal skills. And of course, medications are available BUT these are not often used to treat conduct disorder. But a child may need them for other symptoms or disorders, such as ADHD.

Alot of parents and caregivers have asked how they can prevent their child from getting conduct disorder. The reality right now is that they is no real way of preventing someone from coming down with a conduct disorder as of right now. The best we can do is to be able to seek out appropriate therapies to help mitigate the characteristics of a conduct disorder.

If you child is showing signs of a conduct disorder, the first step is to contact your PCP to get your child evaluated to start the process of getting help. If you are around the Pittsburgh area, the Southwestern Pennsylvania Human Services, Inc. has a great number of resources available. Please log onto http://www.sphs.org or call 724.489.9100.

John J. Schessler, Jr. is a Pittsburgh-based NASM Certified Personal Trainer, author, writer, and motivational speaker. John is also a graduate of Southern New Hampshire University with a BA in Psychology with a concentration in Child & Adolescent Development. For any speaking engagements or training inquiries, please email pghwellnesspt@gmail.com

#conductdisorder #psychology #fitness #SNHU #healthtips #medicine #johnschesslerjr #pittsburgh #DSM5 #gettingbetter #selfcare #braindevelopment #healthcare #childdevelopment #crisiscounselor #counseling #therapy #PT

Doesn’t it feel like for the past five years or so we’ve all been basically stagnant in our everyday roles? Caught in a slump and in need of a change? Yeah, me too, and I think it’s due to the social climate that we find ourselves immersed in lately….and it’s exhaustingly non-exciting. Here’s my take on it: In the US, we’ve created so many standards that constantly keep changing, being updated to the ‘next big thing’ that it’s hard to keep up with everything. Beauty standards, dieting, fitness, health, longevity….all of the old standards and what used to be considered the status quo have been or are now being tossed out because like it or not, we are at the dawn of a new world that we all need to accommodate.

What is in this new world atmosphere and why is it so important? Communally, as a country, we had this dark veil over our heads the past few years due to COVID-19, political unrest, over-indulgence, etc. We can’t ignore the fact that these things exist and continue to affect how we live, and communicate with each other as civil humans and what an emotional/mental toll it takes on all of us. One of the things that is affecting us the most these days, and I didn’t want to touch this topic, but we can’t ignore the fact that politics is a key player in our collective unrest. Since 2016, when Donald Trump first threw his hat in the ring for being the Republican nominee for President against Hillary Clinton, I never thought he’d win, but it’s funny how things turn out sometimes. For the next four years, we all were witness to some scary events, a pandemic, job decline, and more. A biproduct of these happenings are the overwhelming anxiety it takes to be able to mitigate through all of the news updates, political outlook and everything else we have to deal with in a day.

Without getting political but if you’ve read this blog for any length of time, you probably can guess where I lean, lol. Managing stress and anxiety over things that seemingly grow worse and worse by literally every single day is tough, even for people who work with individuals who experience depression, anxiety and a multitude of other issues. My adivce? TURN OFF and TUNE OUT! We’re bombarded with endless bits of information, updates and breaking stories that we aren’t able to digest it and really absorb what is going on. Our brains weren’t designed to handle so much changing information at a very fast pace, so there’s going to be some exhaust fumes that come out of your ears at some point.My daily digestion of headlines and important information consists of when I wake up and get ready for work, before I hit the pavement for another day, I check one or two news sources to see what is going on in the world that day. After that, I detach from news stories for the day. I think mentally that it makes me calmer and more equipped to separate fact from fake. This is what works for me and you are more than welcome to integrate it into your daily routine but you need to be able to find something that works for you and stick to it.

Regardless of how you digest the news and find your way through the daily headaches that are going on in your lives, we all need to be able to cope with the changing landscape of this country and the world at large. Things aren’t so black and white anymore and the older we get, those colors seem to fade to a dreary gray. Open yourself up to new ideas, different ways of living and working together in your community to create the world that we all deserve and need to see.

#brandnewworld #psychology #politics #anxeityawareness #depression #groupdynamics #equality #lgtbqia #pittsburgh #medicine #socialwork #fitness #lifecoaching #motivationalspeaker

John J. Schessler, Jr. is a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania based Personal Trainer, Author, Writer, Men’s Life Coach and creator of the podcast, “Flip Your Script”, which is in pre-production for it’s third season. John also has certifications in Sports Injury, Orthopedics and Pediatric Exercise from NASM, ISSA and NPTI. He is a recent graduate of Southern New Hampshire University with a Bachelor of Arts in Child & Developmental Psychology and has an Associate’s Degree in Social Work.

For personal training and fitness inquiries, motivational speaking engagments and questions, please email pghwellnesspt@gmail.com. Thank you!

In recent months, the word has gotten out about Ozempic, the drug that improved individuals who have diabetes. Some of the side effects of Ozempic include thyroid tumors, trouble swallowing and hoarseness, all symptoms of thyroid cancer. Ozempic has also been in the news because of the weight loss that happens as a result of the drug. One of the first instances people saw was Kelly Clarkson, who has said that she takes Ozempic to regulate her diabetes. What people saw was her noticeable weight loss and that opened the doors for people to start asking their doctors to give them prescriptions for Ozempic to help them lose those pounds. Is Ozempic a weight loss drug though that the average person can and should be taking? Let’s take a dive into this.

According to the Cleveland Clinic and the CDC, 42% of Americans are living with obesity (defined as a body mass index, BMI, of 30 or higher). For these people, Ozempic is working in their favor and for very good reason. For the rest of folks living with a BMI under 30, diet and exercise and usually the safest route to take for weight loss purposes. Annoying to most because, who wouldn’t want a quick fix, right? Obviously, using a medication for anything other than it’s intended purpose isn’t a good idea but what some physicians are prescribing for some people who suffer with obesity is giving them a prescription for off-label Ozempic called Wegovy. When medication that is categorized as off-label is prescribed, you can utilize that medication for other things than its main use. Does this mean I’m telling you to run out and get your doctor to prescribe this for you? Of course not, y’all know me better than that!

How does Ozempic work?

Ozempic is administered by injection once a week into the thigh, abdomen or upper arm areas. It’s in a class of medications called “GLP-1 receptor agonists” or “GLP-1 drugs” for short. These GLP medications release a synthetic type of hormone that is normally released into the digestive tract to help lower blood sugar and mimics a feeling of being full. When a person takes Ozempic, it causes your body to naturally make more of the GLP-1, causing your appetite to be suppressed, not causing you to feel hungry and ultimately, you eat less. Being obese as a medical issue is one that is very complex metabolic disease. Basically, obesity is a dysfunction of the normal pathways that regulate our body’s reaction to weight loss. So, in effect, Ozempic and other weight loss medications are not just ‘correcting bad behaviors’, they actually change how your body reacts to food.

Let’s keep in mind that Ozempic isn’t FDA approved for weight loss purposes, only diabetes. As a personal trainer and someone who has worked in the fitness industry for over 15 years, this is one of those ‘trends’ for weight loss that is considerably dangerous. Especially if you have brand new clients come in, who are de-motivated from the start saying things like, “I could just go to my doctor, and they’d prescribe me a weight loss pill right?” This, THIS is why educating our clients and patients is so important. It’s our job as professionals to keep up with what’s trending, not only in fitness but medicine as well, because the two areas are often inter-connected…at least that’s how I’ve always thought about it. If you have a client who is already on the “I need Ozempic to lose weight” train when they come to see you for the first time, you need to educate them on why they may want to get off at the next stop. Education is power and information is the way you obtain that power.

If you’re curious about weight loss measures and are considering taking weight loss pills, etc., please, please, please consult your physician first. They will be able to tell you the safe ways and methods to lose weight effectively will be, so you don’t harm your body and make yourself even sicker.

#ozempic #weightloss #educationispower #medication #personaltrainer #advocateforyourself #physicaltherapy #orthopedics #therapy #therapist #influencer #motivationalspeaker #author #psychology #SNHU #pennstate

John J. Schessler is a Pittsburgh-based personal trainer, author, motivational speaker, and Instagram influencer. Mr. Schessler has worked in the fitness and education fields for over 20 years and has worked with children, adolescents, and adults from all fitness levels and backgrounds. He holds Sports Injury, Pediatrics, Orthopedics, and Exercise Therapy certifications. For speaker engagements or personal training inquiries, please email pghwellnesspt@gmail.com.

By John J. Schessler, CMT, ET-C, Sports Injury/Pediatrics

Most of us, if not all of us have been lonely at some point in our lives, probably more times than we care to think about. For us introverts, some of us actually enjoy being alone with moments of being around crowds and other people sprinkled in for good measure but there’s a blatant difference between being ‘alone’ and being ‘lonely’. The older I’ve become, the more I enjoy my solitude, which if you asked the 20-something me about, would be a foreign concept because for most of my 20’s, I purposely surrounded myself with friends, family and acquaintances to avoid being alone. What I didn’t realize at the time was that as we age, the more solitary we become and most of the time, it’s not on purpose, it’s more just a fact of life…friends start dating, getting married and having kids, etc. and because of these facts of life, friendships and relationships suffer somewhat in the meantime. However, what I’m talking about in this article isn’t what I just described. What I’m talking about is the epidemic in the US right now surrounding loneliness and how we are self-sabotaging ourselves into lives of recluse. I could be very blunt and say that technology is to blame but that’s only part of the problem. Given the recent climate of the country in the past few years, I can understand why people wouldn’t want to go out with friends as much or be in large groups of people. When fear overtakes our natural want of being together with others, there’s a definite problem and it’s one that’s growing bigger.

According to MDLinx, a news source for doctor and medical professionals, loneliness affects 47% of American adults, which is double the number from a decade ago (Loneliness: A New Epidemic in the USA | Psychology Today, 2024.) In 2017, Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy often talked about how emotional well-being and loneliness was a major public health concern because social connections are essential for human growth and development, no matter how old you may be. Before we get into the thick of this, let’s look at what loneliness actually is from a clinical perspective.

Loneliness can be described as a tendency to feel, perceive, behave, and think in relatively consistent ways across time and across situations, would consider loneliness as present in detached, melancholy prone, solitary individuals, with limited interpersonal interactions and restricted affective experience and expression. (DSM-V, 2013.) Given this definition, loneliness is a very layered thing. Look at it this way: being sad often leads to isolation and becoming isolated can lead to loneliness and then leads to depression. It is a vicious cycle that one can find themselves relatively quickly, depending on the situation. Let me say this too, that it’s more than OK to be sad and stay there for a while. It only becomes a problem when it stops you from doing the things that you have to and want to do.

Why is this more widespread in the country nowadays? Well, let’s look at the things that we as citizens have had to endure in the past few years. Let’s start with the pandemic. We all experienced that collective trauma that really was a day-to-day pandora’s box of anxiety and worry. Thousands of people died, more became violently ill and nobody really had any firm direction on how to navigate our way through it. The stress, depression and general sadness from being isolated for days, weeks or months from people was enough to drive anybody crazy and being alone tends to mess with your mental state if prolonged. Our minds are a really complex machine and every if we think that everything’s working correctly, it may not be.

Aside from the pandemic, which is a lot, we also have constant fear of getting shot or killed when we go out. Let’s get rid of the smoke screen here…. people are more empowered today to make some sort of lasting statement for lack of something or not getting their way. Unfortunately, that thing to grab people’s attention is usually in the form of school shootings, killing of innocent people and a dozen other useless ways to prove a point. I know myself that I won’t go to movie theaters or certain other places just because of the possible chance of getting shot (I can’t even believe I have to put this in writing.) Millions of people fear the government and how they’re not doing enough for us in ways of protection but also in the fact of taking our certain rights away and it’s just undue stress among average, working people in the country. So, how do we cope we tense social climates like this?

I think that we first have to recognize is that incidents like we see on the nightly news are often isolated incidents and they very rarely happen in most areas of the country. You may be thinking, “John, people are crazy though!” People are on the whole, misguided and ill-informed, not necessarily dealing with mental health issues that need monitoring. I think when something like Sandy Hook, Columbine or Virginia Tech happens, we panic and point to where we think the bad guy(s) are. The problem with that is while we’re concentrating on who we think is to blame, we’re missing an important part of the process, and that is trying to figure out how this affects us in a mental health way. What we usually do is get angry that an event like this has happened for a few days, get angry that government officials didn’t see it coming and after about 2 weeks, we return to normal. That is the current trend here in the good old US of A.

As we have seen in the past few years, mental health awareness and medical care needs to be more widespread and accessible so people who need to avail themselves of it, have access to it when needed. Maybe if we decided to take mental health more seriously among the general population, we wouldn’t have these certain kinds of events every few months. At 42 years old, I never dreamed that we still would be having issues at this level with mass shootings, but here we are. I’ve kind of gotten off track here and that’s okay because I think beginning a dialogue is how I tend to cope. I pride myself on being a great writer so this is how I express myself.

Let’s take care of each other and also, practice self-care. It’s a dangerous world out there but it’s also something beautiful too. Don’t spread too much time perseverating on the bad stuff too long.

You’ll never make it out alive.

John J. Schessler, Jr. is a Pittsburgh-based Personal Trainer, Motivational Speaker and Writer. He is also a Senior at Southern New Hampshire University majoring in Child and Adolescent Developmental Psychology and plans on moving to a career in collegiate student affairs or college admissions counseling. John has been working in the fitness and medical fields for over 15 years and has certifications in Sports Injury, Pediatric Physical Therapy, Tactical Conditioning and Exercise Therapy. John currently resides in White Oak, PA and works full-time for Planet Fitness LLC. For speaker bookings or training inquiries, please email pghwellnesspt@gmail.com.

#mentalhealthawareness #fear #selfcare #strengthinnumbers #massshootings #emotioalneeds #counseling #gethelp #personaltrainer #beautifullife #startadialogue #psychology #children #protection #fyp #foryou #menswork #womenswork #humanity #groupproblem #happiness #snhu