Many of us may find that we hope to focus on making headway in 2021 by setting New Year’s resolutions. While it’s very common for us to use the New Year as a launching point for self-improvement, I would like to take a moment to discuss some important themes to keep in mind now that we are approaching 2021.
Paid bereavement days, meal trains, flower arrangements and condolence cards are often sent as acknowledgement during traditional losses. These gestures do not typically accompany disenfranchised grief. Unfortunately, this absence further supports the misbelief that a person’s feelings of loss are not valid.
Telehealth allows you to receive treatment from anywhere and eliminates a lot of inconveniences. In addition, digital document management and signing systems can help you avoid spending large amounts of time completing forms.
About halfway through my tour I was at Bagram to go on leave and another solider, who knew my background as a therapist, shared with me the symptoms of PTSD he was experiencing after a particularly awful experience. The therapist part of me tried to speak up and offer some suggestions, but I couldn’t do it.
I didn’t think of myself as stressed. But when you lined up the pieces next to each other, it seemed obvious that there was a lot on my shoulders. Not to mention the extenuating circumstances of this year — Covid, an inland hurricane in Iowa, election season, and more.
Not all repetitive thoughts are obsessions and not all repetitive behaviors are compulsions. Many people worry or have routines… A person with OCD can’t just stop what they are doing because they get tired of it or it’s time to leave. If their obsessive thought was that “stepping on a crack would break their mother’s back,” they would continue to avoid all cracks in any surface walked on.
You may be reading this — now knowing that depression is not as rare as you once thought — and wonder “Do I have depression?” One of the most common misconceptions that I hear is the idea that in order to have depression a person must feel sad all of the time or cry frequently. While this can be a symptom of depression, it is certainly not the only one.
This woman was so filled with shame. If shame were a color it would pour out of her eyes, staining her cheeks. I sat across from her letting my eyes fill as well. I could normalize her experience — not just because I am a trained therapist — but because I have thought those very same things too. If you are reading this, please help me to NORMALIZE MENTAL HEALTH.
Ask, “Are you thinking of killing yourself?” This may seem like a difficult question and many fear that asking someone this question will put thoughts of suicide into their minds, but research indicates that asking individuals that are at risk of suicide does not increase the chance of suicide attempts or suicidal thoughts.
How do you know if your child might have ADHD or if their behavior is typical, albeit a bit overly energetic? The answer is you don’t have to know. Parents and caregivers are not expected to know everything about their children.
