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Category: Mental Health
Mental health therapy can help with low energy, mood swings, appetite changes, anxiety, addiction, trauma, feelings of hopelessness or helplessness, shifting sleep patterns, thoughts of harming yourself or others, and many other symptoms.
Your Brain: Maybe You’re Depressed
Depression is the result of low levels of the stress-buffering brain chemical serotonin trying, but failing, to protect you against assaults of unchecked stress.
The same holds true for similar disorders, like anxiety, fatigue, and fibromyalgia.
Anger, Part 2
While you’ll probably never be able rid your world of people or incidents that enrage you, you can learn to control your reaction to them. Here are a few tips to help you get started: • Think before you speak. When you feel yourself entering into anger, pause. The ancient Greeks tell us that the […]
Anger
Today’s tip and Wednesday’s are adapted from my book, The Triple Whammy Cure. Anger is one of those everyday emotions that we’re stuck with because we’re human. In the long run, anger serves no useful purpose and we’re all better off without it. If you put the brakes on an episode of anger and thoughtfully […]
Fear Factor
Posted 01/09/2008 Readers of this newsletter regularly hear about the dangers of stress to their health. We experience the emotional and physical reaction known as stress whenever we’re in a situation where we can’t control the course of our lives. The minor stresses (late for an appointment, a botched recipe) are unavoidable, part of life […]
December Stress
It’s December. Does the very mention of the holiday month bring you joy? Stress? A mixture of the two?
My patients often tell me that December is their worst month, with extra activities, lists, and entertaining high on the roster of stressors.
The Fine Art of Asking for Help
Your dinner guests are arriving in an hour and things are nowhere near ready. The table hasn’t been set, the guacamole not started, the wine unopened. And the dog hair on the couch?
But instead of signaling for back-up help from your family, you do it all yourself. Within moments, you feel your face muscles tense into that mean little frown you’ve seen in the mirror. And you’re completely frazzled by the time the doorbell rings.
Wintertime Blues: 10 Steps to Turn Them Around
The wintertime blues, also known as Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), usually begin when the days get shorter and the sky clouds over into perpetual gray. Many people with SAD dread late autumn because the clocks move back an hour and, in a single day, autumn twilight becomes dark night.
An Easier Way to Overcome Psychological Problems
Periodically, a new development in natural/holistic health really lives up to its hype. This is the case with energy psychology.
Prescribing Happiness
Many good studies have proved that an optimistic outlook has significant long-term health benefits. According to an article in Family Medicine, a journal for primary care doctors, some holistically oriented family physicians are recommending daily exercises in optimism to reduce the risk of developing all sorts of illnesses, both physical and emotional.
Pre-Menopause Anxiety
One of the most common symptoms my patients tell me about during their pre-menopause years is a pervasive sense of mild depression and anxiety. No particular reason for it, they report, just a sense that things aren’t going right, wanting to cry for no reason over little things that never bothered them.
Escaping Routine
Do you have the sense that the months (and years) are slipping past too quickly? No doubt you’ve once groaned, “I can’t believe it’s April already. Wasn’t it just New Year’s Eve?” Even worse, you’ve heard someone celebrating 25 years on the job mutter a little sadly, “It seems like yesterday that I walked into this company.”
Important Depression Update
For many susceptible women, the combination of holiday stress and the dark short days of winter trigger a flare-up or first-time appearance of depression. If it happens to you, you’re not alone. Epidemiologists (who chart the incidence of disease) now believe that up to 10% of people suffer from depression, and that after pain, depression is the second most common cause of disability.
Holiday Stress Rx: Part 3
Click here for the Health Tip link. My patients sometimes have difficulty comprehending the extent to which chronic stress is responsible for their symptoms. Maybe it’s easier to understand how viruses cause a cold or plant spores bring on allergies. After all, both can be seen under a microscope. And yet chronic stress is much […]
Holiday Stress Rx: Part 2
Click here for the Health Tip link. Women play such a central role in family and celebration, to the degree that the stress of holiday demands can make you feel exhausted, anxious, and sick. Taking some time for yourself may seem counterintuitive, but it’s precisely what you need. Here’s another prescription for keeping healthy during […]
Q&A: Interactions Between Antidepressants and Supplements
Q: I’m currently taking Effexor and Wellbutrin for depression. Eventually I’d like to eliminate these medications. Will the Triple Whammy supplements harm me in any way while taking these prescribed medications?
SAMe for Depression and Arthritis
SAMe (pronounced “sammy”) is the abbreviation for a molecule already made by your body, S-adenosylmethionine. Some good clinical studies have shown that SAMe supplements are effective for three seemingly unrelated conditions: depression, arthritis, and liver disease.
Stress and Brain Fog: Three Steps to Clear Thinking
Your brain will simply not function efficiently when you’re stressed out. You’ll forget why you walked into a room, miss important appointments and birthdays, and find that balancing your checkbook is an exercise in advanced mathematics.