10 Warning Signs of Alzheimer’s Dementia Caring for family members with Alzheimer’s Dementia (AD) is an all-encompassing job. People with Alzheimer’s can experience behavioral changes, get lost, and become a danger to themselves. Though there are no cures for AD, there are some medications available that can slow down the...
Empathy is the ability to sense, think, and feel the emotions of another person. Having a high level of empathy is what makes healthcare professionals great at their jobs. It is also what makes them vulnerable to developing vicarious trauma. Vicarious trauma is when empathy is in overdrive. This leads...
Everyone feels anxious from time to time. Even though we may not like anxious feelings, some level of anxiety is natural. In fact, when anxiety occurs as a reaction to serious danger, it can help to protect us, initiating our natural “fight or flight” responses. But sometimes, anxiety is a...
William Shakespeare called sleep, “sore labor's bath, balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course, chief nourisher in life's feast.” And really, he wasn’t far off. When you’re feeling tired or worn out, there’s nothing like a good night’s sleep to refresh and rejuvenate your mind and your body. But...
As cannabis became available in Illinois, I began studying the effects on PTSD nightmares, fibromyalgia and chronic pain flare-ups, and migraine treatment for my clients. As a previous hospice nurse, I knew its benefits for treating pain, wasting, irritable bowel or gastrointestinal distress in cancers, and end-of-life care. In my...
How common is post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)? About 8% of the people in the United States will suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder at some point in their lives, according to data from the US Department of Veterans Affairs. Yet like many other mental health disorders, PTSD suffers from a lack...
More than 17 million American adults had one or more major depressive episodes, according to 2017 data from the National Institute of Mental Health. Major depressive disorder (MDD) is the leading cause of disability in the US, and worldwide, more than 264 million people deal with depression. While depression is...
It can be hard to find time to make the Psychiatry appointments you need. But, whether you’re juggling a busy schedule or staying home because of the COVID-19 pandemic, you can still get the mental health care you need with telepsychiatry. Mental health nurse practitioner Allison Sikorsky founded At Your...
The ESA Request The following story is a culmination of the various requests I’ve had over the years, not one specific person, or animal, and the details are changed to protect the identity of the clients. … He matches the soft breaths of the animal and slows down his …...
Welcome Back, College Students! You only have a limited time when you’re back in town. With your Vyvanse, you can keep on task, concentrate, and get through the coursework, but you keep running out of your medications at school. How am I supposed to get to an office when I’m...
There are many ways anxiety, stress, trauma may manifest in our bodies. One common manifestation of this is through health anxiety, also called Illness Anxiety Disorder, where people worry about getting an illness. People with illness anxiety disorder have often been through their own health scare or seen someone they...
Dr. Elaine Aron, PhD first described the highly sensitive person (HSP) as a personality trait in her book, The Highly Sensitive Person: How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You. One part of this trait includes symptoms of being easily overwhelmed with strong sensory input, such as sounds, smells, and...
The alarm goes off, and you sigh. Everything feels so heavy. You hit snooze, and again, and are still tired. Wearily you sigh again and get up. It feels like too much today to wash your hair. “I’m so lazy,” but you keep going. Driving to work, you can’t remember...
We often think of Agoraphobia only as of the inability to leave one’s house. But it may present in more subtle ways and still be very debilitating. The DSM-5 gives Agoraphobia examples of marked fear or anxiety about: · Using public transportation (cars, buses, trains, ships, planes) · Being in open spaces...
“I would never want to have a mental health diagnosis on my record” A quote from Gold, Andrew, Goldman, & Schwenk (2016) retrieved from https://buff.ly/2yRTVh8 These researchers found the reason many female physicians will not obtain mental health care is due to their concerns for having a mental health diagnosis in...
Grief and depression may look and feel the same, but there are some important distinctions. “Losing Love is Like a Window in Your Heart. Everybody Sees You’re Blown Apart. Everybody Sees the Wind Blow” This line is from one of my favorite songs by Paul Simon. This line of the...
