Yoga and mindfulness meditation have been rumored to increase resilience by inducing the relaxation response. The body exhibits the relaxation response by producing antidepressant, antianxiety, and anti-stress effects. Dr. Roy-Byrne, MD set up an experiment to see whether the relaxation response would not only reduce physiological stress but also actually change gene expression. The gene expression of peripheral blood cells …
There’s an App for that
The I-phone has come out with some new, user friendly mood charting apps that have the potential to change the way you live your life. Just when you thought the I-phone couldn’t get any better! Two of these affordable apps are Senti and Moodkit. The Senti app keeps an emotional history of every day life by asking questions about the …
Depression: Bouncing Back
One of the factors that correlate with depression is a lack of resilience. With little resilience, we respond negatively when exposed to stress or trauma. This response then becomes a habit and is encoded in the brain. Thanks to neuroplasticity, the brain has the ability to rewire and make new connections. According to Linda Graham, MFT in her article Bouncing …
Abused and Misused: Opiods
The most overprescribed drugs that have have captured public interest are opioids. What a lot of people don’t know is that a 29% increase in pharmaceutical overdose deaths was caused by misuse of benzodiazepines, which have sedative properties. Dr. Steven King, MD, believes benzodiazepines are overprescribed, especially for patients with chronic pain. Benzodiazepines are often overlooked by the public, who …
Brain Food
Many treatments these days can be pretty expensive. However, you can start a fantastic, low cost, risk free intervention with a healthy diet. According to Dr. Drew Ramsey, assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Columbia University, the brain uses at least 420 calories per day and needs omega-3 fatty acids (found in fish oil), fiber, coline, and a series of …
Losing Control
Dysphoria can be extremely scary and unpredictable. In the midst of these episodes, it can feel as if the world is crashing down around you. A woman named DeeDee gave a personal account of a period of dysphoria that she compares to a total train wreck. She felt as if her life was stuck in a slump and that …
Defuse Dangerous Thoughts
We want to spend a little bit of time talking about one powerful technique for dealing with dangerous thoughts. Dangerous thoughts are thoughts that make themselves true in powerful and self-destructive ways. One example of a dangerous thought is from a very attractive young woman who had a terrible childhood of neglect. She has a powerful, dangerous thought that pops …
Stress, Resilience and the Neurobiology of Depression
Dr. Eric Nestler, M.D. believes that when it comes to treating depression, we should be doing better. Less than half of those with depression get better after receiving maximum treatment. Dr. Nestler describes depression as a broad syndrome hat involves many different diseases. Because the specific causes of depression cannot be identified, this disorder is difficult to treat. In order …
Coming Home
Where does the mind go when it is not occupied by the worries, frustration, and anxiety? Does it go to a happy place, or are people naturally angry? According to Rick Hanson, PhD, the mind constantly fluctuates between a reactive and responsive state. When in the responsive state, the body is able to relax and reenergize. It is a time …
Effects of Vitamin D on Mental Illness
Current Psychiatry posted an article suggesting that vitamin D levels are related to different mental illnesses. Although more than 50% of psychiatric patients are reported to have vitamin D deficiencies, there is still not enough evidence to say that vitamin D supplementation will help with symptoms. One way vitamin D enters our systems is through exposure to sunlight. UV radiation …
A Daily Dose of Meditation
I was extremely intrigued by the last blog post on mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR). I wanted to take on the challenge that I presented to the readers and give mindfulness a try myself. The problem was I had no idea where to begin or even how to meditate. After talking to Dr. Forster about my predicament, he suggested I look …
Mindfulness Meditation: Good for what Ails You
At the APA’s annual meeting this year, the hot topic up for discussion was mindfulness meditation. This kind of treatment has existed throughout the ages, but has recently become extremely popular. It has shown positive results for a myriad of disorders like anxiety, post-traumatic stress, and addiction. Several doctors think that the practice of mindfulness meditation, the conscious effort to …
Keeping a Healthy Brain
Aging is an inevitable part of life. We cannot control the fact that we age or prevent the process of getting older. However, we can control our attitude about aging. Many people view aging as the gradual decrease of cognitive abilities, but Dr. Helen Lavretsky, a Professor in the department of psychiatry at UCLA, provides a more optimistic view of …
Cling Less and Love More
Right in the midst of working with a young woman who has been struggling with how to accept the possibility that a new relationship might have to end (her boyfriend is still caught up in thoughts and feeling evoked by his ex, who sounds like the kind of intense woman who can easily trap a young man in a prolonged …
Check Your Wallet
Recently, we were writing about the bias that practitioners have that the technique that they they have mastered is the most effective treatment for any condition. We were reminded of this issue very vividly this morning when we met up with one of our favorite people, an older man who has been seeing us for a couple of years. He …
New Intern
Hello all, My name is Emma Swayze, and I am excited to report that this summer I will be interning for Dr. Forster. I am currently a junior at Boston College as a Psychology B.S. pre-med student. I plan to one day go to medical school in the hopes of becoming a psychiatrist. I have a particular interest in mood …
DSM5
In the next few days the American Psychiatric Association is meeting in San Francisco and will announce the latest version of its diagnostic and statistical manual: DSM5. Tom Insel, the Chief of the National Institute for Mental Health, created quite a stir last week by seeming to announce that the new diagnostic manual was an emperor with no clothes. The …
Parallel Universes: The Duality of Hopelessness and Optimism
It’s hard to explain how it is possible to go from a state of complete hopelessness and a sense that the universe is profoundly hostile, to a state of optimism and and the experience of receiving support from the world and others within a single day. The fact of the matter is that it often seems as though there are …
Benevolence
It’s been a hectic week. I will be updating you on some of the exciting new developments that we’ll be rolling out this summer on the website, but, last night, the perfect cap on a crazy week was getting a phone call about a relative who was having panic attacks because he had stopped his medication and now he couldn’t find a …
Gratitude
Recently it seems that many people have been talking about the idea of gratitude as a practice that enhances psychological health. I was intrigued to run across a recent post by Disorderly Chickadee (a woman with a WordPress blog about bipolar) on the topic of her gratitude journal and the reasons she has discovered for gratitude. And then I started …