Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “Change”
Today we’re sending some love to the terrific blog, Speaking Bipolar, by Scott Ninneman. It’s a super-positive and uplifting blog from somebody who’s been living with bipolar for thirty years. And what a well-examined journey this is. Scott is celebrating 7 years of blogging, and those seven years of posts are packed with practical tips, personal stories, and encouragement. Whether …
Surviving the time changes from Standard to Daylight Savings and back again, can be a challenge, and in our practice at Gateway Psychiatric, we always see an uptick in the numbers of people reporting sleep disruption and/or hypomania during the Northern Hemisphere spring. At the beginning of Spring and Fall, in higher latitudes both North and South, the length of …
Here comes the end of Daylight Savings again, the signal of darker mornings and longer nights to come. Even in “sunny California” the winter months are darker and people can struggle. Seasonal Affective Disorder is a real phenomenon, and it shouldn’t be brushed off. Increased hours of darkness can lead to episodes of depression, sleeplessness, and even thoughts of suicide. …
New Year’s resolutions should be simple and easy to keep; that’s one of the better pieces of advice on the subject that I’ve seen. So here’s a simple one, Every time you step outside of a door, look up. That’s it. Just see the sky. Not to check the weather, but to open yourself up – body and mind. Tilting …
How do you face the new year? With dread? With optimism? Mixed feelings? Do you have a sense of efficacy about personal growth in the coming days and weeks, or are you all about “learned helplessness” and “nothing ever works anyway”? MoodSurfing regularly looks at the topics of habit change and self-improvement, especially at this time of year, when many …
It’s Amazing! Managing a chronic disorder or illness can seem like a full-time job. Taking the medication, wondering about the medication, getting to all the therapists’ appointments, watching the diet, getting enough sleep, keeping the house clean and paying the bills each month. Whew! There’s no time in life for stopping and smelling roses. And what about those roses? How …
Why are some illnesses and conditions stigmatized while others are not? Writing in the New York Times, Dr. Aaron Carroll, chief health officer of Indiana University, suggests that stigma arises when we don’t understand the causes of a condition. Mental disorders like bipolar and supposedly “lifestyle” problems like obesity and alcoholism may appear to be more under the control of …
Dependence: Problem or not? Consider the many ways you are dependent on others, on the Earth, and on the invisible structures of society to get by in life. Consider whether our culture’s constant harping on independence is realistic or healthy. Today, let’s explore the positive sides of being dependent. It may turn out to be the more realistic way of …
Why are we too shy to own our wisdom? I’ve seen teenagers and young adults come out with deep, powerful words from the heart, but at some stage, we learn to say anything like that with a self-deprecating giggle: “don’t take this too seriously-I’m just me”. Anybody who’s been through a few decades of life has gained experience, insight, and …
Self-care is critical for a healthy life. Because we can’t meet others’ needs if our own go unheeded. Because to lead by example for our families, for our workplaces, for our communities, we have to show what a healthy life looks like. Because self-care is not a reward, it’s the basic fuel that keeps the whole show running. But how …
Are you breathing wrong? Breathing is about the most basic thing we do as living beings, and it’s hard to imagine there being a right and wrong way to do it, but experts say that constant high stress stimulates rapid, shallow breathing, which raises the heart rate, suppresses digestion, and heightens the brain’s tendency to detect danger, whether real or …
New Year’s resolutions actually tap into a very strong human impulse to create start-over points in our lives and to use them to motivate improvements that we wish to incorporate into our regular lives. Internet searches for items like “diet” and “gym” that may be prompted by a desire to do something healthy show increased activity around the first day …
How to make New Year’s Resolutions What is a New Year’s resolution, anyway? Are you always determined to make yourself a better person than you were before? Or is it more like the wish you make when you blow out your birthday candles: quickly thought up and quickly forgotten? Before you set this weight loss goal or that gym membership …
As the global Covid-19 pandemic winds down and people return to work and school, many are experiencing feelings of discomfort with face-to-face interactions that, once, were normal everyday occurrences. People are feeling “weird” about being in public spaces and interacting with teams, workgroups, staffs, or classes full of people. Data from the “Understanding America Study” an ongoing internet panel at …
People seeking treatment for major depression and bipolar tend to do well if they have two related characteristics. The first is persistence: the ability to keep doing what needs to be done, no matter the mood. The second is willingness to do whatever it takes, even if that means giving up control over which treatments are acceptable and which are …
Fall is just around the corner in the Northern Hemisphere, and the impending seasonal change means impending mood changes, too. For every person who goes into September with a New Year’s feeling: new school year, new challenges, new friends; there is another who starts the autumn with anxiety, melancholy, or even dread of the dark days to come. Our agrarian …
What is rumination and how can it be overcome? Rumination, or repetitive negative thinking, can be a symptom, and possibly even a cause of depression. But where does it come from, does it have any upsides, and what can you do about it if you feel stuck in an endless loop of regret, recrimination and overthinking the past? Psychologists distinguish …
The American Psychiatric Association (APA) conducts regular surveys of a representative sample of American adults, and this month the poll asked people how they feel about their mental health and whether they are resolving to do something to improve it next year. The survey findings show that mental health is on many people’s minds and taking steps to improve their …
Grade A for effort In a conversation with a patient who was trying to quit smoking we discovered that people often grade themselves only for final success and not for “effort”. The patient said that he did feel like he is doing better, but he still has cravings for a cigarette, and he would like to be at a place …
Curiosity is an aspect of the open-minded flexibility that allows us to go on learning and growing for a lifetime. To be regularly reminded that I don’t know everything is to be motivated to go on finding things out, and to recognize that I don’t have the answers to all of life’s questions, and I don’t have to know it …
