Two new studies of millions of people around the world suggest that #doctors should be thinking more about #cancer #patients’ #mentalhealth, experts said.

#Suicide rates among people with #cancer were notably higher in the #UnitedStates than in Europe, Asia or Australia, the study found. 

By Jessica Wapner

One day years ago, during her training in neurology, Dr. Corinna Seliger-Behme met a man with end-stage bladder cancer. Before the diagnosis, the man had a stable family and job, and no history of #mentalhealthproblems, Dr. Seliger-Behme recalled. But, soon after learning of his terminal disease, he tried to kill himself with a knife in the bathtub. He spent the last week of his life in the psychiatric ward.

That patient’s situation was extreme, but the psychological distress brought on by #cancer is significant for many #patients. Two studies published on Monday quantify the psychological burden of #cancer in fine detail, pulling from much larger data sets than previous research. The findings make a compelling case for oncologists to have more discussions with their #patients about #mentalhealth struggles.

“Probably, we can prevent #suicide if we talk about it, and if we really start that early,” said Dr. Seliger-Behme, a neurologist at Heidelberg University in Germany.

In one of the new reports, she and several colleagues reviewed 28 studies that included more than 22 million cancer #patients across the world. Their analysis showed that the #suicide rate was 85 percent higher for people with cancer than the general population. Predictably, cancers with the best prognoses — including prostate, nonmetastatic melanoma and testicular cancers — had the lowest #suiciderates, whereas those with the worst prognoses, like stomach and pancreatic cancers, had the highest #suicide rates.

#Suicide rates among people with #cancer were notably higher in the #UnitedStates than in Europe, Asia or Australia, the study found. The authors speculated that the high cost of health care in the #UnitedStates might have led some #patients to forgo treatment to avoid bankrupting their families. They also wondered if easier access to firearms in the #UnitedStates compared to countries in other world regions could have contributed to the higher #suicide rates.

In the second new study, Alvina Lai, who studies informatics at University College London, and a colleague created a large database, gleaned from the health records of about 460,000 people with 26 different cancers who were diagnosed between 1998 and 2020 in Britain.

Five percent of #patients were diagnosed with #depression after their cancer diagnoses, and the same was true for #anxiety. About one percent of the group had self-harmed after their diagnoses. #Patients with brain tumors, prostate cancer, Hodgkin’s lymphoma, testicular cancer and melanoma were most likely to hurt themselves.

About one-quarter of the #cancer #patients had substance abuse disorder, the study found. And psychiatric issues, including substance abuse, tended to increase over time, even years after a diagnosis.

The analysis showed that the single biggest risk factor for developing a #mentalhealthcondition was treatment involving surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. The length, intensity and cumulative side effects of this triple-threat approach to cancer treatment could explain why it triggers #depression, #anxiety and even #personalitydisorders in many people.

Chemotherapy on its own was also tied to high rates of #psychiatricdisorders, whereas “kinase inhibitors” — targeted drugs that often have fewer side effects — had the lowest rates.

The stark data made Dr. Lai wonder whether #patients are given enough opportunities to weigh the psychological risks of potential treatments. “It would be so useful for #cancer #patients who are newly diagnosed to see what the data tell us and make an informed decision,” Dr. Lai said.

The study also yielded some surprising findings. For example, testicular cancer carried a higher risk of #depression than any other cancer type, affecting 98 of every 100 #patients.

“That’s slightly counterintuitive — it’s one of the better prognosis forms of cancer,” said Dr. Alan Valentine, chair of the psychiatry department at M.D. Anderson #Cancer Center in Houston, who was not involved with the study. The finding, he said, underscores how tumultuous a diagnosis can be even when a tumor doesn’t cut life short.

#JamesDonaldson notes:

Welcome to the “next chapter” of my life… being a voice and an advocate for #mentalhealthawarenessandsuicideprevention, especially pertaining to our younger generation of students and student-athletes.

Getting men to speak up and reach out for help and assistance is one of my passions. Us men need to not suffer in silence or drown our sorrows in alcohol, hang out at bars and strip joints, or get involved with drug use.

Having gone through a recent bout of #depression and #suicidalthoughts myself, I realize now, that I can make a huge difference in the lives of so many by sharing my story, and by sharing various resources I come across as I work in this space.  #http://bit.ly/JamesMentalHealthArticle

Order your copy of James Donaldson's latest book,

Celebrating Your Gift of Life:

From The Verge of Suicide to a Life of Purpose and Joy

 

New Developments in Cancer Research

Progress in the field. In recent years, advancements in research have changed the way cancer is treated. Here are some recent updates:

Pancreatic cancer. Scientists are exploring whether the onset of diabetes may be an early warning sign of pancreatic #cancer, which is on track to become the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the U.S. by 2040.

Chemotherapy. A quiet revolution is underway in the field of cancer treatment: A growing number of #patients, especially those with breast and lung cancers, are being spared the dreaded treatment in favor of other options.

Prostate cancer. An experimental treatment that relies on radioactive molecules to seek out tumor cells prolonged life in #men with aggressive forms of the disease — the second-leading cause of cancer death among #American #men.

Leukemia. After receiving a new treatment, called CAR T cell therapy, more than a decade ago, two #patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia saw the blood cancer vanish. Their cases offer hope for those with the disease, and create some new mysteries.

Esophageal cancer. Nivolumab, a drug that unleashes the immune system, was found to extend survival times in #patients with the disease who took part in a large clinical trial. Esophageal #cancer is the seventh most common cancer in the world.

Because studies assessing #mentalhealth are typically based on questionnaires that rely on self-reporting, the data probably underrepresents reality, noted Wendy Balliet, a clinical #psychologist at the Hollings Cancer Center at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. Persistent #stigmas against #psychiatricdisorders mean that people may not be forthcoming about their internal struggles, Dr. Balliet said. She also noted that the complexities involved in declaring a death as a completed #suicide may also lead to underreporting of the connection between #cancer and fatal self-harm.

The results raise questions about how much more counseling and support #patients could be given along the way. “It’s hard for me to not to think about what conversations these #patients are having with their oncologists,” Dr. Balliet said.

The studies also draw attention to cancer #patients with previously diagnosed #psychiatricdisorders, such as #schizophrenia. Previous research has found that such #patients die from cancer at higher rates than those without these conditions. Dr. Lai’s study found that cancer #patients with #schizophrenia were more likely to receive palliative care, potentially indicating that they didn’t get the treatment they needed early on in their diagnoses.

“Cancer is an expensive disease,” said Dr. Valentine of M.D. Anderson, “and you could argue that folks with severe #mentaldisorders either don’t have access to care or are in a health care system that doesn’t have the resources they need.”

Current treatment guidelines suggest screening for #depression as part of routine cancer care, noted Dr. Nathalie Moise, professor of medicine at Columbia University’s Vagelos College of #Physicians and Surgeons. “I think these findings may support the need to also screen for #suicide and other risk factors,” she said.

“Normalizing #mentalhealthtreatment as an integral component of your overall cancer care may also go a long way,” she said.

If you are having thoughts of #suicide, call the #NationalSuicidePreventionLifeline at 800-273-8255 (TALK) or go to SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for a list of additional resources.
https://standingabovethecrowd.com/2022/03/jamesdonaldson-on-mentalhealth-cancer-patients-are-at-high-risk-of-depression-and-suicide-studies-find/

Two new studies of millions of people around the world suggest that #doctors should be thinking more about #cancer #patients’ #mentalhealth, experts said.

#Suicide rates among people with #cancer were notably higher in the #UnitedStates than in Europe, Asia or Australia, the study found. 

By Jessica Wapner

One day years ago, during her training in neurology, Dr. Corinna Seliger-Behme met a man with end-stage bladder cancer. Before the diagnosis, the man had a stable family and job, and no history of #mentalhealthproblems, Dr. Seliger-Behme recalled. But, soon after learning of his terminal disease, he tried to kill himself with a knife in the bathtub. He spent the last week of his life in the psychiatric ward.

That patient’s situation was extreme, but the psychological distress brought on by #cancer is significant for many #patients. Two studies published on Monday quantify the psychological burden of #cancer in fine detail, pulling from much larger data sets than previous research. The findings make a compelling case for oncologists to have more discussions with their #patients about #mentalhealth struggles.

“Probably, we can prevent #suicide if we talk about it, and if we really start that early,” said Dr. Seliger-Behme, a neurologist at Heidelberg University in Germany.

In one of the new reports, she and several colleagues reviewed 28 studies that included more than 22 million cancer #patients across the world. Their analysis showed that the #suicide rate was 85 percent higher for people with cancer than the general population. Predictably, cancers with the best prognoses — including prostate, nonmetastatic melanoma and testicular cancers — had the lowest #suiciderates, whereas those with the worst prognoses, like stomach and pancreatic cancers, had the highest #suicide rates.

#Suicide rates among people with #cancer were notably higher in the #UnitedStates than in Europe, Asia or Australia, the study found. The authors speculated that the high cost of health care in the #UnitedStates might have led some #patients to forgo treatment to avoid bankrupting their families. They also wondered if easier access to firearms in the #UnitedStates compared to countries in other world regions could have contributed to the higher #suicide rates.

In the second new study, Alvina Lai, who studies informatics at University College London, and a colleague created a large database, gleaned from the health records of about 460,000 people with 26 different cancers who were diagnosed between 1998 and 2020 in Britain.

Five percent of #patients were diagnosed with #depression after their cancer diagnoses, and the same was true for #anxiety. About one percent of the group had self-harmed after their diagnoses. #Patients with brain tumors, prostate cancer, Hodgkin’s lymphoma, testicular cancer and melanoma were most likely to hurt themselves.

About one-quarter of the #cancer #patients had substance abuse disorder, the study found. And psychiatric issues, including substance abuse, tended to increase over time, even years after a diagnosis.

The analysis showed that the single biggest risk factor for developing a #mentalhealthcondition was treatment involving surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. The length, intensity and cumulative side effects of this triple-threat approach to cancer treatment could explain why it triggers #depression, #anxiety and even #personalitydisorders in many people.

Chemotherapy on its own was also tied to high rates of #psychiatricdisorders, whereas “kinase inhibitors” — targeted drugs that often have fewer side effects — had the lowest rates.

The stark data made Dr. Lai wonder whether #patients are given enough opportunities to weigh the psychological risks of potential treatments. “It would be so useful for #cancer #patients who are newly diagnosed to see what the data tell us and make an informed decision,” Dr. Lai said.

The study also yielded some surprising findings. For example, testicular cancer carried a higher risk of #depression than any other cancer type, affecting 98 of every 100 #patients.

“That’s slightly counterintuitive — it’s one of the better prognosis forms of cancer,” said Dr. Alan Valentine, chair of the psychiatry department at M.D. Anderson #Cancer Center in Houston, who was not involved with the study. The finding, he said, underscores how tumultuous a diagnosis can be even when a tumor doesn’t cut life short.

#JamesDonaldson notes:

Welcome to the “next chapter” of my life… being a voice and an advocate for #mentalhealthawarenessandsuicideprevention, especially pertaining to our younger generation of students and student-athletes.

Getting men to speak up and reach out for help and assistance is one of my passions. Us men need to not suffer in silence or drown our sorrows in alcohol, hang out at bars and strip joints, or get involved with drug use.

Having gone through a recent bout of #depression and #suicidalthoughts myself, I realize now, that I can make a huge difference in the lives of so many by sharing my story, and by sharing various resources I come across as I work in this space.  #http://bit.ly/JamesMentalHealthArticle

Order your copy of James Donaldson's latest book,

Celebrating Your Gift of Life:

From The Verge of Suicide to a Life of Purpose and Joy

 

New Developments in Cancer Research

Progress in the field. In recent years, advancements in research have changed the way cancer is treated. Here are some recent updates:

Pancreatic cancer. Scientists are exploring whether the onset of diabetes may be an early warning sign of pancreatic #cancer, which is on track to become the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the U.S. by 2040.

Chemotherapy. A quiet revolution is underway in the field of cancer treatment: A growing number of #patients, especially those with breast and lung cancers, are being spared the dreaded treatment in favor of other options.

Prostate cancer. An experimental treatment that relies on radioactive molecules to seek out tumor cells prolonged life in #men with aggressive forms of the disease — the second-leading cause of cancer death among #American #men.

Leukemia. After receiving a new treatment, called CAR T cell therapy, more than a decade ago, two #patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia saw the blood cancer vanish. Their cases offer hope for those with the disease, and create some new mysteries.

Esophageal cancer. Nivolumab, a drug that unleashes the immune system, was found to extend survival times in #patients with the disease who took part in a large clinical trial. Esophageal #cancer is the seventh most common cancer in the world.

Because studies assessing #mentalhealth are typically based on questionnaires that rely on self-reporting, the data probably underrepresents reality, noted Wendy Balliet, a clinical #psychologist at the Hollings Cancer Center at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. Persistent #stigmas against #psychiatricdisorders mean that people may not be forthcoming about their internal struggles, Dr. Balliet said. She also noted that the complexities involved in declaring a death as a completed #suicide may also lead to underreporting of the connection between #cancer and fatal self-harm.

The results raise questions about how much more counseling and support #patients could be given along the way. “It’s hard for me to not to think about what conversations these #patients are having with their oncologists,” Dr. Balliet said.

The studies also draw attention to cancer #patients with previously diagnosed #psychiatricdisorders, such as #schizophrenia. Previous research has found that such #patients die from cancer at higher rates than those without these conditions. Dr. Lai’s study found that cancer #patients with #schizophrenia were more likely to receive palliative care, potentially indicating that they didn’t get the treatment they needed early on in their diagnoses.

“Cancer is an expensive disease,” said Dr. Valentine of M.D. Anderson, “and you could argue that folks with severe #mentaldisorders either don’t have access to care or are in a health care system that doesn’t have the resources they need.”

Current treatment guidelines suggest screening for #depression as part of routine cancer care, noted Dr. Nathalie Moise, professor of medicine at Columbia University’s Vagelos College of #Physicians and Surgeons. “I think these findings may support the need to also screen for #suicide and other risk factors,” she said.

“Normalizing #mentalhealthtreatment as an integral component of your overall cancer care may also go a long way,” she said.

If you are having thoughts of #suicide, call the #NationalSuicidePreventionLifeline at 800-273-8255 (TALK) or go to SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for a list of additional resources.
https://standingabovethecrowd.com/2022/03/jamesdonaldson-on-mentalhealth-cancer-patients-are-at-high-risk-of-depression-and-suicide-studies-find/

Two new studies of millions of people around the world suggest that #doctors should be thinking more about #cancer #patients’ #mentalhealth, experts said.

#Suicide rates among people with #cancer were notably higher in the #UnitedStates than in Europe, Asia or Australia, the study found. 

By Jessica Wapner

One day years ago, during her training in neurology, Dr. Corinna Seliger-Behme met a man with end-stage bladder cancer. Before the diagnosis, the man had a stable family and job, and no history of #mentalhealthproblems, Dr. Seliger-Behme recalled. But, soon after learning of his terminal disease, he tried to kill himself with a knife in the bathtub. He spent the last week of his life in the psychiatric ward.

That patient’s situation was extreme, but the psychological distress brought on by #cancer is significant for many #patients. Two studies published on Monday quantify the psychological burden of #cancer in fine detail, pulling from much larger data sets than previous research. The findings make a compelling case for oncologists to have more discussions with their #patients about #mentalhealth struggles.

“Probably, we can prevent #suicide if we talk about it, and if we really start that early,” said Dr. Seliger-Behme, a neurologist at Heidelberg University in Germany.

In one of the new reports, she and several colleagues reviewed 28 studies that included more than 22 million cancer #patients across the world. Their analysis showed that the #suicide rate was 85 percent higher for people with cancer than the general population. Predictably, cancers with the best prognoses — including prostate, nonmetastatic melanoma and testicular cancers — had the lowest #suiciderates, whereas those with the worst prognoses, like stomach and pancreatic cancers, had the highest #suicide rates.

#Suicide rates among people with #cancer were notably higher in the #UnitedStates than in Europe, Asia or Australia, the study found. The authors speculated that the high cost of health care in the #UnitedStates might have led some #patients to forgo treatment to avoid bankrupting their families. They also wondered if easier access to firearms in the #UnitedStates compared to countries in other world regions could have contributed to the higher #suicide rates.

In the second new study, Alvina Lai, who studies informatics at University College London, and a colleague created a large database, gleaned from the health records of about 460,000 people with 26 different cancers who were diagnosed between 1998 and 2020 in Britain.

Five percent of #patients were diagnosed with #depression after their cancer diagnoses, and the same was true for #anxiety. About one percent of the group had self-harmed after their diagnoses. #Patients with brain tumors, prostate cancer, Hodgkin’s lymphoma, testicular cancer and melanoma were most likely to hurt themselves.

About one-quarter of the #cancer #patients had substance abuse disorder, the study found. And psychiatric issues, including substance abuse, tended to increase over time, even years after a diagnosis.

The analysis showed that the single biggest risk factor for developing a #mentalhealthcondition was treatment involving surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. The length, intensity and cumulative side effects of this triple-threat approach to cancer treatment could explain why it triggers #depression, #anxiety and even #personalitydisorders in many people.

Chemotherapy on its own was also tied to high rates of #psychiatricdisorders, whereas “kinase inhibitors” — targeted drugs that often have fewer side effects — had the lowest rates.

The stark data made Dr. Lai wonder whether #patients are given enough opportunities to weigh the psychological risks of potential treatments. “It would be so useful for #cancer #patients who are newly diagnosed to see what the data tell us and make an informed decision,” Dr. Lai said.

The study also yielded some surprising findings. For example, testicular cancer carried a higher risk of #depression than any other cancer type, affecting 98 of every 100 #patients.

“That’s slightly counterintuitive — it’s one of the better prognosis forms of cancer,” said Dr. Alan Valentine, chair of the psychiatry department at M.D. Anderson #Cancer Center in Houston, who was not involved with the study. The finding, he said, underscores how tumultuous a diagnosis can be even when a tumor doesn’t cut life short.

#JamesDonaldson notes:

Welcome to the “next chapter” of my life… being a voice and an advocate for #mentalhealthawarenessandsuicideprevention, especially pertaining to our younger generation of students and student-athletes.

Getting men to speak up and reach out for help and assistance is one of my passions. Us men need to not suffer in silence or drown our sorrows in alcohol, hang out at bars and strip joints, or get involved with drug use.

Having gone through a recent bout of #depression and #suicidalthoughts myself, I realize now, that I can make a huge difference in the lives of so many by sharing my story, and by sharing various resources I come across as I work in this space.  #http://bit.ly/JamesMentalHealthArticle

Order your copy of James Donaldson's latest book,

Celebrating Your Gift of Life:

From The Verge of Suicide to a Life of Purpose and Joy

 

New Developments in Cancer Research

Progress in the field. In recent years, advancements in research have changed the way cancer is treated. Here are some recent updates:

Pancreatic cancer. Scientists are exploring whether the onset of diabetes may be an early warning sign of pancreatic #cancer, which is on track to become the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the U.S. by 2040.

Chemotherapy. A quiet revolution is underway in the field of cancer treatment: A growing number of #patients, especially those with breast and lung cancers, are being spared the dreaded treatment in favor of other options.

Prostate cancer. An experimental treatment that relies on radioactive molecules to seek out tumor cells prolonged life in #men with aggressive forms of the disease — the second-leading cause of cancer death among #American #men.

Leukemia. After receiving a new treatment, called CAR T cell therapy, more than a decade ago, two #patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia saw the blood cancer vanish. Their cases offer hope for those with the disease, and create some new mysteries.

Esophageal cancer. Nivolumab, a drug that unleashes the immune system, was found to extend survival times in #patients with the disease who took part in a large clinical trial. Esophageal #cancer is the seventh most common cancer in the world.

Because studies assessing #mentalhealth are typically based on questionnaires that rely on self-reporting, the data probably underrepresents reality, noted Wendy Balliet, a clinical #psychologist at the Hollings Cancer Center at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. Persistent #stigmas against #psychiatricdisorders mean that people may not be forthcoming about their internal struggles, Dr. Balliet said. She also noted that the complexities involved in declaring a death as a completed #suicide may also lead to underreporting of the connection between #cancer and fatal self-harm.

The results raise questions about how much more counseling and support #patients could be given along the way. “It’s hard for me to not to think about what conversations these #patients are having with their oncologists,” Dr. Balliet said.

The studies also draw attention to cancer #patients with previously diagnosed #psychiatricdisorders, such as #schizophrenia. Previous research has found that such #patients die from cancer at higher rates than those without these conditions. Dr. Lai’s study found that cancer #patients with #schizophrenia were more likely to receive palliative care, potentially indicating that they didn’t get the treatment they needed early on in their diagnoses.

“Cancer is an expensive disease,” said Dr. Valentine of M.D. Anderson, “and you could argue that folks with severe #mentaldisorders either don’t have access to care or are in a health care system that doesn’t have the resources they need.”

Current treatment guidelines suggest screening for #depression as part of routine cancer care, noted Dr. Nathalie Moise, professor of medicine at Columbia University’s Vagelos College of #Physicians and Surgeons. “I think these findings may support the need to also screen for #suicide and other risk factors,” she said.

“Normalizing #mentalhealthtreatment as an integral component of your overall cancer care may also go a long way,” she said.

If you are having thoughts of #suicide, call the #NationalSuicidePreventionLifeline at 800-273-8255 (TALK) or go to SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for a list of additional resources.
https://standingabovethecrowd.com/?p=9061

And why it's now being diagnosed and treated in #teenagers

Caroline Miller

What You'll Learn

- What is #borderlinepersonalitydisorder (#BPD)?
- What are the signs of #BPD?
- How is #BPD treated?

- Quick Read
- Full Article
- What is #BPD?
- Emotional dysregulation
- Self-destructive #behavior
- Criteria for diagnosing #BPD
- Diagnosing #teenagers
- Why early diagnosis is crucial
- Treatment for #BPD

People with #borderlinepersonalitydisorder (#BPD) experience extreme emotions. Once a powerful emotion is triggered, it is very hard for them to calm down. Because of this, they often have unstable relationships. They also engage in self-destructive #behavior, including #suicideattempts.

In the past, traditional therapy hasn’t been very effective in helping people with #BPD. But there is now new understanding of the disorder and more effective treatments available. With the right support. most people with #BPD can learn to manage overwhelming emotions and improve their lives.

Another important change is that #BPD is now diagnosed and treated in #teenagers. When #kids get the right treatment, sooner, they’ll do better in the future.

Some #kids with #BPD have a history of abuse or neglect. But the disorder can also occur in ordinary, loving families when #parents ignore or minimize kids’ big emotional reactions. This might seem like a normal part of parenting, and in most cases, it is. But highly sensitive or emotional #kids can end up feeling painfully alone. When these children’s big feelings are brushed off by #adults, they often fail to learn the important skills they need to control their emotions.

People with #BPD are often overwhelmed by anger and feelings of abandonment, shame and self-loathing. These feelings take a toll on relationships. Small problems easily become big blow-ups, causing fights with friends, #parents and partners. Problems with friends or breakups with partners can trigger self-harm or #suicideattempts. Other dangerous #behaviors can include substance abuse, risky sex, and recklessness.

The gold-standard treatment for #BPD is called #dialecticalbehavioraltherapy, or #DBT. The treatment helps #patients practice more effective ways to manage and respond to their feelings, and it is very successful in treating this disorder.

#Borderlinepersonalitydisorder (#BPD) is a diagnosis that has historically been difficult to understand, and even more difficult to treat successfully. The symptoms associated with it are a painful mix of emotional turmoil, unstable relationships and self-destructive #behavior, including #suicideattempts.

But new insights into the disorder, leading to new, more effective treatments, have made the prognosis for someone with #BPD much more promising. With the right support, most people with #BPD can successfully learn to regulate their overwhelming emotions, stop self-destructive #behavior and improve their lives.

“It used to be that receiving a #BPD diagnosis felt like a life sentence of misery,” said Alec Miller, PsyD, an expert in treating #adolescents with #BPD. “But research now shows that the chances of functioning better and even dropping the diagnostic label are very high.”

Another important change is that #BPD is now diagnosed and treated in #teenagers. Until recently #mentalhealthprofessionals were reluctant to give the diagnosis to anyone under 18, despite the fact that symptoms become prominent in #adolescence, or even earlier. Now experts stress that treating #BPD as early as possible leads to better long-term outcomes, as well as lowering the risk of  dangerous or suicidal #behavior.

What is #BPD?

Experts call #BPD a biosocial disorder, meaning that it starts with a biological (or temperamental) inclination which is exacerbated by the social environment. People who develop #BPD are by temperament highly emotionally sensitive and reactive, feeling things more immediately and more intensely than most people. And once a powerful emotion is triggered, it takes them longer to return to their emotional baseline.

 #BPD develops when one of these emotionally vulnerable people is confronted with an environment that doesn’t validate her feelings — that is, acknowledge them, make her feel understood, and help her handle them. In many cases, kids who develop #BPD have been abused or neglected. But the disorder can also come about in #children whose loving, well-meaning #parents minimize or discount their emotional reactions, because they seem exaggerated or inappropriate.

Dismissing what seems like an overreaction is a fairly typical parental response. But for highly reactive kids, the chronic sense of not feeling understood or supported leads them to feel painfully alone and disconnected, explains Blaise Aguirre, MD. Dr. Aguirre is the founding medical director of 3East, a continuum of care using #dialecticalbehaviortherapy (#DBT) to treat borderline personality disorder at Boston’s McLean Hospital. Friends and family members don’t understand why people with #BPD have huge reactions to small things. For Dr. Aguirre, author of #BorderlinePersonalityDisorder in #Adolescents, #BPD is something like a peanut allergy; the reaction may not be typical of most people, but it’s no less real.

Emotional dysregulation

When a child’s powerful feelings aren’t validated by the #adults in her life, it becomes difficult for her to learn to manage them in a healthy way.  #Adults help us name and identify what we’re feeling; by soothing us they teach us how to soothe and calm ourselves down.

“Take a person with extremely strong, intense emotions, who is constantly told that she’s overreacting, she shouldn’t feel the ways she feels,” explains Jill Emanuele, PhD, clinical psychologist and director of the Mood Disorders Center at the #ChildMindInstitute. “As a result, she doesn’t learn how to regulate and modulate her emotions. “

People with #BPD are often overwhelmed by intense anger and feelings of abandonment, emptiness, shame and self-loathing.

These feelings tend to destabilize relationships for people with #BPD, who are hypersensitive to social cues from others, and more likely than others to interpret things negatively. Minor slights — or things misinterpreted as slights — are taken as evidence of abandonment, and the reaction can be swift and intense, causing rifts with friends, #parents, partners. They go from “I love you” to “I hate you” in a heartbeat, Dr. Aguirre explains. Or they become so frantic asking for reassurance that they are loved — incessant texting, calling, begging, clinging —that they drive partners away.

Rifts with friends or breakups with partners are often the trigger for self-harm or #suicideattempts, he notes.

Self-destructive #behavior

Why does #BPD lead to self-destructive #behavior?

Without the skills to manage painful feelings in a more effective way, people with #BPD  often find unhealthy alternatives, including substance abuse, risky sex, reckless thrill-seeking.

Self-injury is very often one of these #behaviors:  #Teenagers use things like cutting, scratching and opening wounds to alleviate emotions they find intolerable. “In fact it can work as an emotional regulation strategy,” notes Dr. Miller, cofounder and clinical director of Cognitive and #Behavioral Consultants in Westchester and New York City. “The problem is that if it works, they’re more likely to use it again to cope with negative emotions. To reduce self-harm we need to acknowledge what it’s doing for them, and try to give them some safer replacement strategies.”

One dangerous misunderstanding about #BPD is that the emotional drama and the self-destructive #behaviors, including #suicideattempts, are manipulative pleas for attention.

“Historically, people with #BPD have been viewed as purposely manipulative,” explains Dr. Emanuele, “using extreme measures to get things, gaming people around them. But that’s not it at all. These people are in intense pain, and feel they can’t get what they need.”

In fact, Dr. Aguirre notes, suicidal feelings are almost universal in people with #BPD, and reflect a desperate need to escape extreme emotional distress.

Criteria for diagnosing #BPD

These are the criteria #mentalhealthprofessionals use to diagnose #borderlinepersonalitydisorder:

- Frantic efforts to avoid abandonment, real or imagined
- A pattern of unstable and intense relationships
- An unstable self-image or sense of self
- Dangerous impulsivity such as unsafe sexual encounters, substance abuse
- Recurrent suicidal behavior, gestures or threats, or self-mutilating behavior.
- Emotional instability due to high reactivity
- Chronic feelings of emptiness
- Inappropriate, intense anger or difficulty controlling anger
- Transient, stress-related paranoia or severe dissociative symptoms

Diagnosing #teenagers

In the past, #mentalhealthprofessionals were reluctant to diagnose anyone under 18 with #BPD, even though symptoms usually develop during the #teen years. That was, in part, because emotional intensity and impulsive risk-taking are to some extent characteristic of #adolescence itself. Typical #teenage #behavior, it was thought, could be confused with #BPD.

But even if the #behavior looks similar, the reasons for it are different in typical #adolescents and those with #BPD, Dr. Aguirre notes. Typical #teens experiment with #alcohol and sex out of curiosity and impulsivity, while people with #BPD use them to escape acutely painful feelings. They may seek out sexual encounters, for instance, because they feel abandoned, and crave closeness, rather than sex itself. They may take dangerous risks because “in that moment of desperation the need to change how they feel makes the #behaviors feel like the right thing to do.”

Another reason for not diagnosing #BPD in #teens was to avoid labeling them with a severe illness that didn’t respond well to treatment. But as the treatment picture has changed, so has the aversion to diagnosis in #adolescence. One large study called the McLean Study of #Adult Development, which followed #BPD #patients for 12 years, found that 74 percent of participants had no active symptoms after 6 years, and only 6 percent relapsed in the following 6 years.

The lead author of the study, Mary Zanarini, began to call #borderlinepersonalitydisorder a “good-prognosis diagnosis,” and those who are treated while they’re still #teenagers have even more optimistic outcomes.

Why early diagnosis is crucial

If #BPD is understood as a lack of emotional regulation skills, it’s crucial to get someone who develops symptoms into treatment as soon as possible, Dr. Aguirre says, “before patterns of maladaptive #behavior have set in.”

This is particularly important as young people are developing their identity and sense of self, which is made incredibly difficult for young people with #BPD symptoms. “When your environment doesn’t reflect back what your experience is,” Dr. Aguirre says, “it’s hard to know who you are, what your values are.”

Another reason experts urge earlier diagnosis of #BPD is to lessen inaccurate diagnosis of more common disorders like #ADHD, #depression and #bipolar disorder. Sometimes these are co-occurring disorders, but often they are misdiagnoses. As a result, these teenagers are given medications that aren’t effective, including mood stabilizers and antipsychotics.

“I’ve seen kids with #BPD who were on extensive drug cocktails because the clinicians didn’t know what was happening,” adds Dr. Emanuele. “They’re just going after the symptoms. And no medication is going to correct the invalidation that these people feel.”

#BPD #patients who are admitted to Dr. Aguirre’s unit often come in “zombie-like,” he reports, because they are on so many medications. When they are discharged, he says, half are on no meds at all.

#JamesDonaldson notes:

Welcome to the “next chapter” of my life… being a voice and an advocate for #mentalhealthawarenessandsuicideprevention, especially pertaining to our younger generation of students and student-athletes.

Getting men to speak up and reach out for help and assistance is one of my passions. Us men need to not suffer in silence or drown our sorrows in alcohol, hang out at bars and strip joints, or get involved with drug use.

Having gone through a recent bout of #depression and #suicidalthoughts myself, I realize now, that I can make a huge difference in the lives of so many by sharing my story, and by sharing various resources I come across as I work in this space.  #http://bit.ly/JamesMentalHealthArticle

Order your copy of James Donaldson's latest book,

Celebrating Your Gift of Life:

From The Verge of Suicide to a Life of Purpose and Joy

Treatment for #BPD

There are a number of specialized psychotherapies that have been developed to treat #BPD, but the gold standard treatment — the one with the most evidence for its effectiveness — is called #dialecticalbehavioraltherapy, or #DBT. The reason it’s called “dialectical” is that it involves two things that might seem to be in opposition but are both important: the need for acceptance and the need for change.

First, a patient’s feelings need to be validated, or accepted without judgment, in order for her to learn more effective ways for her to manage and respond to them.

“It’s basically ‘I’m doing the best I can’ on the one hand,” explains Dr. Miller, “and at the same time ‘I need to do better’ on the other.”

Validation, which is the first step in #DBT, means recognition and acceptance of another person’s feelings as being real.  It doesn’t mean agreeing with the thoughts or feelings. When people feel accepted and understood, it has a calming effect and allows them to learn skills to regulate emotions and develop safer, more effective alternatives to the self-destructive #behaviors they have been using.

“It’s essentially a skills-based approach which says that if our #patients could do better, they would, but they’re lacking skills,” explains Dr. Miller, who is the author of Dialectical Behavioral Therapy with Suicidal #Adolescents. “It’s so easy for us to tell people to stop problematic #behaviors but it’s better to teach them new skills.”

#DBT skills are very effective for getting #patients to stop self-injury and suicidality, Dr. Aguirre notes. It’s tougher to change the self-loathing and self-hatred that can become fused with a borderline person’s identity.

He also notes that availability of #DBT and other treatment for #BPD is limited, which means that a lot of #teenagers who should get treatment aren’t getting it. “The number of people with emotion regulation problems is outstripping the number of #DBT providers,” he says, “and we know that because #suicide rates in #adolescents continue to go through the roof.”

Dr. Miller stresses the urgency of getting #teens with #BPD into treatment: “If you throw yourself into treatment, you can be a very successful, highly functional #adult.”

Dr. Emanuele adds that she’s seen many #patients dramatically improve their lives. “Over the years, I have repeatedly seen DBT give participants the hope and reality of a ‘life worth living,’ ” adds Dr. Emanuele. “And that’s something they had not been able to imagine or experience before.”

Caroline Miller

Caroline Miller is the editorial director of the #ChildMindInstitute. She is a veteran magazine, newspaper and website editor … Read Bio
https://standingabovethecrowd.com/2022/03/jamesdonaldson-on-mentalhealth-what-is-borderlinepersonalitydisorder/

And why it's now being diagnosed and treated in #teenagers

Caroline Miller

What You'll Learn

- What is #borderlinepersonalitydisorder (#BPD)?
- What are the signs of #BPD?
- How is #BPD treated?

- Quick Read
- Full Article
- What is #BPD?
- Emotional dysregulation
- Self-destructive #behavior
- Criteria for diagnosing #BPD
- Diagnosing #teenagers
- Why early diagnosis is crucial
- Treatment for #BPD

People with #borderlinepersonalitydisorder (#BPD) experience extreme emotions. Once a powerful emotion is triggered, it is very hard for them to calm down. Because of this, they often have unstable relationships. They also engage in self-destructive #behavior, including #suicideattempts.

In the past, traditional therapy hasn’t been very effective in helping people with #BPD. But there is now new understanding of the disorder and more effective treatments available. With the right support. most people with #BPD can learn to manage overwhelming emotions and improve their lives.

Another important change is that #BPD is now diagnosed and treated in #teenagers. When #kids get the right treatment, sooner, they’ll do better in the future.

Some #kids with #BPD have a history of abuse or neglect. But the disorder can also occur in ordinary, loving families when #parents ignore or minimize kids’ big emotional reactions. This might seem like a normal part of parenting, and in most cases, it is. But highly sensitive or emotional #kids can end up feeling painfully alone. When these children’s big feelings are brushed off by #adults, they often fail to learn the important skills they need to control their emotions.

People with #BPD are often overwhelmed by anger and feelings of abandonment, shame and self-loathing. These feelings take a toll on relationships. Small problems easily become big blow-ups, causing fights with friends, #parents and partners. Problems with friends or breakups with partners can trigger self-harm or #suicideattempts. Other dangerous #behaviors can include substance abuse, risky sex, and recklessness.

The gold-standard treatment for #BPD is called #dialecticalbehavioraltherapy, or #DBT. The treatment helps #patients practice more effective ways to manage and respond to their feelings, and it is very successful in treating this disorder.

#Borderlinepersonalitydisorder (#BPD) is a diagnosis that has historically been difficult to understand, and even more difficult to treat successfully. The symptoms associated with it are a painful mix of emotional turmoil, unstable relationships and self-destructive #behavior, including #suicideattempts.

But new insights into the disorder, leading to new, more effective treatments, have made the prognosis for someone with #BPD much more promising. With the right support, most people with #BPD can successfully learn to regulate their overwhelming emotions, stop self-destructive #behavior and improve their lives.

“It used to be that receiving a #BPD diagnosis felt like a life sentence of misery,” said Alec Miller, PsyD, an expert in treating #adolescents with #BPD. “But research now shows that the chances of functioning better and even dropping the diagnostic label are very high.”

Another important change is that #BPD is now diagnosed and treated in #teenagers. Until recently #mentalhealthprofessionals were reluctant to give the diagnosis to anyone under 18, despite the fact that symptoms become prominent in #adolescence, or even earlier. Now experts stress that treating #BPD as early as possible leads to better long-term outcomes, as well as lowering the risk of  dangerous or suicidal #behavior.

What is #BPD?

Experts call #BPD a biosocial disorder, meaning that it starts with a biological (or temperamental) inclination which is exacerbated by the social environment. People who develop #BPD are by temperament highly emotionally sensitive and reactive, feeling things more immediately and more intensely than most people. And once a powerful emotion is triggered, it takes them longer to return to their emotional baseline.

 #BPD develops when one of these emotionally vulnerable people is confronted with an environment that doesn’t validate her feelings — that is, acknowledge them, make her feel understood, and help her handle them. In many cases, kids who develop #BPD have been abused or neglected. But the disorder can also come about in #children whose loving, well-meaning #parents minimize or discount their emotional reactions, because they seem exaggerated or inappropriate.

Dismissing what seems like an overreaction is a fairly typical parental response. But for highly reactive kids, the chronic sense of not feeling understood or supported leads them to feel painfully alone and disconnected, explains Blaise Aguirre, MD. Dr. Aguirre is the founding medical director of 3East, a continuum of care using #dialecticalbehaviortherapy (#DBT) to treat borderline personality disorder at Boston’s McLean Hospital. Friends and family members don’t understand why people with #BPD have huge reactions to small things. For Dr. Aguirre, author of #BorderlinePersonalityDisorder in #Adolescents, #BPD is something like a peanut allergy; the reaction may not be typical of most people, but it’s no less real.

Emotional dysregulation

When a child’s powerful feelings aren’t validated by the #adults in her life, it becomes difficult for her to learn to manage them in a healthy way.  #Adults help us name and identify what we’re feeling; by soothing us they teach us how to soothe and calm ourselves down.

“Take a person with extremely strong, intense emotions, who is constantly told that she’s overreacting, she shouldn’t feel the ways she feels,” explains Jill Emanuele, PhD, clinical psychologist and director of the Mood Disorders Center at the #ChildMindInstitute. “As a result, she doesn’t learn how to regulate and modulate her emotions. “

People with #BPD are often overwhelmed by intense anger and feelings of abandonment, emptiness, shame and self-loathing.

These feelings tend to destabilize relationships for people with #BPD, who are hypersensitive to social cues from others, and more likely than others to interpret things negatively. Minor slights — or things misinterpreted as slights — are taken as evidence of abandonment, and the reaction can be swift and intense, causing rifts with friends, #parents, partners. They go from “I love you” to “I hate you” in a heartbeat, Dr. Aguirre explains. Or they become so frantic asking for reassurance that they are loved — incessant texting, calling, begging, clinging —that they drive partners away.

Rifts with friends or breakups with partners are often the trigger for self-harm or #suicideattempts, he notes.

Self-destructive #behavior

Why does #BPD lead to self-destructive #behavior?

Without the skills to manage painful feelings in a more effective way, people with #BPD  often find unhealthy alternatives, including substance abuse, risky sex, reckless thrill-seeking.

Self-injury is very often one of these #behaviors:  #Teenagers use things like cutting, scratching and opening wounds to alleviate emotions they find intolerable. “In fact it can work as an emotional regulation strategy,” notes Dr. Miller, cofounder and clinical director of Cognitive and #Behavioral Consultants in Westchester and New York City. “The problem is that if it works, they’re more likely to use it again to cope with negative emotions. To reduce self-harm we need to acknowledge what it’s doing for them, and try to give them some safer replacement strategies.”

One dangerous misunderstanding about #BPD is that the emotional drama and the self-destructive #behaviors, including #suicideattempts, are manipulative pleas for attention.

“Historically, people with #BPD have been viewed as purposely manipulative,” explains Dr. Emanuele, “using extreme measures to get things, gaming people around them. But that’s not it at all. These people are in intense pain, and feel they can’t get what they need.”

In fact, Dr. Aguirre notes, suicidal feelings are almost universal in people with #BPD, and reflect a desperate need to escape extreme emotional distress.

Criteria for diagnosing #BPD

These are the criteria #mentalhealthprofessionals use to diagnose #borderlinepersonalitydisorder:

- Frantic efforts to avoid abandonment, real or imagined
- A pattern of unstable and intense relationships
- An unstable self-image or sense of self
- Dangerous impulsivity such as unsafe sexual encounters, substance abuse
- Recurrent suicidal behavior, gestures or threats, or self-mutilating behavior.
- Emotional instability due to high reactivity
- Chronic feelings of emptiness
- Inappropriate, intense anger or difficulty controlling anger
- Transient, stress-related paranoia or severe dissociative symptoms

Diagnosing #teenagers

In the past, #mentalhealthprofessionals were reluctant to diagnose anyone under 18 with #BPD, even though symptoms usually develop during the #teen years. That was, in part, because emotional intensity and impulsive risk-taking are to some extent characteristic of #adolescence itself. Typical #teenage #behavior, it was thought, could be confused with #BPD.

But even if the #behavior looks similar, the reasons for it are different in typical #adolescents and those with #BPD, Dr. Aguirre notes. Typical #teens experiment with #alcohol and sex out of curiosity and impulsivity, while people with #BPD use them to escape acutely painful feelings. They may seek out sexual encounters, for instance, because they feel abandoned, and crave closeness, rather than sex itself. They may take dangerous risks because “in that moment of desperation the need to change how they feel makes the #behaviors feel like the right thing to do.”

Another reason for not diagnosing #BPD in #teens was to avoid labeling them with a severe illness that didn’t respond well to treatment. But as the treatment picture has changed, so has the aversion to diagnosis in #adolescence. One large study called the McLean Study of #Adult Development, which followed #BPD #patients for 12 years, found that 74 percent of participants had no active symptoms after 6 years, and only 6 percent relapsed in the following 6 years.

The lead author of the study, Mary Zanarini, began to call #borderlinepersonalitydisorder a “good-prognosis diagnosis,” and those who are treated while they’re still #teenagers have even more optimistic outcomes.

Why early diagnosis is crucial

If #BPD is understood as a lack of emotional regulation skills, it’s crucial to get someone who develops symptoms into treatment as soon as possible, Dr. Aguirre says, “before patterns of maladaptive #behavior have set in.”

This is particularly important as young people are developing their identity and sense of self, which is made incredibly difficult for young people with #BPD symptoms. “When your environment doesn’t reflect back what your experience is,” Dr. Aguirre says, “it’s hard to know who you are, what your values are.”

Another reason experts urge earlier diagnosis of #BPD is to lessen inaccurate diagnosis of more common disorders like #ADHD, #depression and #bipolar disorder. Sometimes these are co-occurring disorders, but often they are misdiagnoses. As a result, these teenagers are given medications that aren’t effective, including mood stabilizers and antipsychotics.

“I’ve seen kids with #BPD who were on extensive drug cocktails because the clinicians didn’t know what was happening,” adds Dr. Emanuele. “They’re just going after the symptoms. And no medication is going to correct the invalidation that these people feel.”

#BPD #patients who are admitted to Dr. Aguirre’s unit often come in “zombie-like,” he reports, because they are on so many medications. When they are discharged, he says, half are on no meds at all.

#JamesDonaldson notes:

Welcome to the “next chapter” of my life… being a voice and an advocate for #mentalhealthawarenessandsuicideprevention, especially pertaining to our younger generation of students and student-athletes.

Getting men to speak up and reach out for help and assistance is one of my passions. Us men need to not suffer in silence or drown our sorrows in alcohol, hang out at bars and strip joints, or get involved with drug use.

Having gone through a recent bout of #depression and #suicidalthoughts myself, I realize now, that I can make a huge difference in the lives of so many by sharing my story, and by sharing various resources I come across as I work in this space.  #http://bit.ly/JamesMentalHealthArticle

Order your copy of James Donaldson's latest book,

Celebrating Your Gift of Life:

From The Verge of Suicide to a Life of Purpose and Joy

Treatment for #BPD

There are a number of specialized psychotherapies that have been developed to treat #BPD, but the gold standard treatment — the one with the most evidence for its effectiveness — is called #dialecticalbehavioraltherapy, or #DBT. The reason it’s called “dialectical” is that it involves two things that might seem to be in opposition but are both important: the need for acceptance and the need for change.

First, a patient’s feelings need to be validated, or accepted without judgment, in order for her to learn more effective ways for her to manage and respond to them.

“It’s basically ‘I’m doing the best I can’ on the one hand,” explains Dr. Miller, “and at the same time ‘I need to do better’ on the other.”

Validation, which is the first step in #DBT, means recognition and acceptance of another person’s feelings as being real.  It doesn’t mean agreeing with the thoughts or feelings. When people feel accepted and understood, it has a calming effect and allows them to learn skills to regulate emotions and develop safer, more effective alternatives to the self-destructive #behaviors they have been using.

“It’s essentially a skills-based approach which says that if our #patients could do better, they would, but they’re lacking skills,” explains Dr. Miller, who is the author of Dialectical Behavioral Therapy with Suicidal #Adolescents. “It’s so easy for us to tell people to stop problematic #behaviors but it’s better to teach them new skills.”

#DBT skills are very effective for getting #patients to stop self-injury and suicidality, Dr. Aguirre notes. It’s tougher to change the self-loathing and self-hatred that can become fused with a borderline person’s identity.

He also notes that availability of #DBT and other treatment for #BPD is limited, which means that a lot of #teenagers who should get treatment aren’t getting it. “The number of people with emotion regulation problems is outstripping the number of #DBT providers,” he says, “and we know that because #suicide rates in #adolescents continue to go through the roof.”

Dr. Miller stresses the urgency of getting #teens with #BPD into treatment: “If you throw yourself into treatment, you can be a very successful, highly functional #adult.”

Dr. Emanuele adds that she’s seen many #patients dramatically improve their lives. “Over the years, I have repeatedly seen DBT give participants the hope and reality of a ‘life worth living,’ ” adds Dr. Emanuele. “And that’s something they had not been able to imagine or experience before.”

Caroline Miller

Caroline Miller is the editorial director of the #ChildMindInstitute. She is a veteran magazine, newspaper and website editor … Read Bio
https://standingabovethecrowd.com/?p=9052

The U.S. #suicide rate declined in 2020, but unequal shifts and the long-term impacts of the #COVID-19 #pandemic highlight how prevention is still key.

By Steven Ross Johnson

The nation’s overall #suicide rate fell by 3% from 2019 to 2020, even as research has highlighted the #pandemic’s #mentalhealth toll on #Americans. 

The decline in the nation’s #suicide rate during the first year of the #COVID-19 #pandemic may suggest advancements in preventative programs and treatment supports have resulted in better outcomes.

But stakeholders contend a closer examination of the figures shows a more complicated picture – one that raises questions about the long-term effects of the #pandemic, as well as why the decline did not occur evenly.

The nation’s overall #suicide rate fell by 3% from 2019 to 2020, even as a number of studies have highlighted the #pandemic’s #mentalhealth toll on #Americans. One analysis found nearly 41% of more than 5,400 #adults surveyed in June 2020 reported having at least one adverse #mental or #behavioralhealth condition, with nearly 11% stating they had seriously considered #suicide within the past 30 days – roughly twice the estimated share of #adults in 2018 who’d considered #suicide within the past year. Nearly 31% of those surveyed reported having symptoms of #anxiety or depressive disorder, 26% reported having symptoms of trauma- and stressor-related disorder tied to the #pandemic, and 13% reported starting or increasing substance use as a means of coping with #stress or emotions related to the #pandemic.

The results of a follow-up survey conducted in September 2020 found 33% of respondents reported having #anxiety or #depression symptoms, while nearly 12% reported having serious thoughts of #suicide in the previous month.

“We did see a lot of the things that we would consider as risk factors for #suicide – job loss, financial instability, interpersonal violence – things like that,” says Colleen Carr, director of the National Action Alliance for #SuicidePrevention.

Yet the #suicide figures for 2020 from the #CentersforDiseaseControlandPrevention seem to refute concerns expressed by many early in the #pandemic who felt the crisis and its related stressors – including economic fallout and #socialisolation tied to safety measures employed to stem the #coronavirus’ spread – might drive an increase.

Carr says more awareness among people of their #mentalhealth needs, along with greater access to #behavioralhealthcare services through telehealth platforms, likely played a large role in the decline. She says people also may have experienced “a coming together moment” in the face of the #pandemic, providing them with a sense of shared purpose to do their part to help themselves, loved ones and others during the emergency.

Previous research suggests suicide metrics can remain stable or even decrease in the immediate aftermath of a disaster. A study published in 2006 in the Bulletin of the #WorldHealthOrganization compared the prevalence of suicidality among New Orleans residents before and less than a year after Hurricane Katrina and found rates of #suicidalthoughts, plans and attempts were similar during both periods, even as the estimated prevalence of #mentalillness was higher after the hurricane. Researchers also called the “lower conditional likelihood of suicidality among people believed to have #mentalillness” after the hurricane their “most striking finding,” and suggested that areas of personal growth triggered by the hurricane may have had a protective, if potentially temporary, effect.

Later on, however, a study published in 2008 in the journal Molecular Psychiatry found increases in the prevalence of both suicidal thoughts and plans – though not attempts – more than one year after the hurricane compared with when they were interviewed less than a year after it occurred.

While Carr acknowledges the nature of the #COVID-19 #pandemic is different than other disasters, she says evidence within prior studies does suggest the effects of the #pandemic on the nation’s #suicide rate may be seen in the coming years after the current emergency has passed.

Notably, a #CDC analysis published last year found that after an initial drop, the average number of weekly emergency department visits for suspected #suicideattempts among #adolescent #girls was 26% higher in the summer of 2020 and nearly 51% higher in early 2021 compared with reference periods in 2019.

“There was and still is a real concern about what impact the #pandemic will have on #suicide,” Carr says, particularly as people may still be contending with the lingering effects of economic uncertainty and social unrest.

Rajeev Ramchand, a senior #behavioral scientist at the Rand Corp. and co-director of the RAND Epstein Family #Veterans Policy Research Institute, says another reason why the decline in the #suicide rate may not be as clear-cut as the data would suggest is if some deaths linked to another cause were actually self-inflicted.

In particular, Ramchand says he questions whether a larger portion of the more than 91,000 drug overdose deaths that occurred in 2020 – representing a more than 30% rate increase from 2019 – might have been a result of #suicide. According to a #CDC report on 2020 overdose deaths released in December, 91% were classified as unintentional, 4.7% as #suicides, less than 1% as homicides and 4.1% as “of undetermined intent”.

“Given the dramatic increase in overdose deaths coupled with the fact that medical examiners and coroner offices were so overwhelmed because of #COVID, could there just have been some misclassification of #suicide deaths as unintentional?” Ramchand says. “The rate increase was so dramatic that I think we have to be asking that question.”

#JamesDonaldson notes:

Welcome to the “next chapter” of my life… being a voice and an advocate for #mentalhealthawarenessandsuicideprevention, especially pertaining to our younger generation of students and student-athletes.

Getting men to speak up and reach out for help and assistance is one of my passions. Us men need to not suffer in silence or drown our sorrows in alcohol, hang out at bars and strip joints, or get involved with drug use.

Having gone through a recent bout of #depression and #suicidalthoughts myself, I realize now, that I can make a huge difference in the lives of so many by sharing my story, and by sharing various resources I come across as I work in this space.  #http://bit.ly/JamesMentalHealthArticle

An Uneven Decline

A closer look at the data also reveals a decline in #suicide in 2020 that was heavily concentrated among whites. The rate of such deaths fell by 4.5% among #white individuals in 2020 from 2019, with the group accounting for more than 75% of the nearly 46,000 #suicide deaths in 2020.

That marked the only statistically significant change in rate among broader #racial and #ethnic groups included in the #CDC’s analysis, though drilling down further reveals additional disparities: While the year-over-year rate dropped by nearly 10% among white #females and by 3% among white #males, it rose by close to 6% among #Hispanic #males and by 29% among multiracial #females. The rate also rose by 4.6% among people 25 to 34 years old, while just seven states saw significant year-over-year declines.

Separately, a December 2020 study published in JAMA Psychiatry that examined #racial differences in #suicide mortality in Maryland found from March 5 to May 7 of 2020 – when the state came under lockdown orders – #suicide mortality among #Black individuals appeared to double versus a comparative pre-#pandemic timeframe, while mortality among white residents appeared to fall substantially. A study of #suicide data in Connecticut yielded a similar finding.

Aside from the disproportionate impact of #COVID-19 itself on #peopleofcolor when it comes to outcomes such as hospitalizations and deaths, evidence points to the #pandemic having a heavy impact on many members of these communities in other areas as well, including job loss and housing instability.

Jill Harkavy-Friedman, vice president of research for the #AmericanFoundationforSuicidePrevention, says the #pandemic has been a stressor for people who were already vulnerable to #suicide. She says #suicide is normally associated with a range of risk factors – like a #mentalhealthdisorder, a chronic disease or a disability – coupled with having fewer protective factors, such as access to #healthcare services.

“We know that has been disproportionately low for minority populations,” Harkavy-Friedman says of access to #mentalhealthcare. “So, if you have increased risk and then you have lack of access to care, that’s a way in which it could affect #suicide rates.”

Dr. Christine Crawford, associate medical director for the #NationalAllianceonMentalIllness, says higher rates of #mentalhealthcare utilization among white #patients may lead many clinicians to conclude #patients of color are at lower risk for #suicide, in turn causing them to ask those #patients less frequently about whether they have thoughts about taking their own life.

“I wonder if there was just a different attitude with regards to safety assessment when it came to #Black people, that it was a missed opportunity for a number of especially young #Black people to really be able to speak openly about thoughts that they might have had about harming themselves and not wanting to be alive,” Crawford says.

Harkavy-Friedman says such disparities highlight a vital need to develop more culturally relevant approaches to #suicideprevention that are more effective in reaching underrepresented populations.

“I think there are a lot of opportunities for intervention, but we’re just not there yet, we’re not doing it,” Harkavy-Friedman says. “We have to do better, we have to try more.”

Harkavy-Friedman says the AFSP has been working with different ethnic organizations to develop strategies and craft ways to have conversations within communities where the topic of #suicide and #suicideprevention are not usually discussed.

“When you have those conversations, it helps raise awareness and provides education that helps bring down the community rate for #suicide,” Harkavy-Friedman says. “It’s really about engagement, it’s about inclusion, it’s about listening and empowering people to develop efforts in their own communities.”

Laura Leone, a consultant on practice improvement and consulting for the National Council for Mental Wellbeing, says the most successful #suicideprevention programs are ones that diversify their approaches and make community outreach a part of their efforts.

“This is not a one-size-fits-all approach,” Leone says. “We need varying approaches and to not just assume a few different things is going to work for everyone.”

Crawford says a potential positive that has come out of the #pandemic has been the increased willingness among people of all #racial and #ethnic groups to talk about their #mentalhealth and well-being. She hopes such openness can lead to new opportunities for expanding #mentalhealthcare supports and services within underserved communities.

“I think more people are able to better appreciate just how significantly impairing #depression and #anxiety and other #mentalhealth symptoms really are,” Crawford says. “My hope for the future is that not only can we normalize conversations around #mentalhealth and emotional wellness, but we can also normalize conversations around #mentalhealthtreatment.”

—--------------------------------

Need Help? If you or someone you know is in crisis, call the #NationalSuicidePreventionLifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or text HOME to the Crisis Text Line at 741741.
https://standingabovethecrowd.com/2022/03/jamesdonaldson-on-mentalhealth-despite-pandemic-era-drop-suicide-threat-remains/

The U.S. #suicide rate declined in 2020, but unequal shifts and the long-term impacts of the #COVID-19 #pandemic highlight how prevention is still key.

By Steven Ross Johnson

The nation’s overall #suicide rate fell by 3% from 2019 to 2020, even as research has highlighted the #pandemic’s #mentalhealth toll on #Americans. 

The decline in the nation’s #suicide rate during the first year of the #COVID-19 #pandemic may suggest advancements in preventative programs and treatment supports have resulted in better outcomes.

But stakeholders contend a closer examination of the figures shows a more complicated picture – one that raises questions about the long-term effects of the #pandemic, as well as why the decline did not occur evenly.

The nation’s overall #suicide rate fell by 3% from 2019 to 2020, even as a number of studies have highlighted the #pandemic’s #mentalhealth toll on #Americans. One analysis found nearly 41% of more than 5,400 #adults surveyed in June 2020 reported having at least one adverse #mental or #behavioralhealth condition, with nearly 11% stating they had seriously considered #suicide within the past 30 days – roughly twice the estimated share of #adults in 2018 who’d considered #suicide within the past year. Nearly 31% of those surveyed reported having symptoms of #anxiety or depressive disorder, 26% reported having symptoms of trauma- and stressor-related disorder tied to the #pandemic, and 13% reported starting or increasing substance use as a means of coping with #stress or emotions related to the #pandemic.

The results of a follow-up survey conducted in September 2020 found 33% of respondents reported having #anxiety or #depression symptoms, while nearly 12% reported having serious thoughts of #suicide in the previous month.

“We did see a lot of the things that we would consider as risk factors for #suicide – job loss, financial instability, interpersonal violence – things like that,” says Colleen Carr, director of the National Action Alliance for #SuicidePrevention.

Yet the #suicide figures for 2020 from the #CentersforDiseaseControlandPrevention seem to refute concerns expressed by many early in the #pandemic who felt the crisis and its related stressors – including economic fallout and #socialisolation tied to safety measures employed to stem the #coronavirus’ spread – might drive an increase.

Carr says more awareness among people of their #mentalhealth needs, along with greater access to #behavioralhealthcare services through telehealth platforms, likely played a large role in the decline. She says people also may have experienced “a coming together moment” in the face of the #pandemic, providing them with a sense of shared purpose to do their part to help themselves, loved ones and others during the emergency.

Previous research suggests suicide metrics can remain stable or even decrease in the immediate aftermath of a disaster. A study published in 2006 in the Bulletin of the #WorldHealthOrganization compared the prevalence of suicidality among New Orleans residents before and less than a year after Hurricane Katrina and found rates of #suicidalthoughts, plans and attempts were similar during both periods, even as the estimated prevalence of #mentalillness was higher after the hurricane. Researchers also called the “lower conditional likelihood of suicidality among people believed to have #mentalillness” after the hurricane their “most striking finding,” and suggested that areas of personal growth triggered by the hurricane may have had a protective, if potentially temporary, effect.

Later on, however, a study published in 2008 in the journal Molecular Psychiatry found increases in the prevalence of both suicidal thoughts and plans – though not attempts – more than one year after the hurricane compared with when they were interviewed less than a year after it occurred.

While Carr acknowledges the nature of the #COVID-19 #pandemic is different than other disasters, she says evidence within prior studies does suggest the effects of the #pandemic on the nation’s #suicide rate may be seen in the coming years after the current emergency has passed.

Notably, a #CDC analysis published last year found that after an initial drop, the average number of weekly emergency department visits for suspected #suicideattempts among #adolescent #girls was 26% higher in the summer of 2020 and nearly 51% higher in early 2021 compared with reference periods in 2019.

“There was and still is a real concern about what impact the #pandemic will have on #suicide,” Carr says, particularly as people may still be contending with the lingering effects of economic uncertainty and social unrest.

Rajeev Ramchand, a senior #behavioral scientist at the Rand Corp. and co-director of the RAND Epstein Family #Veterans Policy Research Institute, says another reason why the decline in the #suicide rate may not be as clear-cut as the data would suggest is if some deaths linked to another cause were actually self-inflicted.

In particular, Ramchand says he questions whether a larger portion of the more than 91,000 drug overdose deaths that occurred in 2020 – representing a more than 30% rate increase from 2019 – might have been a result of #suicide. According to a #CDC report on 2020 overdose deaths released in December, 91% were classified as unintentional, 4.7% as #suicides, less than 1% as homicides and 4.1% as “of undetermined intent”.

“Given the dramatic increase in overdose deaths coupled with the fact that medical examiners and coroner offices were so overwhelmed because of #COVID, could there just have been some misclassification of #suicide deaths as unintentional?” Ramchand says. “The rate increase was so dramatic that I think we have to be asking that question.”

#JamesDonaldson notes:

Welcome to the “next chapter” of my life… being a voice and an advocate for #mentalhealthawarenessandsuicideprevention, especially pertaining to our younger generation of students and student-athletes.

Getting men to speak up and reach out for help and assistance is one of my passions. Us men need to not suffer in silence or drown our sorrows in alcohol, hang out at bars and strip joints, or get involved with drug use.

Having gone through a recent bout of #depression and #suicidalthoughts myself, I realize now, that I can make a huge difference in the lives of so many by sharing my story, and by sharing various resources I come across as I work in this space.  #http://bit.ly/JamesMentalHealthArticle

An Uneven Decline

A closer look at the data also reveals a decline in #suicide in 2020 that was heavily concentrated among whites. The rate of such deaths fell by 4.5% among #white individuals in 2020 from 2019, with the group accounting for more than 75% of the nearly 46,000 #suicide deaths in 2020.

That marked the only statistically significant change in rate among broader #racial and #ethnic groups included in the #CDC’s analysis, though drilling down further reveals additional disparities: While the year-over-year rate dropped by nearly 10% among white #females and by 3% among white #males, it rose by close to 6% among #Hispanic #males and by 29% among multiracial #females. The rate also rose by 4.6% among people 25 to 34 years old, while just seven states saw significant year-over-year declines.

Separately, a December 2020 study published in JAMA Psychiatry that examined #racial differences in #suicide mortality in Maryland found from March 5 to May 7 of 2020 – when the state came under lockdown orders – #suicide mortality among #Black individuals appeared to double versus a comparative pre-#pandemic timeframe, while mortality among white residents appeared to fall substantially. A study of #suicide data in Connecticut yielded a similar finding.

Aside from the disproportionate impact of #COVID-19 itself on #peopleofcolor when it comes to outcomes such as hospitalizations and deaths, evidence points to the #pandemic having a heavy impact on many members of these communities in other areas as well, including job loss and housing instability.

Jill Harkavy-Friedman, vice president of research for the #AmericanFoundationforSuicidePrevention, says the #pandemic has been a stressor for people who were already vulnerable to #suicide. She says #suicide is normally associated with a range of risk factors – like a #mentalhealthdisorder, a chronic disease or a disability – coupled with having fewer protective factors, such as access to #healthcare services.

“We know that has been disproportionately low for minority populations,” Harkavy-Friedman says of access to #mentalhealthcare. “So, if you have increased risk and then you have lack of access to care, that’s a way in which it could affect #suicide rates.”

Dr. Christine Crawford, associate medical director for the #NationalAllianceonMentalIllness, says higher rates of #mentalhealthcare utilization among white #patients may lead many clinicians to conclude #patients of color are at lower risk for #suicide, in turn causing them to ask those #patients less frequently about whether they have thoughts about taking their own life.

“I wonder if there was just a different attitude with regards to safety assessment when it came to #Black people, that it was a missed opportunity for a number of especially young #Black people to really be able to speak openly about thoughts that they might have had about harming themselves and not wanting to be alive,” Crawford says.

Harkavy-Friedman says such disparities highlight a vital need to develop more culturally relevant approaches to #suicideprevention that are more effective in reaching underrepresented populations.

“I think there are a lot of opportunities for intervention, but we’re just not there yet, we’re not doing it,” Harkavy-Friedman says. “We have to do better, we have to try more.”

Harkavy-Friedman says the AFSP has been working with different ethnic organizations to develop strategies and craft ways to have conversations within communities where the topic of #suicide and #suicideprevention are not usually discussed.

“When you have those conversations, it helps raise awareness and provides education that helps bring down the community rate for #suicide,” Harkavy-Friedman says. “It’s really about engagement, it’s about inclusion, it’s about listening and empowering people to develop efforts in their own communities.”

Laura Leone, a consultant on practice improvement and consulting for the National Council for Mental Wellbeing, says the most successful #suicideprevention programs are ones that diversify their approaches and make community outreach a part of their efforts.

“This is not a one-size-fits-all approach,” Leone says. “We need varying approaches and to not just assume a few different things is going to work for everyone.”

Crawford says a potential positive that has come out of the #pandemic has been the increased willingness among people of all #racial and #ethnic groups to talk about their #mentalhealth and well-being. She hopes such openness can lead to new opportunities for expanding #mentalhealthcare supports and services within underserved communities.

“I think more people are able to better appreciate just how significantly impairing #depression and #anxiety and other #mentalhealth symptoms really are,” Crawford says. “My hope for the future is that not only can we normalize conversations around #mentalhealth and emotional wellness, but we can also normalize conversations around #mentalhealthtreatment.”

—--------------------------------

Need Help? If you or someone you know is in crisis, call the #NationalSuicidePreventionLifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or text HOME to the Crisis Text Line at 741741.
https://standingabovethecrowd.com/?p=9048

Andrick Schall, a #Seattle native, entered the #healthcare field in 2020 as a Certified Medical Assistant. (Courtesy of Andrick Schall)

By 

Andrick Schall

#MentalHealth Perspectives guest columnist

The #MentalHealthProject is a #SeattleTimes initiative focused on covering #mental and #behavioralhealth issues. It is funded by Ballmer Group, a national organization focused on economic mobility for #children and families. The #SeattleTimes maintains editorial control over work produced by this team.

Editor’s note: This story focuses on #suicide and other topics related to psychiatric distress. If you or a loved one is in crisis, resources are available here.

Those who work in #healthcare are often the victims of #mentalillness themselves. In early 2020, the industry became crushed under the #COVID-19 #pandemic that neither #healthcareworkers nor society were adequately prepared to bear. As turmoil continued, the damage to #healthcareworkers became more severe.

Compassion fatigue set in. The long hours, the brutal conditions, the constant presence of death, and the fear that this relentless #virus would inevitably infect them caused many #veterans of the industry to leave. 

As of late 2021, nearly 75% of #healthcareworkers reported exhaustion, #depression, #sleepdisorders and #PTSD. About 45% of #healthcareworkers feel they have inadequate emotional support. It is estimated that by the end of 2022, the #American #healthcare system will have a shortage of 1.1 million #nurses. And finally: The #suicide rate of health care workers is 2.2 times higher than the general population. Who heals the healers?

The #SeattleTimes #MentalHealthProject features contributed essays from members of our community as part of our #MentalHealth Perspectives guest column. We invite individuals with personal stories related to #mentalhealth to share their experiences that reflect broader issues and concerns in the field. If you would like to inquire about submitting a column, please email mentalhealth@seattletimes.com.

#Depression and #anxiety have afflicted me my entire life. Through decades of treatment, my condition was in remission when I made the decision to enter the #healthcare field in January of 2020 as a certified medical assistant.

Like many newcomers, I had ambitions of helping others and society. These dreams were quickly dashed as I discovered a field of underappreciated, overworked and underpaid workers. I was bullied and harassed. My #mentalhealth was gradually strained, to the point of my #suicideattempt last year.

I was physically assaulted by a higher-ranking colleague at my former workplace. This was the breaking point for me. My #psychiatrist secured a short leave for me, and I took advantage of the organization’s employee assistance program. Meanwhile, despite an investigation into the incident, the colleague who assaulted me was cleared and kept their position and title. I pondered if I had made a mistake entering #healthcare, and whether the incident was my fault. 

#JamesDonaldson notes:

Welcome to the “next chapter” of my life… being a voice and an advocate for #mentalhealthawarenessandsuicideprevention, especially pertaining to our younger generation of students and student-athletes.

Getting men to speak up and reach out for help and assistance is one of my passions. Us men need to not suffer in silence or drown our sorrows in alcohol, hang out at bars and strip joints, or get involved with drug use.

Having gone through a recent bout of #depression and #suicidalthoughts myself, I realize now, that I can make a huge difference in the lives of so many by sharing my story, and by sharing various resources I come across as I work in this space.  #http://bit.ly/JamesMentalHealthArticle

How to find help

If you are experiencing suicidal thoughts or have concerns about someone else who may be, call the #NationalSuicidePreventionLifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255); you will be routed to a local crisis center where professionals can talk you through a risk assessment and provide resources in your community. More info: suicidepreventionlifeline.org. Or reach out to Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741 for free, 24/7 crisis counseling. More info: crisistextline.org.

In the fall of 2021, I awoke to a panic attack. A cloud of bleak #hopelessness and loss descended. I was not thinking clearly. I started taking pills. I wanted to die because I wanted relief.

Midway through my attempt, my cat Mia walked into my room. I could see the curiosity in her eyes, as some part of me reminded myself that I needed to clean her litter box, sparking a chain of thoughts that kept me alive: Who would take care of Mia? Who would look after my aging mother? What would killing myself do to her? To my family, my friends?

I stopped, and called 911. It was a hard three days in the hospital. But I am lucky; I survived. 

The day I was released from the hospital, a managing #nurse at the clinic called me. She did not ask how I was doing. Instead, she launched into a tirade of policy, telling me I would need a detailed note from the physicians who treated me to get my time in the hospital approved by Human Resources. I was in no shape to return to the hospital and ask them to fill out paperwork. Through tears, I resigned. I felt disillusioned and abandoned.

My recovery was slow: days of constant sleeping, profound fatigue while awake, psychogenic seizures (nonepileptic seizures caused by #stress), panic attacks and a constant inner voice telling me that everything was my fault, that I did not belong in #healthcare. But with the skills of my #psychiatrist and a new psychotherapist, I began to crawl out of the hole.  

#Mentalhealthresources from The #SeattleTimes

- #Mentalhealthresources in #KingCounty and #Washingtonstate
- Where to find diverse #mentalhealthresources in #Seattle
- #Mentalhealthresources for those struggling with life amid a #pandemic
- Here are the basic facts about #mentalhealth and treatment in #Washingtonstate

Most medical facilities offer some degree of #mentalhealthsupport for their employees, typically free of cost. These programs range from relaxation and mindfulness exercises to access to direct care with a #mentalhealthprofessional, and even the granting of medical leave if needed. These programs may be well-intended, but do not go far enough.

Nearly a third of #healthcareworkers are concerned about consequences or retaliation if they seek #mentalhealth assistance from their employer. Many #doctors fear seeking #mentalhealthtreatment, as divulging doing so can be a barrier to licensing. 

And therein is the problem: Despite an industry’s attempt to take care of its own, the draining environment all too often remains. America has shown its weak hand in caring for the general public, and also for the workers who have devoted their time, energy and lives to keeping our society healthy.

The problem the #healthcareindustry faces can be fixed. Patients must be engaged and taught to be proactive advocates of their health. Employers should supply greater access to #mentalhealthtreatment for workers. This requires more trained providers in the field and access more readily available. This also requires more dedicated facilities to treat people with #mentalillness.   

I am fortunate. My #mentalhealth has greatly improved. I am returning to work very soon, as a medical assistant at a new company. I’ve had no recent symptoms. I am eager to give my calling another chance.  

I personally believe #mentalillness cannot be cured but rather learned to live with. My #healthcare team has given me the tools to help myself; I have family and friends cheering for me; I have developed strong coping mechanisms; and I feel confident and encouraged to face the future. Still, dire conditions remain in #healthcare.   

#America is experiencing a #mentalhealthcrisis, amid all of the other challenges that face our society. Those who are trained and devoted to care for those with #mentalhealthissues are succumbing to the crisis themselves. The workforce is shrinking, keeping #mentalhealthcare further out of reach. The situation must change, quickly.

If #healthcare continues down its current path, a far greater tragedy awaits us. I hope that it does not.

Andrick Schall is a lifelong resident of #Seattle. He is a Certified Medical Assistant, and enjoys writing about #healthcare.

Andrick Schall
https://standingabovethecrowd.com/2022/03/jamesdonaldson-on-mentalhealth-i-felt-disillusioned-and-abandoned-a-seattle-medical-worker-on-why-mentalhealthcare-is-needed-in-the-field/

Caitlin Flynn

When it comes to protecting your #mentalhealth, little choices you make in the morning can make all the difference. While no morning will ever look like a beautiful instagram-friendly scene of journaling, coffee and silence and it’s unlikely you’ll have your family consistently doing nighttime gratitude exercises or yoga, you can take steps to adjust your daily routine to be a bit kinder to yourself.

SheKnows spoke with a few experts about how you can build a routine that helps you mind your #mentalhealth and here’s some of the advice they had to offer.

More from SheKnows

- #Caregivers Are Experiencing a #MentalHealthCrisis During the #Pandemic

#JamesDonaldson notes:

Welcome to the “next chapter” of my life… being a voice and an advocate for #mentalhealthawarenessandsuicideprevention, especially pertaining to our younger generation of students and student-athletes.

Getting men to speak up and reach out for help and assistance is one of my passions. Us men need to not suffer in silence or drown our sorrows in alcohol, hang out at bars and strip joints, or get involved with drug use.

Having gone through a recent bout of #depression and #suicidalthoughts myself, I realize now, that I can make a huge difference in the lives of so many by sharing my story, and by sharing various resources I come across as I work in this space.  #http://bit.ly/JamesMentalHealthArticle

 

Start the day off on a positive note

Stephanie Roth Goldberg, a licensed clinical #socialworker, tells SheKnows it’s key to start the day on a positive note by maintaining a healthy morning routine. This could mean allowing time to relax with your coffee for a few minutes before leaving the house or getting some physical activity in before work. See how long you need to accomplish something good for yourself (even if it’s just three to five minutes of letting your brain do nothing!) before looking at a screen.

“It’s helpful to not always feel that you wake up and go right to work,” Goldberg says. “Choosing what feels good in the morning is a great way to start the day and implement a routine.”

Keep a #stress-relief item on hand

Goldberg also recommends keeping something to relieve #stress on hand at work or in your bag. “ a nice way to remember you have ‘tools’ to help you relax when needed,” she says, noting that examples include an essential oil stick, a favorite type of tea or a soothing hand cream.

Take breaks during the workday

“Taking breaks during the workday is essential to everyone’s #mentalhealth,” Goldberg explains. Get away from your computer screen by stepping outside for some fresh air — it can do wonders for your concentration and overall mood. If you don’t have a lot of opportunities to take breaks, Goldberg recommends going for a short walk or even visiting a friend at their desk to help break up the day.

Incorporate 15 minutes of mindfulness into your day

#Psychologist Dr. Monica Johnson tells SheKnows that 15 minutes of mindfulness “can make a world of difference to your day.” Johnson recommends doing this in five-minute increments three times a day. In the morning, she advises her #patients to do five minutes of deep breathing and to “set intentions for having a positive day.”

In the middle of the day, she suggests taking another five minutes to reset the brain and shake off some of the #stress that may have built up already. “This can include taking a lap around your office building while listening to a walking #meditation on an app or rubbing a scented lotion on your hands and taking a few deep breathes to re-center,” Johnson adds.

At night, take another five minutes of mindfulness to relax your mind — it’ll help you get to sleep more quickly too. Johnson suggests using an adult coloring book or listening to nature sounds during your nighttime mindfulness session.

Designate a screen-free time during the day

Goldberg explains that designating a time during the day when you completely disconnect from screens is “a great #mentalhealth tool that people don’t utilize.” Although it’s commonly recommended to disconnect before bed, Goldberg emphasizes that it’s healthy to do this at any time of day. “Spending time away from screens allows for creativity, connection and feelings that otherwise would not happen,” she says.

Establish a bedtime routine

Getting enough high-quality sleep is essential to our mental and physical health, and Katie Leikam, a licensed clinical #socialworker, recommends establishing a nighttime routine to ensure you get the shut-eye you need. Wash your face, put down your phone and turn off your lights at the same time every night. “This will help you obtain better sleep, which is one of the best things you can do for your #mentalhealth,” Leikam tells SheKnows.

The good news is these changes are totally doable but could make a big impact when it comes to your #mentalhealth. It’s worth giving them a shot — the only thing you have to lose is some #stress.
https://standingabovethecrowd.com/2022/03/jamesdonaldson-on-mentalhealth-easy-daily-changes-you-can-make-to-help-your-mentalhealth/