May is Mental Health Awareness Month. The month is about realizing how common mental health issues are, supporting each other through them, and removing the stigma about them. A few statistics: 21% of U.S. adults experienced mental illness in 2020 (52.9 million people). This represents 1 in 5 adults. 5.6% of U.S. adults experienced serious mental […]
Resource for Chronic Pain Sufferers
The American Chronic Pain Association site says the group has been around since 1980, but I hadn’t run across them until yesterday. I spent some time on their site and they have some really good resources as well as a long list of support groups. There aren’t any groups near me, but I think I’ll […]
Chronic Pain and Memory
This is a fascinating article with excellent sources. Chronic pain is terrible. A new way of understanding it may help. The past two centuries have produced a cascade of life-altering advances in medicine, yet we have been unable to deal with one seemingly straightforward condition: chronic pain. It affects 1 in 5 people around the world, […]
Pain Stigma
Those of us who suffer chronic pain face a great deal of stigma. This paper addresses that stigma. Pain, objectivity and history: understanding pain stigma
How Chronic Pain Leads to Anxiety and Depression
Neuronal plasticity in chronic pain-induced anxiety revealed Hokkaido University researchers have shown how chronic pain leads to maladaptive anxiety in mice, with implications for treatment of chronic pain-related psychiatric disorders in humans. Chronic pain is persistent and inescapable, and can lead to maladaptive emotional states. It is often comorbid with psychiatric disorders, such as depression […]
Unvaccinated People Increase Risk for Vaccinated People
I can’t say that I’m surprised. Remaining unvaccinated increases risk to the vaccinated, says U of T COVID study People who are unvaccinated against COVID-19 not only place themselves at greater risk of getting infected by the virus, but also increase the infection risk of those around them who have rolled up their sleeves for a […]
Being an Active Part of Your Own Health Care Team, Part II
It has only taken me ten years since my first article to return to this topic! I always intended to do so, but life got in the way. In that first article, I largely addressed medication issues. Now we’re going to talk about being your own patient advocate. What is a patient advocate? It’s an individual […]
Art Therapy
Looking for ideas for the “self care” that’s so important? Try some of these art therapy exercises,