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As the old adage goes, there’s a first time for everything. In the field of psychiatry, we are cautiously celebrating a recent first-time recommendation by the US Preventive Services Task Force calling on primary care providers to screen all adults under the age of 65 for anxiety. Unlike screening for hypertension or diabetes, detecting anxiety can be a lot more challenging, and getting a valid and reliable screening tool is essential.

Across mental healthcare right now, there is an increased demand for services and not enough resources to meet those needs; group therapy is a means by which our mental health system may provide care to people in a timelier manner.

To help with back to school, this blog features 8 strategies to cope with fears of school shootings.

There is currently an unmet mental health need for women experiencing infertility. Embedded mental health care could help bridge this gap by providing access to care in the fertility clinic, a setting that may be more convenient and comfortable for women.

It was one year ago in the month of July that Aaron Beck, MD, the founder of Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) passed away. I write this blog post as a memorial to one of the great minds of our times and to acknowledge the tremendous impact Dr.Beck had on the field of psychotherapy.

The digital natives we child-focused clinicians work with are simply incredible. Not only do they know their way around technology far better than many adults, but they’re also often fluid with their identity: openly embracing either their or their peers’ diverse ancestry, gender identity, sexual orientation, religions, family background, financial standing, as well as neurodivergence and disabilities in themselves and others.

Communities of color often have cultures that are rooted in the importance of community and family. Therefore, people of color are used to taking care of others and can find it difficult to prioritize self-care. However, self-care can be a powerful mental health tool for fostering mental well-being.

If your child has seen coverage of such an event, make sure you talk with them about what they think about it and how they think it impacts their life and the world around them.  

The key message for parents to convey after exposure to any type of trauma or violence is to ensure that your child feels safe and loved. This can be challenging given the frequency of these events.  Knowing what your child’s school is doing to address risk is important so that you can talk with your child and give them a safe home context as well. 

Anticipatory anxiety involves worry about—and the urge to avoid—not only anxiety or panic, but also disgust, anger, shame, regret, humiliation, becoming overwhelmed, or any other unwanted emotion. We think of anticipatory anxiety as a third layer of fear.

It takes courage to successfully deal with anxiety disorders, but with lots of good information, coaching and support from your therapist and others you can learn to do it. You may not think that you have much courage because you have an anxiety disorder that make you fearful at times. However, courage is not acting without fear. It is acting despite fear. I have seen many, many examples of people with anxiety disorders who learned coping skills, to help them face their fears, and as a result got better and better over time. You can too.

As COVID restrictions get a little less and less frigid with the ongoing vaccination campaigns, a lot of us are very excited to resume some of our normal work and social life. At the same time, we may experience a burst of anxiety as we start to get out of quarantine-- after all, it’s been a really long time, right?!  To help ease up that anxious feeling, Dr. Carmichael has packaged some of her favorite pointers into an easy-to-remember acronym of S.U.N. to help you cope!