Mental Health Archive

Articles

How can I help my partner with dementia who resists help?

Caring for someone can be stressful, and this can be even more challenging if a loved one is not ready to accept help. Caregivers who find themselves in this situation should take steps to enlist others' help to ease their burden and should take time for themselves to reduce their stress levels and protect their mental health.

Grieving: A natural process to help heal

At some point, almost everyone experiences the passing of a loved one whether it’s family, a friend, a spouse, or a beloved pet. Grieving is a natural process that is essential to healing. The best way to deal with grief is to look for ways to make the mourning and healing process less challenging. These include acknowledging grief, embracing the lost loved one’s community, and speaking with others who have gone through grieving.

Gender-affirming surgery brings benefits

Gender-affirming surgery brings psychological benefits for people who undergo these procedures.

Supporting a bullied middle schooler

When children reach middle school, bullying can become more personal as classmates play a bigger role in their lives. Learning to deal with unpleasant emotions is an important part of adolescent development, and parents can help children in this situation by validating their child's feelings and working with them on antibullying techniques.

Exercise can add to your sense of purpose — and vice versa

Researchers found that being active increases one’s sense of purpose in life, and that the opposite was also true—having a strong purpose in life makes it more likely a person will stay active.

The benefits of volunteering, without leaving home

Volunteering has many benefits, enabling people to gain a sense of purpose, connect with others, and get a break from their own problems. Those benefits are associated with better health, including greater levels of physical activity, better sleep quality, a healthier diet, reduced rates of cardiovascular disease, and even longevity. A person may be able to reap many of those benefits by volunteering from home, such as doing work for a nonprofit group via computer or phone.

Postpartum anxiety is invisible, but common and treatable

It's not unusual for women to feel down or depressed after giving birth, but if the feelings persist or become debilitating, it's cause for concern. Many of the symptoms overlap between postpartum depression and postpartum anxiety, but some women do not respond as well to some treatments for depression, so it's important to establish the correct diagnosis.

Nicotine addiction explained — and how medications can help

Addiction is now understood to be a neurological disorder that results from changes to the brain's reward center caused by addictive substances. Ideally, treatment for nicotine addiction combines medication to suppress cravings with counseling to help patients reprogram their behavior.

Misgendering: What it is and why it matters

For people who are transgender or nonbinary, being misgendered may be a daily occurrence. When this happens, people feel invalidated and unseen, and the burden can negatively affect their mental health. Making the effort to use the right names, pronouns, and honorifics when addressing a person shows respect and support for those around you and how they identify themselves.

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