5 Mental Health Tips for Surviving the School Year

The coronavirus pandemic continues to upend nearly every aspect of our lives. For parents, this includes once reliable school schedules and calendars. As districts consider a potential return to a traditional school environment this fall, continued distance learning, or a hybrid of the two, parents have lots to consider amid this uncertain situation.

What’s safest for my child and the rest of my family? Should we consider homeschooling? How will his or her learning be impacted? How will we cope with what’s decided?

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Douglas Austin
About Depression and Major Depressive Disorder

Imagine for a moment that we sit down across from each other and I tell you that I’m going to test your knowledge about behavioral health diagnoses. I will do that by holding up a card with words on it and ask you to tell me everything you know about that word or words. Ready? Here goes. I hold up the first card and it says, “Depression.”

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Douglas Austin
7 Tools for Managing Traumatic Stress

Staying away from the people, places and situations that trigger these thoughts and memories can be appropriate and helpful at times. However, using avoidance as your only strategy can cause more problems than it attempts to solve. These symptoms can’t be avoided all the time, and trying to may cause you to close yourself off to opportunities, create anxiety or feel even more restrained by your traumatic experience.

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Douglas Austin
Ten Things You Can Do for Your Mental Health

Treat yourself with kindness and respect, and avoid self-criticism. Make time for your hobbies and favorite projects, or broaden your horizons. Do a daily crossword puzzle, plant a garden, take dance lessons, learn to play an instrument or become fluent in another language.

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Douglas Austin
Why Focusing on Economics During the Pandemic Can Be Harmful to Mental Health

It’s hard to escape. The covid-19 pandemic, its economic fallout, the startling news of new cases in the media — it’s everywhere. From social media memes to news stories, we’re bombarded with updates, stats, conjecture, and gossip around the clock. Many politicians are making statements about reopening the country’s businesses early despite potentially devastating health risks.

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Douglas Austin
Pandemic Self-Care for the Long Haul

We’ve all seen the coronavirus memes: an exhausted woman curled up for a nap on the home treadmill, someone dressed in pajamas watching all of Netflix in a week, or emerging from months inside with snarled gray hair covered in cookie crumbs. Everyone is joking about not taking care of themselves and coming out of quarantine looking like Sasquatch. But the jokes aren’t really jokes, are they? According to a recent study, more than half of Americans feel that the pandemic is harming their mental health.

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Douglas Austin
Mental Health Home Tips

As the Coronavirus Pandemic continues and many of us are no longer able to leave our homes, it is
important to remember to practice positive mental health habits. During
stressful times and major disruptions to daily routine, it is easy to have
heightened anxiety and feelings of stress and depression. Here are 5 tips to
stay mentally healthy from HCO Behavioral Health services:

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Douglas Austin
How I Finally Kicked My O.C.D.

“You must really love that song,” my mother says, and for a moment my heart stops.

Both of us are plainly aware she need not be more specific than that. I attempt to read her body language out of the corner of my eye. Does she know? There’s no way, right?

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Ben Nguyen