All women deserve great sex and doctors are finally saying it
Sexual health has long occupied an awkward space in medicine, discussed in hushed tones if at all, treated as secondary to what gets called “real” health concerns. Nicole Cirino, M.D., is a reproductive psychiatrist, certified sex therapist, and co-director of the Menopause and Sexual Medicine Program at OHSU’s Center for Women’s Health, which is recognized […]
How to stop people pleasing without losing the relationships that matter most to you
People pleasing is one of the most misidentified patterns in modern psychological life. From the outside it resembles generosity, agreeableness, and social sensitivity. From the inside it feels like anxiety management, the reduction of the fear that disagreement, disappointment, or conflict will cost something too valuable to risk. The distinction between genuine generosity and people […]
Mental health maintenance, the daily practices that protect emotional wellbeing before crisis arrives
Mental health conditions rarely arrive without precursor signals. The shift from ordinary stress or sadness into a clinically significant condition is almost always preceded by behavioral and emotional changes that are recognizable in retrospect, and often recognizable in real time by people who know what to look for. Identifying these warning signs early, in oneself […]
Body dysmorphic disorder is not vanity and it nearly costs lives
Mandy Rosenberg was eventually diagnosed with a disorder that had been quietly controlling her life for years. Body dysmorphic disorder, a mental health condition that traps people inside a distorted image of themselves, is not about vanity and it is not about caring too much about appearance. It is something far more consuming than that. […]
Anxiety relief — the 5 nerve exercises that could quiet your mind in minutes
Anxiety affects tens of millions of Americans, yet fewer than half of those living with it ever seek formal help. While professional medical care remains the most important step for anyone managing a diagnosed condition, emerging research is shedding light on a set of simple physical exercises that may offer meaningful relief by targeting one […]
What is alexithymia? The hidden condition affecting millions
Imagine feeling your heart race or your stomach tighten and having no clear idea whether you’re excited, anxious or upset. For millions of people around the world, that uncertainty is a regular part of life. The experience is known as alexithymia, a trait that affects how people recognize, interpret and describe their emotions. Although the […]
Motivation is being quietly stolen by modern life and what your brain is losing every single day
Motivation is one of the first things people notice slipping in the modern world, and most never connect it to what is actually happening inside their brain. The neurochemical most responsible for that drive, the one that makes pursuing goals feel urgent and worthwhile, is under a level of pressure that evolution never prepared it […]
Is your obsessive table habit secretly a sign of OCD?
It happens at restaurants, at home, sometimes without even realizing it the automatic urge to sweep crumbs off the table while eating. It turns out this is far more common than most people think. According to psychologists, more than 60% of people do it regularly, making it one of the most widespread and largely unexamined […]
What does lived anxiety actually feel like when the person hiding it looks completely fine
Anxiety is the most prevalent mental health condition globally, and it is also the condition most commonly misclassified as a personality trait rather than a treatable health problem. The person who describes themselves as a worrier, a perfectionist, or someone who just finds it hard to switch off is, in many cases, describing the functional […]
Why quiet burnout is the crisis nobody is naming
Burnout does not always announce itself. It does not always arrive with a breakdown, a missed deadline, or a dramatic resignation letter slid across a desk. Sometimes it looks like someone who is still showing up, still answering emails, still functioning well enough to fool everyone around them, and maybe even themselves. That version of […]