Anxiety, COVID, Managing emotions

Protecting Your Mental Health During the Coronavirus Era with the Help of Telehealth

Experiencing feelings of isolation, panicking about the scarcity of resources, and fearing for one’s health can be overwhelming during this time of uncertainty. Due to the threat of Coronavirus, we are being forced to alter the way we interact with colleagues, friends, and family, shifting our work and social schedules. Meetings and gatherings have been postponed or outright canceled. Many people are spending much more time in their own homes. This leaves a gap. We are, at our core, inherently social, and loneliness can be as overwhelming as any other trauma.

We need connection, and we can feel when it’s missing.

Working from home is fast becoming a best practice for minimizing the potential spread of COVID-19 within the workplace. However, such a drastic change to your daily routine, coupled with the constant news cycle updates, can put a strain on your mental health.

Rather than waiting to see a therapist “until things calm down,” it is worth exploring an emerging alternative to coming into a therapist’s office – Telehealth.

Teletherapy helps you maintain mental health

For years, telehealth (or teletherapy) has improved access to care for clients with mobility challenges and for those who live too far to travel to their preferred therapist. Now, teletherapy is becoming increasingly relevant as the number of remote workers, or people working from home, is surging.

Teletherapy reduces travel time to and from your therapist’s office, which makes it more convenient for the working professional. It also offers the benefit of being in a comfortable and familiar environment, which can often be helpful for self-expression and reflection. 

HIPAA Compliant Teletherapy Offers Security

Some are reluctant to try teletherapy because they feel that something would be missing from a face to face interaction. With a clear camera and high quality internet connection, we find that, in practice, clients get just as much out of remote therapy as in-person. Others may be concerned about privacy. If this is a concern, make sure your therapist is using a HIPAA Compliant service, like Spruce Health or SimplePractice, that offers a secure connection. This way your data is protected. 

If you are feeling overwhelmed by COVID-19, give me a call. I am a psychologist, and I can help you learn coping skills that will give you peace of mind during this challenging time. I also offer teletherapy sessions using a HIPAA compliant system.

Crystal Clements, PhD
Crystal Clements, PhD

I help people overcome depression and anxiety and experience empowerment in their daily lives.

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Anxiety, Testing and Assessment

Should I worry about my anxiety? How to know when stress is more than just stress, and what to do about it

Anxiety can be overwhelming.  Though we all feel stress, anxiety disorders can cause a person to become agitated, restless, or excessively worried over something others may see as small.  Anxiety can come in many forms, whether it’s

  • Feeling your heart pound and palms sweat
  • Negative self-talk
  • Avoiding social situations
  • Difficulty sleeping and calming down
  • Racing thoughts and difficulty concentrating

You may not know whether what you are feeling is typical stress, or signs of an anxiety disorder, and that feeling of not knowing brings its own discomfort and additional stress.  

When we don’t know, we google. 

And when we google, we can find that there are many types of anxiety, as well as other disorders in which anxiety plays a part.  If you weren’t feeling anxious before, you may feel even more anxious as you flip through online pages of diagnosis after diagnosis.  There are some online anxiety tests, and they can be helpful as a starting place to help learn more about anxiety, and to see whether it may be helpful for you to seek professional help.  However, online tests have limits.

You’re probably feeling more anxious than normal when you read through a list of symptoms or diagnoses, and that may impact how you answer the questions.  Secondly, sometimes the way things are written is not clear. For example, these quiz questions often ask about how often a symptom occurs without providing context – how often is “often” or “sometimes”? Lastly, even if an online quiz can tell you with 100% certainty that you have an anxiety disorder, it may not be able to link you to treatment with a quality mental health professional, nor provide treatment recommendations that are tailored to best fit you.

Pros of Taking an Online Anxiety Test

  1. Learn basic information about anxiety.
  2. Get a starting point to understand your own emotions
  3. First easy step toward deeper self understanding
  4. Free, or low cost.

Cons of Taking an Online Anxiety Test

  1. Possible misdiagnosis
  2. General, often not validated (accurate) questions
  3. Not able to recommend appropriate treatment
  4. Difficulty understanding results
  5. Incomplete, limited results or insights

Knowing yourself is a key part of understanding how to take care of yourself, but figuring yourself out can be a complicated and uncomfortable process.  I’ll explain a few ways to get started on your own, as well as ways we can help.

Take an anxiety quiz or read an article online

Though they have their limits, those online anxiety tests can help us start to learn the lingo around anxiety and start to get some ideas about ourselves.  There’s a lot of them out there, so I would begin with any that come from any reputable clinics or universities. For example, here’s a page from Mayo Clinic on common signs of anxiety, or an article from Harvard on the difference between stress and anxiety.  In terms of quizzes, this quiz from Mindspot gets around the “how often” problem by providing more concrete terms, which may help you be more exact about your symptoms.  I also like this one from ADDitude, which provides more detail about what each of these symptoms means.

Start a Journal

Often our thoughts and feelings happen so fast that we have a hard time organizing them.  Journaling is a great way to slow down our minds and put our complex thoughts, feelings, and patterns out on to paper.  It doesn’t have to follow a standard format. For some people, just simple bullet points with their thoughts and feelings about a situation can be helpful to start to see patterns.  Find a format that works for you and work to integrate it into your regular routine. This can also help you see if your anxiety tends to happen in any kind of pattern, as well as help you answer those pesky “often” and “sometimes” questions with more accuracy. When you write, reflect by asking yourself:

  • When did I start feeling this way?
  • What events today contributed to how I’m feeling now?
  • What feelings do these words communicate?
  • How much do these feelings affect my well-being, on a scale from 1-10?

Consider psychological testing

At Here Counseling, we provide quality psychological testing that can help you better understand what makes you tick.  Psychological testing is a professional service that uses empirically validated measures to draw conclusions about your emotions and behaviors.

Our professionals will explore with you your concerns about anxiety, design a set of tests tailored to your needs, and provide personalized and concrete recommendations to help you with your anxiety.  These tests can provide so much more than a quick online quiz, as we conduct a thorough interview to see patterns in your anxiety or in your history, look at other personality traits that may contribute to anxiety or be sources of strength to help you combat anxiety, and check for any other concerns that could be linked to anxiety.  Let’s understand how psychological testing works.

  1. Initial interview. A psychologist will ask you about the questions you want answered about yourself. These can range from questions about a specific diagnosis, such as ADHD or Bipolar II, to questions about your personality and relationship patterns.
  2. Testing. You’ll come back in for a few hours of testing in which the psychologist will help you complete hand-picked, curated measures that together create a cohesive picture of your functioning.
  3. Report writing. The psychologist writes a report with significant findings from the measures and draws conclusions in order to clearly shed light on the testing question.
  4. Feedback session. The psychologist will sit down and explain the results of the test, and also recommend next steps for accommodation or treatment.

Having a professional working with you to give you accurate and helpful information has the potential to transform your life and move you closer toward your goals. It takes the pressure off of you to figure out the problem, so that you can take the right steps forward toward healing, health, and wholeness. Reach out today, we’re here to help.

Ashley Holcomb

Ashley provides psychotherapy and testing in our downtown Los Angeles office.

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Neurology

Get to bed at 10 tonight: Why sleep is important and how more of it will change your life

It’s hard to get a good night’s sleep. Maybe it’s work stress, too much screen time, or something you haven’t quite figured out yet that keeps you up. Maybe you’re waking up after going to bed on time but you’re still not refreshed and ready for the day.

I know it’s hard to get, but sleep is important to preserving and improving our mental health and physical health. I’ll explain some of these important processes below, and be sure to check back soon for the tips on how to get that much-needed sleep.

Sleep keeps the doctor away

Sleep improves immunity. Consistently poor sleep is known to disrupt the immune system, leaving us more prone to common illnesses. The key here is consistency. One common mistake is to try to “catch up” on the weekends.
Deep sleep is essential for repairing wear and tear on the body. In fact, it is during deep sleep stages that human growth hormone is released into the body, aiding in the recovery of muscles and buildup of new muscles. Deep sleep is also the most refreshing portion of the sleep cycle because it reduces our body’s natural drive for sleep, ensuring you’re not sluggish throughout the day.

Good sleep builds memories

One of deep sleep’s most vital functions is the consolidation of new memories, in other words, it’s where memories are stored and organized for long-term access. So, if you’re studying for a big test, don’t stay up all night cramming because those crammed in memories won’t consolidate effectively – less is more when studying and sleeping well!

Sleep helps you avoid weight gain and diabetes

Getting enough deep sleep reduces the odds of developing diabetes. Missing out on deep sleep can lead to changes in the way the body manages glucose. We mainly dream during the REM state that follows the deep sleep stages, so if you’re having dreams you’re likely getting quality sleep.

Sleep can aid in weight loss. Research indicates those getting poor sleep are more prone to increased levels of ghrelin (stimulates hunger) and reduced levels of leptin (makes you feel full). Overeating and not feeling full is a recipe for gaining weight and being “hangry,” not to mention the other health issues that come with being overweight.

Less sleep problems means more intimacy

Behavioral problems can include a reduction in sexual activity. When people have sleep issues they develop routines to help fall asleep and one thing that can disturb that is a bed partner, so folks end up sleeping alone. Not surprisingly, sleeping in different rooms is not conducive to an active sex life. On top of that, a tired and tense person is likely to experience a reduced libido, even before they sleep in separate beds.

Good sleep wards off depression

A survey of those with depression and anxiety revealed that most slept less than 6 hours per night, falling short of the 8 hours most adults need. This finding suggests that proper sleep hygiene may be protective against common mental health issues.

Sleep isn’t simply “turning off” for the night. It’s a healing, active process that helps you function your best. Maybe you’re struggling to get to sleep – whether it’s from overworking yourself or even stress. I hope this reminder helps you refocus on how important it can be to slow down and get good rest.

The next step is mastering sleep hygiene: changing a few things every night to help you get the sleep you need. Check back soon for the tips on how to improve your sleep hygiene.

Matthew Russell, PsyD
Matthew Russell, PsyD

I help people with depression feel less weighed down, and more in control of their emotions, so they can feel relief.

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