Coping with Coronavirus

Peter ForsterSelf Care Leave a Comment

For the past two weeks we have been collecting stories from our patients. Some of them are doing well in the face of the turbulence caused by coronavirus and some of them are struggling. We decided to collect stories from those who are doing well in order to identify ways of coping with this stress and perhaps have some suggestions …

Crisis Resources in the Bay Area

Peter ForsterOther Psychiatric Disorders, Self Care Leave a Comment

Colleagues at UCSF shared this list of resources for people in a crisis in the Bay Area. We share this here in the hope that it can be helpful. Please let us know if there are corrections or updates… Alameda National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: Call 1-800-273-TALK Substance Use Treatment & Referral Helpline: 1-844-682-7215 Crisis Support Services Suicide Prevention: (800) 309-2131 …

Exercise and Mental Health – A Therapist’s Guide

Peter ForsterBipolar Treatment, Self Care, Treatments of Depression Leave a Comment

This is a great resource from Psychology Tools, with a huge amount of information about the use of exercise in treatment of mental illness, and a long bibliography of articles describing evidence related to the use of exercise, impact of physical exercise on mental health, ways of encouraging clients to exercise, and biological, psychological and social mechanisms by which exercise …

Bipolar Workbook from Gateway Psychiatric

Peter ForsterBipolar Treatment, GPS Update, Self Care Leave a Comment

Gateway Psychiatric Services is excited to announce the release of our latest book: The Bipolar Disorder Workbook from Callisto Media. Designed to educate and motivate people who have questions, particularly about Bipolar II and cyclothymia, the workbook walks users through a series of structured exercises, beginning with a basic checklist intended to identify symptoms that may warrant further investigation. The …

biofeedback

Biofeedback at Gateway Psychiatric

Nathaniel AbadAnxiety, Other Psychiatric Disorders, Physical Conditions and Health, Self Care Leave a Comment

Biofeedback is a stress management technique that uses devices that give you information about your body’s physiologic response to stress. The idea is to provide you with information that would ordinarily be outside of your conscious awareness, such as your body temperature, blood pressure, or heart rate.  Generally, there are three stages of biofeedback: Developing increased awareness of the body …

Antidepressant Diet

Antidepressant Diet Cookbook

Peter ForsterMajor Depression, Physical Conditions and Health, Self Care, Treatments of Depression Leave a Comment

Two recent studies suggest that the Mediterranean diet may be an antidepressant diet as well as the diet that reduces heart disease, inflammation, and the risk of dementia. In the SMILES trial 65 patients with depression were randomized to a Mediterranean diet based intervention (a diet support group) or a social support group. The group excluded people who were treatment …

Foundations of Wellbeing

Foundations of Wellbeing

Peter ForsterSelf Care Leave a Comment

In the beginning of this year we sent out an invitation to our patient’s to sign up for the Foundations of Wellbeing program developed by neuroscientist Rick Hanson and were very pleased by the response. Since then we’ve been hearing from those who signed up that the program has had a significant effect on their mental health. A representative comment …

Nutrition Diet Update

Nutrition and Diet Update

Peter ForsterPhysical Conditions and Health, Self Care Leave a Comment

Nutrition and Diet Update We recently updated the overall guidelines in our healthy diet page to incorporate information from the largest study today looking at diet and its effect on overall mortality. It’s worth summarizing both the strengths and weaknesses of this study which was published in two articles in the Lancet. It is the largest study to date. Nearly 140,000 …

Pill Minder and Information Source

Peter ForsterSelf Care

David Pogue recently reviewed 47 apps that can serve as a pill minder and information source and selected one that clearly outshone the others. But first, why is this important? This is some information from his article in Yahoo Finance… An estimated 187 million Americans (58%) are on at least one prescription drug. (Source: Network for Excellence in Health Innovation …

Online Recovery Resources

Peter ForsterSelf Care

Accessing Online Recovery Resources from Afar Recently I had a patient relocate to Spain who had been in recovery from alcohol for one year. She was very concerned about leaving her recovery community and was surprised to learn that she could continue to access support online from afar. Initially she was skeptical about accessing support online. However, after trying out …