The Question Patients Ask at the End of Therapy By the time someone has done meaningful mental health care and is approaching the end of a treatment chapter, the question hovering over the last few sessions is rarely “did this work?” It is something more anxious: “what happens when I stop?” The implicit fear is that everything … Read more
Devon Pritchard had spent four years as a Cincinnati firefighter before the depression became something he could no longer outrun on a treadmill or drown at a craft brewery. The 33-year-old had failed sertraline, escitalopram, duloxetine, and a six-month trial of bupropion that gave him insomnia. His psychiatrist at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center … Read more
Dr. Priya Reddy was an emergency medicine resident at a Boston teaching hospital, two years out from board certification, when her panic attacks crossed a line. She had managed them through medical school with therapy and a low-dose SSRI. The night a charge nurse found her hyperventilating in the supply closet during a mass-casualty drill, … Read more
Dr. Priya Reddy was an emergency medicine resident at a Boston teaching hospital, two years out from board certification, when her panic attacks crossed a line. She had managed them through medical school with therapy and a low-dose SSRI. The night a charge nurse found her hyperventilating in the supply closet during a mass-casualty drill, … Read more
Eleanor, a 62-year-old retired schoolteacher from Asheville, North Carolina, had been in the geriatric psychiatry unit for nine days with a diagnosis of severe major depression. She would not eat. She would not speak. She lay in the same position for hours, her right arm raised slightly off the mattress as if she had been … Read more
Eleanor, a 62-year-old retired schoolteacher from Asheville, North Carolina, had been in the geriatric psychiatry unit for nine days with a diagnosis of severe major depression. She would not eat. She would not speak. She lay in the same position for hours, her right arm raised slightly off the mattress as if she had been … Read more
A Real Day in an Intensive Outpatient Program People hear the words “intensive outpatient program” and picture something between rehab and weekly therapy without a clear sense of what actually happens during the program day. The vagueness keeps many patients from accepting a step-up referral when their mental health care needs more than standard outpatient can deliver. … Read more
A Real Day in an Intensive Outpatient Program People hear the words “intensive outpatient program” and picture something between rehab and weekly therapy without a clear sense of what actually happens during the program day. The vagueness keeps many patients from accepting a step-up referral when their mental health care needs more than standard outpatient can deliver. … Read more
Priya was a software product manager in Seattle, two years into a job she once loved and now resented, when her therapist suggested she try a guided walk on Bainbridge Island. She protested politely. She had hiked plenty. The therapist clarified that this was different. It was a three-hour walk that covered less than half … Read more
Priya was a software product manager in Seattle, two years into a job she once loved and now resented, when her therapist suggested she try a guided walk on Bainbridge Island. She protested politely. She had hiked plenty. The therapist clarified that this was different. It was a three-hour walk that covered less than half … Read more