Tag: Health / Mental Health

If you’re seriously tempted to drink alcohol, Dr. Miklowitz recommends trying to put yourself off for an hour after the urge starts. “There’s some value to delaying responses,” he says. “Sometimes that craving will go away in an hour.” It can be useful to establish boundaries with the people around you who are drinking if […]

“Denial is a defense mechanism for a reason,” Jor-El Caraballo, L.M.H.C., therapist and cofounder of Brooklyn-based therapy practice Viva Wellness, previously told me. “You just have to watch that you don’t use it at the exclusion of other tools.” If you need more convincing, read this article by my colleague Hannah Pasternak, where she dove […]

As a Christmas baby, I’ve spent many past holiday seasons focused on preparing an outfit for my grand entrance at the next holiday party. With age comes wisdom, though, and I eventually accepted that my birthday couldn’t quite compete with a major holiday. It was time for me to reimagine the holiday season, and yes, […]

It doesn’t feel like an overstatement to say that 2020 has been monstrous for Black people. Whether you’ve grappled with unimaginable pandemic outcomes or relentless police brutality, it’s hard to look back at this year without sadness. Just December 4, Casey Goodson, a 23-year-old Black man, was fatally shot by an Ohio sheriff’s deputy in […]

You probably don’t need me to tell you that the pandemic has not been great for our collective mental health. Everyone is feeling it in some way. Maybe you’ve been feeling incredibly sad, angry, or anxious. Maybe you spend a lot of time spiraling about the future or worrying about your safety. Maybe you’re eating […]

Miley Cyrus has been open in the past about her experiences with drugs and alcohol. And, like many people, she’s gone through some ups and downs with substance use during the COVID-19 pandemic, Cyrus said in a new interview with Apple Music. “I, like a lot of people–being completely honest—during the pandemic fell off,” she […]

Yesterday Oregon voted to decriminalize the possession of all drugs, making it the first state to do so. Voters in Oregon also approved a measure to legalize the therapeutic use of psilocybin, the compound in psychedelic mushrooms that’s responsible for their consciousness-altering effects. Nearly 59% of Oregon voters approved Measure 110, which decriminalizes all drugs […]

As a mental health writer who’s also a depressed human in this world, I’ve been thinking a lot about all the ways I can mitigate the election’s impact on my ability to function. So far, I’ve written about making a self-care plan, managing your mental health on Election Day itself, and planning for a post-election […]

You don’t need me to tell you that we’re living in stressful times. With less than two weeks to the 2020 presidential election, a lot of us are operating in miserable, anxious, uncertain limbo. The good(ish) news is that you don’t have to stew in your stress—there are things you can do to feel a […]

What does it mean to have “normal” emotions in the year 2020, anyway? And what does it mean now, with Election Day less than two weeks away? Everyone is handling the anticipation differently. Maybe you’re having trouble sleeping because you’re reflecting on how the coronavirus pandemic has been handled. Maybe you’re optimistic about the upcoming […]