Psycom

Everyone knows the secrets to living a healthy life. Eat a balanced diet, spend time in nature, exercise, get a whole night's sleep, and decrease stress—it's all reasonably straightforward advice but not easy to follow. So, it's unsurprising that people are always searching for magic potions or a secret sauce to achieve these goals. Enter magnesium supplements, the latest trend to permeate social media feeds.

While there is no way to prevent schizophrenia itself, episodes and symptoms can be eased or even stopped with the right treatment. Schizophrenia is a condition that profoundly impacts the lives of people and their loved ones. Technically a spectrum of brain disorders, the illness is characterized by symptoms that include hallucinations, delusions, trouble thinking clearly, disorganized speech, and loss of motivation.

So much of what makes distinguishing one mental health disorder from another is untangling symptoms—particularly when they overlap. Such is the case with OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) and ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). The most significant overlap in atypical behaviors in people with ADHD and OCD is in executive function, such as planning, prioritizing, and decision-making, which all come with some degree of anxiety.

If you have a kid with ADHD, hopefully you already know that these are some of the world’s smartest, most creative, and most sensitive people. But parenting these beautiful brains can be challenging. “We have an idea of how children should behave, but ADHD children’s brains develop differently than neurotypical children,” says licensed social worker and ADHD-Certified Clinical Services Provider Billy Roberts, founder of Focused Mind ADHD Counseling in Columbus, Ohio.

There are crucial differences between Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD), but also a great deal of overlap, which makes diagnosis tricky, say experts who have studied both neurobiological conditions. If you think you have either ADHD or SAD, or know someone who does, it’s worth getting familiar with both. Your ability to speak about exactly how you feel, why, and when (or help someone who needs to) is a powerful tool in getting proper medical care.

Recently, Cambridge University Press surveyed people about their sexual activity, and those with ADHD reported significantly more often about a wide range of hypersexual fantasies and behaviors in comparison to those without ADHD. The study was published in 2022 in European Psychiatry. It isn’t the first time ADHD and hypersexuality have been linked, though research to date hasn’t made clear connections between the two.

In this Article Suicide and addiction. Too often, we hear these words in the same breath. At face value, the connection feels logical. Think of celebrities who die by suicide—often there’s the implication, if not outright fact, of a struggle with substance misuse. At the most basic level, “what suicidality and addiction share is the desire to escape from pain and distress,” says Michael Groat, Ph.D., director of psychology at Silver Hill Hospital in New Canaan, CT.

The US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) released a report on identifying and managing the mental health symptoms that can accompany long COVID.1 The report provides in-depth information and links to important resources for clinicians, including primary care and mental health professionals, caring for people with long COVID.

Catastrophic thinking or catastrophizing is a thought pattern that can be described in many ways. It is a type of thinking focused on negative thoughts or ruminating about irrational, worst-case scenarios. A person who is using catastrophic thinking is “pretty rapidly, and without tremendous evidence,” going to the worst case scenario of a situation, according to Gail Saltz, MD, associate professor of psychiatry at the NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City.

A functional alcoholic flies under the radar because of their ability to perform at an average or above-average level in society. In other words, this person is able to do their job, have relationships, and manage family obligations despite alcohol use that is harmful. The term "functional alcoholic" is not a clinical diagnosis or a medical term but used conversationally. High-functioning alcoholic is another way of describing this type of drinking. Both terms are stigmatizing.