September 2024
Welcome to the fifth edition of the Inspire Behavioral Health Newsletter. Please let us know if you know someone who would like to begin receiving our newsletter and will be happy to send them an electronic copy. We offer high quality and compassionate mental health care and treatment to people living in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia, both virtually and in-person with offices in Vienna, Fairfax and Sterling. And, on behalf of Inspire Behavioral Health, we hope you and yours are enjoying the cooler September days of 2024. Please consider celebrating your life this fall by investing in your mental health today. It is time to free yourself from the obstacles that keep you from living your best life! Call us to schedule an appointment. Happy September!
Mental Health in September
September is an important month in our calendar for many reasons including marking the end of summer and the return to school and the beginning of the traditional academic year. It is also a somber time. While each day we remember the attack on America on 9/11, this month we especially remember the victims, the families, and the survivors, many of whom are continuing to cope with chronic illness and catastrophic loss. This September we mark the 23rdAnniversary of that tragic day, September 11, 2001, and recognize the lasting consequences of that attack on our Country and on our way of life.
This year, the 9/11 Memorial and Museum asks that to commemorate the anniversary of the day that changed our world forever, we would join them to Remember the Sky. They ask that we simply post a photo of the sky wherever in the world we are on September 11, 2024 — regardless of the weather. Then, share your photo on Instagram or the social media platform of our choice along with your own original caption, tag them, and include the hashtags: #neverforget911 and #rememberthesky.
This digital commemoration is inspired by the clear blue sky that was present in New York City and across the country on 9/11, as well as by Spencer Finch’s monumental art installation in the 9/11 Memorial Museum. His artwork, “Trying to Remember the Color of the Sky on That September Morning,” is comprised of 2,983 watercolors — each a unique shade of blue — a tribute to the enormity of collective loss and the individuality of each of those who were taken from us far too soon.
For younger Americans, 9/11 is no longer an experience lived but history learned. Remember the Sky seeks to engage audiences in meaningful conversation, serving as a bridge between memory of that day and what can be experienced in-person by visiting the Museum. Your participation helps us expose a new generation to the lessons learned during and following 9/11 as together, we fulfill our collective promise never to forget. (9/11 Memorial and Museum)
September, 2024, from a Behavioral Health perspective, is also the time when we observe the 35th National Recovery from Substance Use and Mental Health Problems Month, and also Suicide Prevention Month. I think we all agree that every month is a time to celebrate recovery from substance and process addictions, and from mental health issues, as well as that every month we are urged and reminded to do all we can to raise awareness of, and prevent suicide. This month, however, is a special time to call to mind these issues and to support those who are in recovery, increase our awareness of suicide prevention efforts, and do what we can to help.
Substance use and mental health conditions impact individuals from all walks of life, and across all age groups. While these conditions are common, recurrent, and often serious, they are preventable and treatable; and many individuals do recover. In 2022, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) reaffirmed its definition of recovery as “a process of change through which individuals improve their health and wellness, live self-directed lives, and strive to reach their full potential” (SAMHSA, 2012). The process of recovery is highly personal and occurs via many pathways. It may include clinical treatment, medications, faith-based approaches, peer support, family support, self-care, and other approaches. A better understanding of those who self-identify as in recovery, is crucial if data-driven efforts are to foster recovery through expanded access to treatment and recovery services. The prevalence of substance use and mental health recovery among adults who perceived that they ever had a problem with their substance use or mental health is quite high in our country. In 2021, 70.0 million adults aged 18 or older perceived that they ever had a substance use and/or mental health problem, and 72.1% (or 50.2 million) of them considered themselves to be in recovery or to have recovered from their substance use and/or mental health problem. For substance use specifically, of the 29.0 million adults who perceived that they ever had a substance use problem, 72.2% (or 20.9 million) considered themselves to be in recovery, and for mental health, of the 58.7 million adults who perceived they ever had a mental health problem, 66.5% (or 38.8 million) considered themselves to be in recovery or to have recovered from their mental health problem.
Every September, we recognize Suicide Prevention Month as a time to continue learning about suicide prevention, remember those we have lost to suicide, and acknowledge the many individuals, families, and communities that have been impacted by suicide. This time is also an important opportunity to honor the strength and resilience of people who have experienced and continue to overcome suicidal thoughts and attempts.
In the United States, someone dies by suicide every 11 minutes. Suicide affects every race, gender, ethnic group, and orientation, so it is important to know and spread the word that suicide is preventable, and that help is available.
This year SAMHSA, our government’s Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, launched the first-ever national 988 Day, a day of action to be held every year on September 8, 2024. 988 Day provided an opportunity to create a buzz and raise awareness about the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. This year’s theme is “No Judgment. Just Help.” We encourage everyone to continue to talk to your friends and family about the 988 Lifeline, post on social media using #988, and to do something to care for your own mental health and the mental health of others.
suicide prevention month: warning signs
Suicide is complex and determined by multiple combinations of factors, such as mental illness, substance misuse, trauma, painful losses, exposure to violence, and social isolation.
Below are the warning signs of suicide for youth and adults. Act if you notice these signs in a family member, friend, neighbor, coworker, or others. Suicide risk is greater if a behavior is new or has increased, and if it seems related to a painful event, loss, or change.
Suicide Warning Signs for Youth
- Talking about or making plans for suicide.
- Expressing hopelessness about the future.
- Displaying severe or overwhelming emotional pain or distress.
- Changing or withdrawing from social connections or situations.
- Changes in sleep (increased or decreased).
- Anger or hostility that seems out of character or out of context.
- Recent increased agitation or irritability.
Suicide Warning Signs for Adults
- Talking about or making plans for suicide.
- Acting anxious, agitated, or behaving recklessly.
- Talking about being a burden to others.
- Talking about feeling trapped or in unbearable pain.
- Increasing the use of alcohol or drugs.
- Talking about feeling hopeless or having no reason to live
- Sleeping too little or too much.
- Withdrawing or feeling isolated.
- Showing rage or talking about seeking revenge.
- Displaying extreme mood swings.
To learn more about Suicide Prevention Month, please visit: https://www.samhsa.gov/newsroom/observances/suicide-prevention-month
Remember that help available if you or someone you know is struggling with a mental health or substance use issue, and now is the time to get the help you or they need. Please call us at Inspire Behavioral Health to schedule an appointment to talk with one of our clinicians.
What Is Your Story? How can we help you build a life worth Living?
We each find ourselves from time to time wondering how we will get to the next step and out from under our own personal struggles. We may have self-doubt and question our motives and abilities, asking if we have what it takes to take action or keep to a plan. These thoughts and feelings are normal. Our competence and confidence may be in a vulnerable spot at times and we may be unsure where and who to turn to for help. We may find ourselves engaging in harmful behaviors, negative self-talk, self-sabotaging, second-guessing and questioning ourselves obsessively, losing sight of who we are in the world, drinking excessively, using drugs or engaging in risky behavior that has clearly become out of control.
Let Us Help
Clinicians at Inspire Behavioral Health are here to help by joining you on the journey toward mental health and recovery from addictions. May of our providers are trained in Dialectical Behavioral Therapy or DBT, and others are trained and credentialed in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy or CBT, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy or ACT, Rational Emotive Therapy or RET, and many others, all with one goal in mind, to help you.
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy is an approach that combines acceptance of the self and of ways to change and grow. Dr. Marsha Linehan included mindfulness as a key component in therapy treatment, along with original and specific life-skill techniques. She says, “You can’t think yourself into new ways of acting; you can only act yourself into new ways of thinking.” Throughout her extraordinary scientific career, Marsha Linehan remained a woman of deep spirituality. Her powerful and moving story is one of faith and perseverance. We encourage you to call us today to see if working from a DBT approach will help you by learning how the principles of DBT really work and how, using her life skills and techniques, you too, can build a life worth living.
Dr. Linehan teaches us that we are capable of living with the tension of opposing thoughts as well as with our thoughts that are accompanied by contradictory feelings. She introduces us to what she calls Distress Tolerance, and suggests we allow our feelings to inform our thoughts and allow our thoughts to inform our feelings. As we have discussed in prior newsletters, she calls this merging of thoughts and feelings the “Middle Path” and also the “Wise Brain,” and says it is where our best decisions about living our best lives are made.
She says we can tolerate the discomfort of uncertainty or the unbearable feeling of indecision and stay in a rough place for a little longer, but not for a second longer than needed. Rather, she suggests that we stay there just long enough to locate our Wise Mind, and there, realize that we are able to decide what is best for us. Linehan teaches us that this is not easy to do and takes practice because we often seem to be “hardwired” to do the immediate and almost impulsively pick what looks like the answer rather than pondering and “living in the uncertainty” until we can choose and feel the right answer. It is as though we prefer the efficient over the effective solution. She teaches that all of us can “build a life worth living.”
Our licensed professionals can help you to identify what seem like the dialectical or opposite sides of our thinking and feeling so that you can emerge more integrated and whole. You can come to understand how feelings can inform thoughts and vice versa rather than being controlled by intense emotions, irrational feelings, intrusive thoughts, cravings or triggers. We can help you with talk therapy, testing and medication (if clinically indicated) to live a life worth living and learn to thrive in your day-to-day life. Imagine living a more meaningful and rewarding life, communicating more effectively with others and enhancing your interpersonal relationships. Let us help you build that life, become more compassionate and strengthen your empathy by calling Inspire Behavioral Health for an appointment today. You can help yourself and when you are ready, begin to support the longevity, health, and well-being of all members of our society.
How to Find a Counselor
Once you decide to get professional health for a personal struggle, whether it is about anxiety, depression, grief, a mood disorder, an addiction to a substance or a behavior that has become out of control, a relationship issue, a sexual identity or behavioral issue, or something else, finding the right type of provider and service can be daunting. Where do you start? Inspire Behavioral Health can help because we are home to many caring professionals with a variety of specialties. We are confident you will find the provider who has the experience to addressing your particular issues and unique circumstances. Please visit our website to read our providers’ biographies, areas of expertise and their perspectives on how to help you. If you are in a rural area, you may have difficulty finding a mental health professional nearby, so remember that all of our clinicians are available to you virtually.
Substance Use and Addiction
Do you wonder whether your use of alcohol is excessive? Do you worry that that you may be heading toward problematic drinking, or has your drinking begun to cause issues or concerns for your health, in your relationships, at work or with the law? If this sounds like you, then take the CAGE (from our last newsletter and free on-line), or consider reading, Almost Alcoholic: Is My (or My Loved One’s) Drinking a Problem, (The Almost Effect), by Joseph Nowinski, Ph.D. and Robert Doyle, M.D., 2012, to help you determine some talking points to discuss with a professional.
Call us at IBH to talk with one of our providers who can offer you an evaluation by an addiction psychiatrist or a certified substance use therapist. They will then work with you on an effective treatment plan that may include talk therapy, anti-craving medication, or Medication Assisted Therapy, (MAT), such as Suboxone. We also strongly encourage attending community-based recovery groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, Sex Anonymous and other Twelve Step Programs.
Inspire Behavioral Health offers a full range of mental health services as well as treatment options for people struggling with substance use (alcohol and other drugs), and process addictions (food, sex, gambling, spending, Internet, video game, or social media addiction, shopping and other behaviors that are marked by poor impulse control), with medications as well as individual, couple, family and group therapy. Nearly eight million adults in the United States experience co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders, in fact, of adults with a mental health diagnosis more than twenty percent also have a substance issue, and of adults diagnosed with a substance use disorder, nearly forty precent also have a mental health issue.
Men are more likely than women to use almost all types of illicit drugs, and illicit drug use is more likely to result in emergency department visits or overdose deaths for men than for women. Substance use is often involved in risky behavior open to potential exposure to HIV, Hepatitis C, Herpes and other Sexually Transmitted Infections.
Patterns of substance use among MSM (men who have sex with men) vary depending on demographic factors, substance type, and MSM subgroup. Bisexual men have higher rates of substance use than other subgroups of MSM. Methamphetamine use is associated with high-risk sexual behaviors and HIV transmission. So, please call us to talk about making safe and more healthy choices. Many of our providers are licensed and certified to offer treatment for both issues concurrently.
clinical news
Clinical News: Spravato
The FDA approved Ketamine in 1970 as an anesthetic. Outside hospitals, its ability to induce an out-of-body, hallucinogenic experience made it attractive as a party drug users call “Special K.” In recent decades, doctors have prescribed it off-label to treat mental-health conditions including depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder. Clinics across the U.S. provide intravenous ketamine treatment under medical supervision. While evidence suggests ketamine can lessen symptoms of severe depression, there is less data on its use for other conditions. In 2019, the FDA approved Esketamine, a nasal spray derived from Ketamine, for treatment-resistant depression. Esketamine, which Johnson & Johnson sells under the brand name Spravato, must be administered in a clinic. Treatment with Spravato is available at Inspire Behavioral Health.
Clinical News: Why might a Mammogram not be enough to spot Cancer early in some women and what they should do?
A story in the Wall Street Journal this week reported that while mammograms are the mainstay of early Cancer detection, they do not work as well in women with dense breast tissue. The story went on to say that both the dense tissue and the tumors appear white on a mammogram and so the Cancer can blend into the background. This is important because beginning September 10, 2024, the FDA will require that women nationwide be notified whether their mammograms reveal dense breast tissue. Women are still urged to get mammograms, but also urged to talk with their doctor to help decide if she is at high risk for breast Cancer, based on tissue density, age and family history. How women manage their risk will come down to the conversation they have with their doctor.
Clinical News: Testosterone clinics sell virility but some hide risks
An article in the Wall Street Journal this week reported that many men seeking a boost in the gym and the bedroom learn too late about the possible side effects of testosterone treatment: infertility and worse. Testosterone Replacement Therapy, known as TRT, often use to strengthen muscle and enhance libido, has recently also been sought by healthy men in their 30’s and 40’s to overcome obesity, erectile dysfunction or normal age-related hormone decline. Prescriptions for testosterone cypionate, a generic form commonly sold have increased eight times since 2010. The record high sale of different forms of testosterone do not typically include the side effects of its use including male breast enlargement, shrunken testicles, blood clots and infertility. The article went on to report that testosterone’s artificially increased virility can cut some men’s sperm count to zero. Other side effects include acne, insomnia, anxiety and higher blood pressure. Testosterone treatment gained mainstream attention about a decade ago and is easily available from on-line clinics, but please be sure to talk directly with your doctor if you are taking testosterone or considering taking it.
Men’s Group
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) is a compassionate type of therapy behavioral therapy that is intended to help people move toward a more mindful, aware and purposeful life. The key skills addressed in DBT include Core Mindfulness, Distress Tolerance, Emotional Regulation and Interpersonal Effectiveness. Members of this group offered at Inspire Behavioral Health by Psychotherapist, Ed Andrews, are taught the skills necessary to help deal with life stressors. This is done in a framework that helps people understand that they are doing the best they can while recognizing that there are newer strategies that may be more effective. This group is a safe, confidential place for men who are sustaining their recovery from chemical or process addictions, coping with chronic illness, managing stress, anxiety and/or depression, accommodating change in their lives, coping with loss and transition, and seeking support and growth. Please call us for more information about this important group.
Inspire Behavioral Health
110 Gallows Road, Suite D
Vienna, Virginia 22182
703-592-4600
info@inspirebehavioralhealth.com
Ed Andrews, LPC, LMFT, Newsletter Editor