Tag Archives: Birmingham Alabama

5 Tips for Managing the Morning Rush

2 comments Healthy Living, Parenting , , , ,

Au revoir, summer. Hello, new school year.  It’s back to the grind for many parents and their children. If your family is anything like mind, this new school year signals the return of the weekday morning mad dash, the dreaded morning rush. This year we have a preschooler, a 2nd grader, and a 6th grader. Nobody knows what they want to wear to school, shoes and backpacks have gone missing, everybody wants something different for breakfast, one child forgot to brush their teeth, and invariably another kid has like a hundred forms that need to be signed all within an […]

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The Scoop on Bipolar Disorder

2 comments Health Education, Mental Health, Women's Mental Healthl , , , , ,

A few weeks ago, singer Mariah Carey disclosed that she had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. While her initial diagnosis came over 15 years ago, she has only recently decided to divulge details of her psychiatric illness to the public, a secret she kept out of fear and denial as reported in her interview in People Magazine. Bipolar disorder is a serious mental illness affecting roughly 3% of US adults.  It is a mental illness that is poorly understood and often misconstrued in the media.

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Live in the Moment and Just Be

0 comments Healthy Living , , , , , , ,

Common is one of my favorite hip hop artists as he deftly weaves dope beats and fresh rhymes to create socially conscious music. He uses his artistry to sing of love for his community but also to speak out against social injustice. He released his sixth studio album, Be, in 2005. To quote lyrics from the title track, Be, “Never looking back or too far in front of me, the present is a gift, and I just want to be.” 

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3 Tips For When Your Child Worries

1 comment Children's Mental Health, Mental Health, Parenting, Schools , , , , , , , , , ,

Honestly, these last 2 weeks have been pretty tough for the Cox family of five. Between my husband hosting the 2017 – 2018 NCAA Division III Men’s and Women’s Indoor Track and Field Championship at Birmingham Southern College, my son’s weekly baseball practices and games, the daily grind of work and school, and threats of severe weather, we have been stretched thin. On top of that, there have now been 3 school shootings as of this writing – Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida on February 14, Huffman High School In Birmingham, AL on March 7, AL, and Great Mills High School in Great Hills, Maryland on March 20. Each shooting, tragic, and occurring within weeks of the other, my own anxiety escalated. But, this time my oldest was deeply impacted.

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The Scoop on Schizophrenia

0 comments Health Education, Mental Health , , , , , ,

Misunderstood. Feared. Stigmatized. Individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia regularly battle derogatory stereotypes. The media portrays those with schizophrenia as crazy, suffering from split personalities, or as deranged killers that commit mass murders. Others use the term “schizophrenic” to describe erratic weather patterns. But the psychiatric illness that is schizophrenia is none of this. Schizophrenia is a disabling brain disorder that impacts about 1% of the adult population.

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HELP! My Child is Struggling in School!

0 comments Children's Mental Health, Health Education, Mental Health, Parenting, Schools , , , , , , , , , ,

From kindergarten through high school, our children spend the bulk of their day at school. Within the school setting, they learn new skills and demonstrate mastery of educational concepts, form new friendships and nurture old ones, solve problems, manage conflicts and disagreements, and grow. Not infrequently, however, children begin to experience symptoms of a psychiatric illness that may greatly interfere with his ability to accomplish these tasks at school. The statistics bear out this very real risk of psychiatric illness.

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