Tag Archives: Birmingham Alabama

Taming the Mood Monster: The Curious Chameleon

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

A chameleon possesses the unique ability to change the color of its skin.  Color change aids in camouflage, heat regulation, and light absorption; but, a chameleon also changes its color in response to its mood. Brightly colored male chameleons more easily attract females while a chameleon donning black coloring may be stressed. Similarly, youth with anxiety behave differently depending on the child and the setting. This is why I often refer to anxiety as the “the great imitator.” We all have the image of an anxious kid – fretful, pacing, and pensive.  He asks 20 questions while biting his fingers […]

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Taming the Mood Monster: Gloomy, Blue Eeyore

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

Many of us recall watching Winnie the Pooh as children. The best of friends, Pooh, Piglet, Rabbit, Tigger, and Eeyore live together in the Hundred Acre Wood. Each character is unique – hunny-loving Pooh, fretful Piglet, persnickety Rabbit, winsome and buoyant Tigger, and gloomy, blue Eeyore. Always sad with his head hung low, Eeyore expects the worst, thinks very little of himself, and struggles to enjoy his friends or his life. Sometimes our children fall into a bit of a funk. Much like us, they have bad days too.  Even in their youth, they face a myriad of challenges such as […]

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Taming the Mood Monster: The Fiery Dragon

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

Anger. We all recognize this strong emotion. Clenched fists, stomping feet, loud and harsh words, and a menacing gaze – I envision a wrathful dragon spewing fire that destroys everything in its path. Sometimes anger even manifests as physically aggressive behavior or destruction of property.  Many children find managing their anger quite difficult, particularly if they have a psychiatric diagnosis like Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) or Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD). Even children without mental disorders struggle with temper outbursts. My 6-year-old son is especially prone to such outbursts. While he is all things wonderful most of the time, he is […]

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Celebrating Humanity

0 comments Healthy Living , , ,

Personally, the year 2016 marked a year of milestones for me. Two were pretty big.  I turned the big “4-0,” and I saw the manifestation of my hopes and dreams embodied through the formation of my mental health education and consulting company. But 2016 has also been very painful. Our home was vandalized, our garage doors spray painted with hate-filled symbols. Students at my children’s elementary school were told that they would be made slaves and that a wall would be built to separate them from others once Donald Trump was elected president. The barrage of hate rhetoric and disturbing, violent images […]

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Finding the Right Physician

2 comments Health Education, Healthy Living , ,

Finding the right physician is no easy task, even for me and I’m a doctor. Over the last several months, I received care from 2 new doctors, a primary care physician (PCP) and a specialist. My experiences were horrible. I waited over an hour for my appointment with the PCP who never once acknowledged my prolonged wait time.  She then spent the bulk of my appointment staring intently at her computer screen while I shared my medical history.  My visit with the specialist was equally appalling.  Though I did not have to wait long, she spent barely 10 minutes with […]

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Lies Women Tell

0 comments Women's Mental Healthl , , , ,

We’ve all heard them, catchphrases that we recite to ourselves and to each other to motivate, inspire, and encourage us.  These slogans seem especially helpful when we are feeling overwhelmed and filled with doubt; but, they simply aren’t true. Let’s examine a few of these mistruths. 1) You can have it all This is something I have struggled with for years – juggling my roles as a wife, mother, full-time physician and medical director, and budding entrepreneur. I used to believe that I could have it all if I simply outlined my goals, made lists, prioritized my tasks, and managed my time […]

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