Growth equals growth
Talk therapy has finally been shown to not only cause personal growth, but to literally cause physical growth of grey matter and amygdala size in the brain. How cool is that!?!
Therapy Reshapes the Depressed Brain (Literally)
By Denis Storey, The Psychiatrist, September 2, 2025
Practice makes perfect
In the below article, a survivor writes about trying to recover from cancer treatment. Walking up stairs or hoisting luggage into an aircraft overhead carrier left him out of breath. He is makes physical progress thanks to exercise, but brain fog interrupts simple cognitive tasks. He struggles with emotional regulation, becoming stressed by minor annoyances that he would have shrugged off in the past. Mental health counseling can help, if you can use the session to practice calming down after you have gotten angry with your counselor. Deep awareness of ones lack of emotional regulation, meditation and practice brings progress. —MR
A Prostate Cancer Survivor Struggles with Aftereffects of Treatment
by Jack D. Smith, Washington Post, August 28, 2025
For many people, including me, prostate therapy can cause hot flashes, loss of libido, erectile dysfunction, fatigue and decreased muscle mass.
Don’t believe everything you’re told
In 2005, during my masters program internship, I was assigned a patient who over an eight-year period had been rejected by all the other counselors at the public mental health clinic where I worked. She had been given a Bipolar Disorder with Psychotic Symptoms diagnoses. As I talked with the young woman, I began to suspect there was something physically wrong. I suggested she make an appointment with her general practitioner to relay my suspicion. Turned out, she had Multiple Sclerosis and after treatment for it, her mental health symptoms disappeared. She was able to get off public assistance, return to college to graduate and was able to get her two children back who had been taken away by the state. This was the beginning of Bodymind Counseling.—MR
Mental health = gut health
In 2004, I began a probiotic protocol to help my beleaguered gut. It just plain hurt when I ate, so a friend suggested ingesting a three-lactobacillus supplement. Much to my surprise, multiple mental health issues were ameliorated or alleviated over the following months. Hence, my decision to become a counselor with a bodymind approach. Twenty-one years later, I feel it has been the most effective protection for a healthy, happy mind and body for me and others and I take a 31-strain probiotic several times a week. Note: a fecal transplant was not necessary.—MR
Woman says faecal transplant saved her and could help many more like her
By Leisa Scott and Vanessa Gorman, ABC News, July 27, 2025
As the blender blitzed and Jane Dudley prepared for a radical procedure, the concept of being at the forefront of a potentially revolutionary change in the treatment of bipolar disorder was far from her mind.
Not nature’s way
If you suffer from depression, ingesting ketamine can make you feel better fast (for a little while) or it may make you feel suicidal. The good news is nature provided us with ways to reverse and heal from depression overtime without side effects if we are willing to listen to its advice and find support. Like any reward, good physical and mental health takes work. There ain’t no magic in this world, no matter what social media may be telling you.–MR
Ketamine Marks 25 Years: Growing Popularity Drives Safety Concerns
Easy does it
Finally! Allopathic medicine may be getting it right. I’ve been helping patients get off benzos and antidepressants–highly addictive legal drugs–for a couple decades now. They’d say they couldn’t quit and I explained it was because their docs were getting them off too fast. I’d suggest a metal nail file and run the pill across it twice. Two weeks later, they’d run it across four times on ad infinitum until they were off. The point was to decrease by the tiniest amount possible every two or more weeks. One patient took a year to titrate from Klonopin after three previous failures to quit over thirty years. When she had finally got off, her bipolar symptoms also disappeared! Too often, risks of pharmaceuticals exceed benefits. There are many healthier ways to manage anxiety.–MR
New Guidance Outlines How to Taper Benzodiazepines When Risks Exceed Benefits
by Susan Jeffrey, MedPage Today, June 20, 2025
New guidance offered strategies to help clinicians and patients safely taper benzodiazepine use while minimizing withdrawal and other symptoms.
Work it out
When working as a clinician at a public mental health clinic in 2010, I wrote a grant to acquire a punching bag and gloves for a patient. He suffered from acute migraines and angry outbursts that kept him for being able to work or parent his five children. When installed in his garage, I suggest he pin photos or drawings of people, places and things he thought he might feel anger toward on it. After a few months of daily punching, his migraines and angry outbursts all but disappeared. Anger is normal. It resides in the body. It often needs physical expression to resolve in a way that won’t cause you to end up in prison or physically ill.—MR
A moment that changed me: I stepped into the boxing ring and decades of quiet anger lifted
by Kia Abdullah, Guardian US, June 18, 2025
On meeting me, you would never guess that I used to be an angry person. I’m talkative, sociable and self-possessed – but for nearly 20 years I lived with a quiet fury. It started with my parents, whose strict conservatism restricted everything in my life: what I ate, what I wore, where I went, what I thought. As immigrants from Bangladesh, they believed that control was the best way to protect their daughters, but it suffocated me.
How to get a life
The average American spends more than four hours a day on their smartphone and more than seven in total online. That adds up to 17 years of adult life browsing the internet. That’s one way to get a life, I suppose, but what else can one choose to do?–MR
The big idea: should we embrace boredom?
By Sophie McBain, Guardian US, June 15 2025
In 2014, a group of researchers from Harvard University and the University of Virginia asked people to sit alone with their thoughts for 15 minutes. The only available diversion was a button that delivered a painful electric shock. Almost half of the participants pressed it. One man pressed the button 190 times–even though he, like everyone else in the study, had earlier indicated that he found the shock unpleasant enough that he would pay to avoid being shocked again. The study’s authors concluded that “people prefer doing to thinking,” even if the only thing available to do is painful–perhaps because, if left to their own devices, our minds tend to wander in unwanted directions.
Slow and steady as she goes
A drug is a drug. Any drug has the ability to create addiction if used for more than a few weeks. Your bodymind simply incorporates into its biochemical system. So when you decide to stop, assume some kind of withdrawal. In the below case, some people who used this allergy medicine found themselves with crazy itchy skin. The best way to stop using ANYTHING—coffee, CBD or aspirin—is to go off in small increments called “titration.” The smaller the better I’ve found. For example, if you are using two pills a day, go to two pills every other day with one pill in between for a month. Then drop one of the two pill doses for a month, then two, etc. until after four months, you are taking just one pill a day. Then drop one day of use for a month, say Monday’s, then two, Monday’s and Thursday’s, etc. After a year of titration you will be completely clean without experiencing some unpleasant emotional or physical spring back effect. Docs generally make titration schedules too short and you end up back on the drug again.-–MR
FDA Requires Warning About the Risk of Pruritus After Stopping Long-Term Use of Cetirizine or Levocetirizine
by Drugs.com, May 16, 2025
FDA requires warning about rare but severe itching after stopping long-term use of oral allergy medicines cetirizine or levocetirizine (Zyrtec, Xyzal, and other trade names). Can occur with both prescription and over-the-counter forms of these medicines.
Seen my keys?
AARP has some super articles for seniors. This is one. It is also for others who take prescription drugs who may wish to remember what’s happening around them.—MR
Caution! These Drugs Can Cause Memory Loss
By Rachel Nania and Aaron Kassraie, AARP newsletter, April 30, 2025
For a long time, doctors dismissed forgetfulness, brain fog and mental confusion as normal parts of aging. But scientists now know that memory loss as you get older is by no means inevitable. In fact, routine memory, skills and knowledge may even improve with age, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Rewrite the brain
Like the author below, thirty some odd years ago, I suffered what psychology used to refer to as a nervous breakdown—now called a psychotic break. My poor brain simply was totally overloaded from dozens of overlapping stressors and went haywire. It took months to heal into functionality and in the longer term, I’m so much better for having had it. One of the most effective therapies I employed was bibliotherapy. I read and read and read and wrote and wrote and wrote growing my way into a happier, more stable and useful persona. PS I too loved the Raj Quartet…—MR
Reading books is not just a pleasure: it helps our minds to heal
by Peter Leyland, Psyche newletter, May 1, 2025
A few years ago, I had a breakdown from what would now be termed ‘burnout’. It was probably related to the early death of my father after a long-term illness when I was 12, and from which I had escaped into stories and poetry. As I lay in bed convalescing, I turned to books again, reading through the whole of the Raj Quartet (1966-75) by Paul Scott. His richly layered plot and superbly drawn characters in an Indian setting undoubtedly helped me to recover.
Be aware
Medical and recreational marijuana is just another consumer scam brought to you by corporate America. If you care about your brain, don’t touch the stuff.—MR
Emergency Care for Cannabis Use Tied to Higher Dementia Risk
by Judy George, April 14, 2025
…People who received acute care for cannabis use had a 72% greater risk of a new dementia diagnosis than the general population within 5 years.
Keep walking
One of the best things you can do for your mental and physical health is walk instead of drive your car.-–MR
The one change that worked: I loathed all forms of exercise – until I moved to a big city and walked miles
By Kate McCusker, Guardian US, March 31, 2025
I never understood people who enjoy high-intensity exercise. Wine – yes. Films – obviously. Model trains – whatever floats your boat. But exercise? I didn’t get it. I wept on reformer pilates machines and left circuits classes halfway through under the guise of going to the toilet. I went to the park with the intention of running and instead lay down in the grass with a Cornetto. I pleaded illness – and once, the death of a fictional pet – to waive class cancellation fees. Exercise just wasn’t for me.
Getting comfortable with change
Changing one’s mind is the whole point of psychotherapy. We all need change and growth, perhaps even on a daily basis. And, believe me, you still believe some things you believed or behave in some ways you behaved when when you were younger, often much younger. Counseling can help if you wish to continue your development. Becoming comfortable with change is the only way a person can be truly content.—MR
We remember as true, things that never even happened…
by Julian Barnes, The Guardian US, March 16, 2025
It sounds a simple business. “I changed my mind.” Subject, verb, object – a clear, clean action, without correcting or diminishing adjectives or adverbs. “No, I’m not doing that – I changed my mind” is usually an irrefutable statement. It implies the presence of strong arguments which can be provided if necessary. The economist John Maynard Keynes, charged with inconsistency, famously replied, “When the facts change, I change my mind.” So, he – and we – are happily and confidently in charge of this whole operation. The world may sadly incline to inconsistency, but not us.
Thanks for sharing!
Actually, even suicidal ideation can be a “planning” problem. The prefrontal cortex has to plan. It’s what PFCs do. But what if right now, there appears to be no way out of bad situation. Well, your automatic handy-dandy PFC has an idea for you. Kill yourself! Great idea, brain! Problem solved, right? That’s when it’s time to say, “Thanks for sharing. Think I’ll wait until things change on their own and we’ll see what options open up.”—MR
What if your worry problem is really a planning problem?
by Paul Sharp, Psyche, March 7, 2025
Clinicians have long recognized the link between worry and planning. New research asks what this means for managing anxiety.
Crazy making
Yes friends, cannabis withdrawal symptoms are very real. Thirty three years ago I was diagnosed as schizophrenic. The doc was wrong about that, but because pot was illegal at the time I couldn’t tell him I had recently quit after 25 years of almost daily use and like most folks, he didn’t know pot could cause the same symptoms. People don’t suddenly get schizophrenia at age 40. It starts as a teen. They can have the same symptoms if they are potheads and don’t realize they need to taper off slowly to break the addiction. Now it’s called “cannabis withdrawal psychosis.” If you wish to get a life, taper off this psychoactive drug V E R Y S L O W L Y.-–MR
Persistent Psychosis Induced by Cannabis Withdrawal
By M. Vaseel, DNB, Psychiatrist.com, February 6, 2025
Cannabis, also commonly known as marijuana or weed, is a psychoactive substance derived from the Cannabis sativa plant. Its use is associated with various physical and psychological effects. The primary psychoactive compound in cannabis is delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, which interacts with the brain’s endocannabinoid system, regulating various physiological and cognitive functions.1 While cannabis is known for its euphoric and relaxing effects, it can also induce psychotic effects in susceptible individuals.2
Sleep, sleep per chance to dream…
One of the best things you can do for your mental health is getting a good night’s sleep. Here are some no-drug tips.—MR
Fix Your Sleep Naturally: A Doctor Explains
As a doctor, when I get a chance to sleep, I need to make it count. Through my understanding of sleep physiology and the latest scientific research, I have dramatically improved my sleep. I use 10 key strategies, starting from the moment that I wake up in the morning. Today, I’m going to share those with you so you can transform the way you sleep and the way you feel.
What’d you say?
Read twice so you remember. Cannabis permanent brain damage. Bad.—MR
Bodymind? Better outcome
Twenty years ago, I embraced a probiotic protocol and over the next year most of my rather serious mental health issues evaporated. Subsequently I enrolled in a masters-level mental health counseling program becoming an LMHC to be able to share this amazing news! While I rarely have had the opportunity to discuss the benefits of a healthy gut with patients in session, the protocol is documented on my website and I do broach the subject with those who seem open to the information to their great benefit. The reason I don’t in most cases is folks have a tendency to think the idea is crazy. Finally, science is catching up to the understanding that the body and the mind are singular, i.e. one bodymind.—MR
The Road Between The Gut And Schizophrenia Runs Both Ways
Bottoms down
Folks, the facts are clear. The simplest, most effective thing you can do to enhance and support your physical, emotional, relational and mental health is to quit drinking alcohol. It’s poison. If you need help doing that, I’m glad to. Personally, couldn’t have done it alone. PS Don’t say you didn’t know.—MR
Should Alcohol Be a Part of Medical School Events? — The surgeon general’s proposal for cancer warnings on alcoholic drinks offers a moment to reflect
January 15, 2025
Earlier this month, the surgeon general released an advisory on “Alcohol and Cancer Risk” which recommended adding labels to alcoholic beverages to warn the public that alcohol is a known cause of at least seven different types of cancer. After tobacco and obesity, alcohol is the third most common cause of preventable cancer in the U.S., and the report highlights that nearly half of Americans are unaware of this risk.
Mental Health Counseling and
Health Coaching
Welcoming new clients in downtown
Mount Vernon
Send an Email!
Copyright 2026 Morgan Randall, MA, LMHC. All rights reserved.