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5 Ways to Support Survivors of Suicide

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Suicide ranks as the tenth-leading cause of death in the United States, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) reports, and an estimated 1.4 million suicide attempts took place in 2017. Yet there are many ways to promote suicide education and prevention, and to support suicide loss survivors around the world, such as:

1. Promote Self-Care

A survivor of suicide loss is susceptible to a wide range of powerful emotions, including shock, anger, guilt, despair, and confusion, and these emotions may continue for weeks or months after the loss of a loved one to suicide. It is important to realize that the aforementioned emotions are only temporary, but self-care activities may help a person move past them.

There are many ways to practice self-care, such as going for a walk outdoors, getting a massage, and volunteering in your community. If you’re coping with the loss of a loved one to suicide, try different self-care options that make you feel good. You can also encourage someone struggling with the loss of a loved one to do the same.

2. Review Survivor Loss Resources

The loss of a loved one to suicide often raises questions and concerns that can be virtually impossible to answer, but resources are available to help you cope.

For example, you can read a book or watch a film from the AFSP’s book and film recommendations for suicide loss survivors. You can also contact the National Suicide Prevention Line for additional guidance and support.  

3. Engage in a Group Discussion

Losing a loved one to suicide can be a difficult topic to discuss, but engaging with others in a group discussion about this subject may be helpful. With a group discussion, you and others coping with the loss of a loved one can share your thoughts and feelings with one another, without blame, shame, or guilt.

Use the AFSP’s group discussion guidelines to create a dialogue with family members, friends, and others around suicide loss. AFSP also offers suicide loss support groups in cities and towns across the United States.

4. Speak Out About Suicide

Education plays a key role in suicide prevention. If you feel comfortable, you can speak out about suicide and share your story with others. This allows you to educate others about the dangers associated with suicide.

If you decide to express your thoughts and feelings about suicide, follow the advice in AFSP’s speak out about suicide guide to share your suicide loss story or encourage others to share their stories.

5. Seek Out Professional Help

Complicated grief can make it difficult for a person coping with suicide loss to function. If grief continues beyond 12 months after this loss, an individual may want to pursue professional help.

Psychotherapy may be a good option for an individual dealing with the loss of a loved one to suicide. This form of therapy can help an individual develop coping strategies to manage his or her emotions.

In addition to psychotherapy, antidepressant medications may be used to help a person manage his or her complicated grief symptoms. Medications may be prescribed on their own, or used in combination with psychotherapy, to help a person cope with the loss of a loved one to suicide.

Suicide loss survivors may cope with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) that causes fatigue, body aches, and other physical symptoms, as well as anxiety, stress, and various emotional symptoms. Thus, different coping strategies and treatment methods are often needed to help survivors of suicide loss manage these symptoms.

At Achieve Concierge, we understand the physical and emotional challenges associated with recovering from the loss of a loved one, and engage our patients on multiple levels of care. That way, we provide each patient with a total wellness experience to treat the mind, body, and spirit. To learn more, please contact us online, or call us today at (858) 221-0344.

Mood Disorder

How to Recognize a Mood Disorder

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Mood disorders disrupt everyday life, yet they often go undiagnosed and untreated. Fortunately, people who understand mood disorders can quickly recognize the warning signs of a mood disorder and take steps to treat their symptoms.

A mood disorder refers to a mental illness that affects a person’s emotional state or mood. Mood disorders affect men, women, and children, and there are many types of mood disorders, including:

A mood disorder may cause extreme sadness, emptiness, or irritability, and periods during which a person transitions back and forth between feelings of euphoria and depression. In addition to affecting a person’s emotional state, a mood disorder makes it difficult — if not sometimes impossible — to function in daily life.

Depression and mania are two of the most common symptoms of a mood disorder, and in some cases one can experience both. Depression results in negative feelings that affect a person’s overall well-being. This can cause behavioral and cognitive effects that can influence sleep, weight, energy, and more. Depression symptoms also include apathy and loss of interest in previously enjoyable activities, along with mood swings and sadness.

Comparatively, mania can cause a person to feel energized and happy for a short period of time. However, these positive feelings may be characterized by delusions of grandeur, psychosis, or other potentially dangerous thoughts. The elevated mood associated with mania generally lasts for three days or more. Symptoms of mania include decreased sleep, displaying poor judgement, and making irrational or harmful decisions.

The ability to identify depression, mania, and other mood disorder symptoms is critical for proper diagnosis and treatment. Thankfully, awareness of mood disorders is spreading, and once an individual’s mood disorder is identified, he or she can seek the right professional help and explore effective ways to treat mood disorder symptoms.

Medications and psychotherapy are two of the most common treatments for mood disorders, and in some cases, patients receive both treatments simultaneously. This can depend on personal preferences, the severity of symptoms, and the efficacy of different treatment options for each individual based on presenting symptoms. Common medications used to treat mood disorders include:

  • Antidepressants: Medications that help a person manage depressive symptoms associated with mood disorders. The effectiveness of antidepressants to treat symptoms depends on the patient, and it can take several weeks before a patient starts to improve.
  • Mood Stabilizers: Medications which help to regulate both elevated and depressed moods. Mood stabilizers have been shown to help regulate abnormal brain signaling which can occur in some mood disorders.
  • Antipsychotics: Also known as “neuroleptics,” these are medications that help treat both the depressive and manic symptoms of mood disorders. Antipsychotics are often used in conjunction with other medications.

In contrast to medications, psychotherapy involves meeting with a mental health counselor to discuss mood disorder symptoms. It allows a patient to share thoughts and feelings about life with a mood disorder and discover ways to cope with symptoms. There are different types of psychotherapy available depending on the patient and symptoms.

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) therapy may also be used in conjunction with medications and/or psychotherapy or on its own to help treat a mood disorder. TMS therapy is an FDA-approved treatment option for severe depression which involves the use of magnetic pulses that stimulate neurons associated with depressive symptoms. TMS therapy does not involve anesthesia, electric shocks, or a hospital trip. It only requires five 20-minute treatment sessions per week over the course of six weeks, and also allows a patient to return to normal activities after each treatment session.

At Achieve Concierge, we offer a selection of treatments for mood disorders that addresses the body, mind, and spirit. To schedule a free mood disorder treatment consultation with Achieve Concierge, please contact us online or call us today at (858) 221-0344.

Holistic health

Conquering Mental Health Struggles with Holistic Treatments

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Holistic care refers to a form of treatment that focuses on the whole person. A holistic treatment emphasizes an individual’s body, mind, and spirit, and it may be used for mental health therapy. In fact, a holistic treatment is sometimes used in lieu of or in addition to different medications used in traditional mental health therapies.

How Does a Holistic Treatment for Mental Health  Work?

Holistic medicine is all about balance. It is based on the idea that a person consists of interdependent parts, and if one of these parts isn’t working properly, a physical, emotional, or spiritual imbalance occurs. In this instance, a person’s overall health suffers.

In addition, holistic medicine promotes the use of unconditional love and support to help a person overcome any ailments. It emphasizes that all people have healing powers, and that each patient is defined by who they are — not by his or her disease. Furthermore, holistic medicine encourages treating the causes of an individual’s symptoms, and not just treating the symptoms themselves.

For mental health treatment, holistic medicine requires a focus on techniques and strategies to help an individual take responsibility for his or her own well-being. That way, an individual can use different techniques or strategies to improve his or her overall health.

There are many techniques or strategies that can be used as part of a holistic treatment program for mental health, including education, alternative therapies, or both.

An educational program allows a holistic medicine practitioner to teach a patient about lifestyle changes as well as self-care techniques and strategies that promote wellness. These efforts can include any of the following: psychotherapy, exercise, diet, and relationship and spiritual counseling.

Alternative therapies, like massage therapy and acupuncture, can also be incorporated into a holistic treatment program for mental health. These therapies can be used in combination with education as well.

Is a Holistic Treatment Program for Mental Health the Right Choice?

A holistic approach can sometimes be used to treat depression, and the overall effectiveness of a holistic treatment program for mental health varies based on the individual. In certain instances, patients benefit from holistic treatments on their own. At other points, holistic therapies do not help a patient and so they choose a more traditional medical therapy. Some patients might even select a combination of holistic and traditional treatments for mental health.

It is important to note that holistic therapies cannot always serve as alternatives to standard medical therapies. In some cases, standard medical therapy is the only realistic option to treat depression, anxiety, or other mood disorders. For patients who are considering holistic therapy, standard medical therapy, or both, it helps to learn about different treatment options. Meeting with the medical clinicians at Achieve Concierge can make a world of difference for those who are on the lookout for mental health treatment options.

Achieve Concierge’s medical clinicians take a collaborative approach to mental wellness. They understand that no two patients are exactly the same, and work directly with a patient to help him or her identify the best mental health treatment. Plus, our clinicians prioritize each patient’s personal mental wellness and lifestyle needs, and strive to create a personalized treatment plan that delivers long-lasting results.

Evaluating both holistic and traditional treatments for mental health is often difficult, but the medical clinicians at Achieve Concierge are happy to help in any way possible. If you or someone you know is coping with depression, anxiety, or other disorders but find that medication is ineffective, we can help you explore different treatment options for mental health. To learn more or to schedule a consultation, please contact us online, or call us today at (858) 221-0344.

5 New Year’s Resolutions for Depression

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A New Year’s resolution brings hope and excitement. Yet for people who are coping with depression, creating the right New Year’s resolution and following through on it is sometimes challenging. And in some cases, a New Year’s resolution can cause new depression symptoms, or cause existing depression symptoms to worsen.

The new year represents a time of change, and if a person failed to accomplish a New Year’s resolution the previous year then he or she might experience New Year’s blues. In this situation, an individual may be susceptible to sadness, guilt, and other depression symptoms, particularly when it comes to thinking about and creating a New Year’s resolution.

Pressure from others to create a New Year’s resolution can be overwhelming, too. If family members and friends have already put together New Year’s resolutions, stress may escalate for someone who has yet to do so. Increased stress levels can contribute to depression and may make a person give up on forming New Year’s resolutions.

Even if one didn’t accomplish last year’s resolution, it is important not to forget the opportunity provided by starting a New Year. For those who want to accomplish as much as possible in the new year, a New Year’s resolution represents an opportunity to put their best foot forward.

Tips to Find a New Year’s Resolution for Depression

A New Year’s resolution presents a unique opportunity, particularly for people who are coping with depression. By focusing on the positive aspects of a New Year’s resolution, like how eating healthy or exercising in the new year can help slim his or her waistline, an individual can develop a New Year’s resolution that won’t contribute to depression symptoms. This type of positive resolution may even bring a smile to an individual’s face.

With a New Year’s resolution, it helps to be specific as well, WebMD notes. Once a person has a specific New Year’s resolution in place, he or she can determine the exact steps required to transform a vision into a reality.

Sometimes, a New Year’s resolution appears more daunting after a person puts his or her plan into action. If this occurs, a person should be unafraid to modify the resolution. He or she can even break a New Year’s resolution into a series of smaller steps or goals.

New Year’s Resolutions for Depression

Any of these New Year’s resolutions may help an individual feel good about himself or herself and manage depression symptoms:

  1. Exercise Daily: Engage in exercise and other physical activities that help improve mood, reduce anxiety, and release feel-good endorphins in the brain.
  2. Practice Yoga, Meditation, or Other Mindfulness Activities: Perform mindfulness activities that promote emotional well-being and increase self-awareness.
  3. Spend Time with Family Members and Friends: Regularly schedule time to enjoy fun activities with family members and friends.
  4. Journal Every Day: Use a daily journal to express thoughts and feelings that contribute to depression symptoms and put these thoughts and feelings into perspective.
  5. Seek Out Treatment for Depression Symptoms: Meet with a doctor to discuss depression and evaluate different treatment options.

If depression symptoms are persistent and make it tough to enjoy life, there is no need to let them linger. By consulting with the medical clinicians at Achieve Concierge, an individual can take the first step to learn techniques or strategies to cope with depression.

Depression is problematic, and depression symptoms can make it difficult for a person to create and follow through on a New Year’s resolution. At Achieve Concierge, we help patients discover the best ways to manage depression symptoms. To learn more or to schedule a treatment consultation with Achieve Concierge, please contact us online, or call us today at (858) 221-0344.