Contents tagged with anticipate joy
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Declutter your mind this spring with these helpful strategies
By Anticipate Joy
Spring is fast approaching! The change in season inspires motivation for a refreshing change in our environments and moods. Spring is often associated with cleaning and re-organization of our homes, but today we would like to encourage thoughtful consideration to set aside time to declutter your mind. By getting rid of stress, anxiety, racing thoughts, or negativity that you may be holding on to, you create a refreshing space for peace, joy, and enjoyment to settle in, and we have the perfect strategy to help. We would like to feature a couple of mindfulness strategies to help you gain greater perspective and peace of mind.
So what is mindfulness? Mindfulness is an integrative mind-body strategy to help manage your thoughts, feelings, and mental health. Research shows mindfulness helps relieve stress, treat heart disease, lower blood pressure, reduce chronic pain, improve sleep, and improve mental health. Here are a couple of easy ways to tap into mindfulness.
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Give yourself the gift of better mental health in 2023
By Anticipate Joy
In a recent survey by the Commonwealth Fund, half of the physicians under the age of 55 in the United States reported being burned out, while 61% said they’ve experienced emotional distress since the start of the pandemic. In addition, 45% of U.S. physicians aged 55 or older plan to stop seeing patients within the next one to three years, according to the survey. These findings are not surprising considering the heightened levels of stress physicians endured because of COVID.
Family physicians are dealing with a high level of stress, which if not treated with mental health interventions, could have a negative impact on emotional stability. As clinical psychologists, we often encourage preventive mental health care to professionals in high-stress occupations. It is vitally important that family physicians make caring for their mental health a priority. Sadly, only 16% of physicians under age 55 said they sought professional help for a mental health problem since the beginning of COVID-19. That total declined to just 6% among older physicians who also reported emotional distress. Part of the reluctance to seek help is founded on a fear of how seeking mental health treatment could impact one’s ability to practice medically.
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Is self-care selfish?
By Anticipate Joy
As a physician you may be struggling with caring for the needs of others, while prioritizing your personal needs and you may be asking, “Is self-care selfish?”
It’s a common question.
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Utilize TAFP resource for mental health support from home
By Anticipate Joy
It’s 2022 and sad to say the stigma surrounding seeking mental health services is still alive and well. Despite well-intended efforts to reduce the stigma, many people continue to see mental health issues as a sign of weakness, leaving those who suffer from mental illness feeling alone in their struggle. However, if mental health is a concern for you, you are far from alone. In 2019, 20.6% of U.S. adults experienced mental illness, representing 51.5 million people or one in five adults. 5.2% of U.S. adults experienced serious mental illness, representing 13.1 million people or one in 20 adults. Mental illness is more common than you might believe, demonstrating that you are not the only one struggling.
Of particular concern, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, early evidence suggests the rate of depression in physicians across age groups is 25%. A study evaluating barriers to treatment for physicians found that 70% of physicians with moderate to severe depression reported “getting an appointment that fits my schedule” as a major barrier to mental health treatment.
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It's OK to ask for a little help from your friends
By Anticipate Joy
Do you ever find yourself feeling alone in dealing with various personal and professional life stressors? As a result, do you find yourself turning inward and isolating? The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine found that social isolation is associated with about a 50% increased risk for dementia and other serious medical issues.
It’s important to keep in mind, not only is loneliness a high-risk factor for depression, but it is also a risk factor for heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, and arthritis.
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Time to triumph over the trials of burnout
By Anticipate Joy
It all started with a dream. Maybe it was to make the world a better place. Maybe it was to save lives. Maybe it was to help others. Or maybe it was just to make a nice paycheck. Whatever it was, you had a dream of becoming a doctor, and you did it. Your dream came true! But unlike fairytales, achieving our dreams doesn’t always mean “happily ever after.” In fact, sometimes our dreams can seem nothing like how we always imagined they’d be.
One of the biggest problems physicians struggle with today is burnout. With 44% of doctors experiencing this issue and 96% of medical professionals believing burnout is a problem, there clearly needs to be something done about this topic. However, despite nearly half of doctors undergoing feelings of burnout, 40% of physicians are reluctant to seek out mental health treatment, and 41% of physicians choose to isolate themselves as a method of coping. These are things that will only lead to more difficulty for doctors, both in their work and in taking care of themselves. Here are some symptoms that might indicate you’re struggling with feeling burnt out.
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Steps to raise awareness during Suicide Prevention Month
By Anticipate Joy
There are few things in our world that are more heartbreaking than suicide. It is a final symptom of horrible mental illness, so severe it would drive someone to take their own life. With suicide being the tenth overall leading cause of death in the United States — the second for individuals between 10 and 34 — nearly everyone has been impacted by suicide in some way, shape, or form.
However, the epidemic of suicide is even worse among medical professionals. The suicide rate for male-identifying physicians is 1.41 times higher than the general male population, and even higher for female-identifying physicians, at 2.27 times the average female rate. Due to the exhaustive nature of your position, burnout, depressive symptoms, and suicide risk are much higher for physicians than the general public.
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Reducing the stigma around mental health
By Anticipate Joy
As physicians, you are used to constantly helping and providing for your patients. However, there is a sense of stigma around doctors taking care of themselves — particularly in mental health. Suffering from depression, burnout, and suicide occur in higher rates among medical professionals than almost any other profession. There is so much stigma around doctors getting mental health care, as if a person is less fit to fulfill their profession if they are seeking out help. We would never shame someone for seeking treatment for a physical disease, and it should not be any different for someone struggling mentally.
Prejudice and stigma around mental illness will keep people from seeking out the help they need and deserve. Here is some advice for helping reduce stigma in your workplace.
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Beat the Heat (And the Anxiety it May Bring)
By Anticipate Joy
The sun is out, the school year is drawing to a close, and Texas is embarking upon absolutely balmy 100+ degree weather. Summer is officially here.
While the summer season is always depicted as a chance to relax and unwind, it can be a very stressful time. Trying to plan vacations, enduring an influx of clients rushing to get appointments before school starts back up in August, and missing out on time with loved ones who might be home while you’re at work can all be stressors impacting your mental health. Combine that with all the challenges this year has brought with the pandemic — specifically impacting your industry so greatly — can lead to a great deal of built-up anxiety going into the summer months.
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Is stress from your job getting in the way of your happiness?
By Anticipate Joy
Responses to the “Medscape Family Medicine Physician Lifestyle, Happiness and Burnout Report 2021” indicate that in a study of more than 12,000 physicians from more than 29 specialties, family physicians are in the middle of the pack in rankings by specialty regarding happiness outside of work.
As guest speakers at TAFP's C. Frank Webber Lectureship, our co-founders Dr. Evans and Dr. Tetterton were delighted to meet many of you face to face. They shared the importance of family physicians taking care of their mental health. This has become increasingly important because researchers have consistently shown a trend of surging rates of physician burnout. It may not come as a surprise that the COVID pandemic has drained the medical profession; nearly half (47%) of family physicians in the Medscape survey reported experiencing severe burnout. In fact, an alarming 1 in 10 physicians is considering leaving medicine as a result.
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