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Having a baby is a monumental, transformative moment in life. Your body has just spent nine months growing and gestating new life, which is no small task and can take a major toll on your body and mind. You labored and birthed your baby, which is one of the most intense physical experiences your body will ever endure. Then, suddenly, you have a baby, and even if your baby is everything you ever dreamed of, it’s a huge change to welcome a new baby into your life—not to mention the fact that you are likely functioning on very little sleep, your hormones are ebbing and flowing all over the place, your eating habits have likely changed drastically, and your emotional state is rapidly adjusting to the reality of parenting your baby....

As the weather gets cooler and more of us gather indoors, experts predict COVID-19 numbers will rise yet again. White House Covid-19 Response Coordinator Ashish Jha, MD, said in an October 11, 2022 press briefing that he expects COVID cases to rise in November, December, and January, similar to past winters. On top of that, there are new, more transmissible variants now circulating, including BQ.1 and BQ.1.1, which now make up more than 50% of U....

With more people considering egg freezing these days, there’s also the question of whether or not to freeze (or bank) sperm. Cryopreservation is a fancy word for sperm freezing or sperm banking. Essentially, it entails the collection, freezing, and storage of sperm for future use. The frozen sperm can be thawed out later and used in fertility procedures like intrauterine insemination or in vitro fertilization (IVF). Who Should Consider Freezing Their Sperm?...

Drug overdose deaths in the U.S. have consistently increased since 1999, reaching nearly 92,000 in 2020. Sleeping pills, including barbiturates and benzodiazepines, are among the chief causes. In fact, benzodiazepines alone have accounted for nearly one in seven of these deaths, often when combined with opioid drugs such as OxyContin (oxymorphone) and Vicodin (hydrocodone). What Are Sleeping Pills? Sleeping pills are depressant medications. They act upon the central nervous system to slow down the body’s function....

Stress is a fact of life. Pregnancy itself has the ability to cause a fair amount of stress, even when everything is just right. While ordinary stresses are not an issue, significant long term stress can create problems during pregnancy. Negative Impacts of Stress Stress can do much more than simply make you anxious. Over time, unmanaged stress can: Decrease your ability to sleep restfullyDecrease your ability to eat enough nutritious food throughout your pregnancyLead to high blood pressure, which is particularly dangerous during pregnancyLead to headaches and other physical issues which can make pregnancy more difficultLead to premature birth, which is associated with a number of health and developmental issues The better you are able to avoid stress, and manage it effectively when it does arise, the better you’ll be able to avoid the physical problems that could injure your baby....

If you already own an outdoor bike and want to train more consistently, even during bad weather, you may want to invest in a bike trainer. A bike trainer is a piece of equipment that allows you to ride your road or mountain bike indoors while it remains stationary. “Trainers are smaller and lighter than a stationary bike, which makes them easier to store and move around your house,” Dalia Aliphas, a competitive cyclist and fitness trainer for Studio SWEAT OnDemand, says....

Research has shown that the health benefits of laughter are far-ranging. Studies so far have shown that laughter can help relieve pain, bring greater happiness, and even increase immunity. Positive psychology names the propensity for laughter and sense of humor as one of the 24 main signature strengths one can possess. Unfortunately, however, many people don’t get enough laughter in their lives. Other studies find us laughing a little more than that, but if you ask me, virtually all of us could use a little more laughter in our lives, considering how beneficial a good laugh can actually be for our stress levels and overall wellness....

While no single person can be credited with the discovery of depression, there are many great thinkers whose ideas contributed—and continue to contribute—to our growing knowledge of what this illness really is. In order to better understand how researchers, doctors, and psychologists think about this condition today, it can be helpful to take a look back at the history of depression. Earliest Accounts of Depression The earliest written accounts of what is now known as depression appeared in the second millennium B....

A travel team is a youth sports team that plays at an elite level. These teams travel, often long distances and out of state, to games, competitions, and/or tournaments (hence the name). Usually, these teams are part of a private or club sports program, not a recreational league or one affiliated with a school. There is almost always a try-out or audition process to join the team. And there is no guarantee of playing time (unlike in recreational leagues where all kids will usually get a chance to play regardless of ability)....

What Is Reverse Psychology? The idea behind reverse psychology is that by pushing for the opposite of what you want, the other individual will choose to engage in the behavior that is truly desired. Reverse psychology is a persuasion tactic that involves advocating for a behavior that is different than the desired outcome. In other words, you say the opposite of what you want. Also known as strategic self-anticonformity, the goal of reverse psychology is to encourage the other person to do what is actually desired....

Adoption can be a beautiful gift, both for a child in need of a home and for the new parents. But, unfortunately, that gift can be easily tarnished if the adoption is entered into for the wrong reasons. The most successful adoptions aren’t motivated by the adoptive parents’ personal desires, but rather by a focus on the interests of the child. If you’re exploring the idea of adopting a child, make sure your reasons aren’t on this list of eight red flags....

For a long time, people with ADHD were seen as having loosely defined “memory problems,” and little distinction was made about exactly what processes or kinds of memory were impaired. Fortunately, that’s changed in the past decade or so as new research has not only revealed that it’s specifically working memory that’s primarily impaired but also why traditional memory training techniques don’t seem to help. ADHD Symptom Spotlight is a series that dives deep into a hallmark or overlooked symptom of ADHD each week....

Alfred Adler was an Austrian physician and psychiatrist who is best-known for forming the school of thought known as individual psychology. He is also remembered for his concepts of the inferiority feeling and inferiority complex, which he believed played a major part in the formation of personality. Alder was initially a colleague of Sigmund Freud, helped establish psychoanalysis, and was a founding member of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society. Adler’s theory focused on looking at the individual as a whole, which is why he referred to his approach as individual psychology....

Things Are Still Weird A lot of people are talking about how things are finally “getting back to normal.” But, life isn’t returning to the same way it was before. Socializing is going to be different than it was before. And we’re not quite sure how to handle some of the new situations that we’re encountering. In the “Ask a Therapist” series, I’ll be answering your questions about all things mental health and psychology....

Walking to school can be a great way for kids to get some of the daily exercise they need. But at what age is it appropriate for a child to walk alone to school? At any age, your child needs pedestrian safety skills as well as tactics to avoid stranger danger. Age for Walking to School Many kids and their parents may think they can handle walking to and from the school bus stop and even all the way to school by themselves as soon as the second or third grade, but some experts warn this may be too early....

Ativan (lorazepam) is a common medication used for the treatment of panic disorder and other anxiety conditions. It’s a type of benzodiazepine, a class of medications sometimes referred to as sedatives or tranquilizers due to their calming and relaxing effect on the body. Other common benzodiazepines include Xanax (alprazolam), Klonopin (clonazepam), and Valium (diazepam). While Ativan is most frequently used to treat anxiety disorders, it’s often prescribed to treat anxiety symptoms that accompany other psychiatric conditions as well as for other illnesses, despite not being approved for them by the Food and Drug Administration (aka an “off-label use”)....

The breastfeeding let-down reflex, which is also called the milk-ejection reflex (MER), is an automatic natural reaction that happens in your body as your baby breastfeeds. When your baby latches onto your breast and begins to suck, nerves are activated that send a message to your brain to release the hormones prolactin and oxytocin. This causes milk to be made and released, triggering the let-down reflex. Breastfeeding let down feels different for each person, but many people report that it feels like a tingling sensation....

Pregnancy often comes with its own set of discomforts, like nausea, headaches, and fatigue. It can be hard to deal with a stuffy nose or a hacking cough on top of these. But since safety hasn’t been clearly established, it’s best not to take Mucinex while pregnant. While the active ingredient in Mucinex, guaifenesin, may be safe in the second and third trimesters, we don’t know enough about how this medication might affect an unborn baby....

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) affects around 5% to 10% of the population and, in most people, it waxes and wanes over their lifetime. According to a Multimodal Treatment of ADHD (MTA) study published in The American Journal of Psychiatry, only 10% of kids with ADHD outgrow the disorder. Key Takeaways In most people with ADHD, the disorder comes and goes over their lifetime.However, a new study found that only 10 percent of children with ADHD will outgrow the disorder....

Gender dysphoria refers to feelings of distress and discomfort that a person experiences when their assigned gender does not match their gender identity. People who experience gender dysphoria may feel uncomfortable with and distressed over the conflict between the sexual characteristics of their physical body and how they feel and think about themselves. They may also experience feelings of distress or discomfort over the traditional gender roles expected of their assigned gender....