WhenCrisisStrikes

My favorite part of my job is helping clients get back into school or back into work. I work primarily with young people with early signs of psychosis. It's important to understand their strengths and weaknesses cognitively and personality wise, and help them chart a path with those variables (in collaboration with their families and employers) to a stable, daily routine that is within their scope of abilities. For people who find no purpose or are stuck in a loop of crisis, I encourage them to start with the basics that they have control over in their lives. Meals, hygiene, exercise routines, social contact, having fun (doing what they think is enjoyable and makes them forget their problems). I get them to focus on the basics in their lives, and establish good routines to make these daily routines automatic. Kjell Tore

Hello TheMedicalHistorian, Thank you for your interest in the book and I welcome the critical perspective. Very important in this day and age. I work at a public hospital in Norway and treat young and old with serious mental disorders for no charge in the universal health care system here in our country. Btw: highly recommended! I do not work at the Amen Clinics. Dr. Love is a brilliant medical doctor working at the Amen Clinics. Her boss, Dr. Daniel Amen, has 40 years of clinical experience as a psychiatrist treating all types of mental illnesses and he was gracious enough to write the foreword in our first book. The controversy I think you are referring to is about the role and use of imaging in diagnosis and treatment of mental illnesses. There is nothing about that in our book. The focus in the book is on helping people change their behavior to relieve stress and trauma in their lives, and I'm sorry if you have a different impression. No easy solutions, just straight-forward cognitive/behavioral/neuropsychological principles that I will be doing research on in the next years as associate professor of psychology here in inland Norway. As experienced clinicians, Dr. Love and I have used the principles in the steps described in our book for decades to help people improve their well-being (and reduce their stress levels). Again, I welcome any criticism and comment, and have a sincere interest in helping people get a grip and finding their way to wellness in challenging times. The book was written and submitted in 2019, so the main focus of the book is not on issues related to the pandemic, but to issues relating to Chronic illness (depression, chronic pain, cancer...), Family Crisis (child with special needs, cognitive decline, brain injury...), Loss (divorce, financial ruin...), Trauma (bullying, sexual abuse...) and Existential Crisis (affairs, suicide...). But I've used the steps for crises in my own life during the current pandemic, and I feel it has helped me weather the storm. It's written as a self-contained self-help guide. I hope it can be of help to others as well. Kjell Tore

There are so many articles and books on this! We could talk all day. As an M.D. I was never trained in supplements, "neutraceuticals," and herbal remedies, but over a decade in southern cal and I've had to do a TON of studying up on this! There are studies, and some are studied more than others, as they slowly inch towards mainstream attention. Melatonin, SAMe, NAC are all frequently discussed in the medical literature. Naturopathic Doctors probably know more than anyone the evidence and use. For chronic stress, there are a few that tend to help. For that initial high stress alarm state, relora, L-theanine, Holy Basil extract seem to help. For the exhaustion that comes with chronic stress, ashwaghanda and rodiola help many of my patients. Look for articles related to institutions--Stanford has studied SAMe, for example. There is actually a lot of info out there.

Hi 100nm, Jennifer here. Yes, stress builds insidiously; if you read the intro of my book you'll see the drama I lived for over a decade. People can start having gastro-intestinal issues (irritable bowel, painful constipation, really loose stool, ulcers), increase in allergies, muscle tension that results in breaking teeth during the night from jaw clenching. Any symptom that interferes with life should be addressed. See a doctor, a therapist; depending on your symptoms, massage or acupuncture could even help with stress reduction. Serious symptoms (chest pain) should always be addressed urgently--that goes without saying! If you do see your doctor, be sure to ask about treatments other than medication--some GPs hand out sedatives like candy and that won't be helpful for most in the longterm.

Jennifer here. Pasta isn't a favorite of mine, but if I am ever going to splurge, its going to be my homemade bison bolognese or pasta with pepperoni (a recipe I picked up from an old man in Venice).