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Surviving the Holidays
🙏 The Connection Between Gratitude and Mental Wellness
The ability to find and express gratitude is a key element to enhancing mental wellness and maintaining sobriety.
As we enter the holiday season, many of us experience increased stress due to unreasonable expectations we place on ourselves and others.
Continue reading on The Norman Transcript.
🦃 🍁 How To Actually Have a Happy Thanksgiving
“As a psychologist, I have a view into lots of people’s lives. I am here to tell you that the holidays get messy for many people. Dinners get ruined, relatives fight about politics, husbands get drunk and say hurtful things. In other words, Thanksgiving is just like any other day, but with many more people and crushingly high expectations.”
Continue reading on Psychology Today.
😓 Surviving the Holidays with a Narcissist
“Take frequent breaks. If it gets to be too much, leave temporarily, and go for a walk. Step outside and phone a friend or message with your therapist.”
Continue reading on Surviving Narcissism.
Speaking of Narcissism.
Let’s not forget narcissism is a mental illness for which there are treatment options. Just like other health conditions involving changes in emotion, thinking or behavior, narcissism is not something to armchair-diagnose, make fun of or stigmatize.
End Stigma
🎨 Artist Wayne Brezinka Hopes Cobain Portraits Spark Talk About Substance Abuse, Stigmas
“I’m interested in Kurt Cobain, and if he gets help, and if he’s seen, where is he today,” Brezinka said. “He kept his medicine in Tom Moore’s cigar box. The person in the cart is sitting in the box. To me, it tells a bigger story, not just him, but all of us. There’s a public side we draw and a private side that people don’t want to see. What did he struggle with in the company when he was young? “
Continue reading on our blog.
Rittenhouse Trial Arguments Worry Mental Health Advocates
“…But mental health advocates heard something different: a dangerous assumption that people living with mental illness are homicidal and need to be killed, and terminology such as “crazy” that they say is pejorative and adds to the stigma surrounding mental health issues.”
Continue reading on Associated Press News.
Racial Trauma
⚖️ Ida’s Law
“There is no accurate count of missing and murdered indigenous people — more specifically with women — anywhere in the country, according to a study by the Urban Indian Health Institute. For instance, the study cited 5,712 reports of missing and murdered indigenous women as of 2016. Only 116 were reported to the Department of Justice.”
Continue reading on Oklahoma Watch.
Criminal Justice Reform
😞 Reports Detail Ongoing Health and Safety Issues at Oklahoma County Jail
“Mental health assessments at intake and sight checks during detention were listed as repeat violations by the state health department. Annual policy reviews, including for the jail’s health contractor, Turn Key Medical, failed to occur based on the health inspection.”
Continue reading on Yahoo! News via The Oklahoman.
Workforce
👨⚕️ Harris Announces $1.5B Investment in Health Care Workforce
Vice President Kamala Harris announced Monday that the Biden administration is investing $1.5 billion from the coronavirus aid package to address the health care worker shortage in underserved communities.
Continue reading on Associated Press News.
Substance Use
👩🏼⚖️ Oklahoma Court Overturns $465 Million Opioid Judgement Against Johnson & Johnson
Continue reading on Reuters.
Courts Debunk Cash-Hungry Governments’ Harmful Opioid Myths
“Both decisions recognize that undertreatment of pain is a real problem and that bona fide patients rarely become addicted to prescription opioids, let alone die as a result.”
Continue reading on the New York Post.
🩺 Oklahoma Doctor Faces Murder Charges in Death of Patient Who Overdosed on Cocktail of Prescription Meds
See the story on KFOR.
Mental Health Treatment
Oklahoma Health Care Authority Board Passes Rules That Some Say Could Reopen Door for Managed Care
Continue reading on Yahoo!News.
Dear Abby,
Substance Abuse Pits Family Members Against Each Other
Suicide
💔 Bright, Beloved 14-year-old Oklahoma Boy Takes Own Life
Nobody saw the signs.
Continue reading on KOCO-TV.
☎️ Hotline
If you or someone you know needs help, you can call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.
Elections
🗳 Mental Health Practitioner Seeks Norman City Council Seat
Local psychologist Dr. Gale Hobson has announced her bid for the Ward 4 City Council seat ahead of the February 2022 election.
Kids
🚸 Oklahoma Joins Nationwide Investigation Into Effects of Instagram On Children, Young Adults
Continue reading on our blog.