Medcast news and blog

Do you know anyone who has difficulty motivating themselves to exercise? I think we all know people who get too depressed to exercise or too anxious to leave the house. But there are other people who, despite a lack of “diagnosis”, find exercise hugely difficult to contemplate.

As someone who has practiced medicine for almost four decades I have had the opportunity to observe firsthand the upsurge in the use of opioid pain killers in non-cancer pain.

I bought an alarm clock recently. For some years I have used my smart phone as an alarm clock but I’ve noticed that at times of stress when I wake at night I’ve been reaching for my phone and checking my emails. That’s just crazy! There is no expectation on the part of my employer or my patients that I will work in the middle of the night but it has become reflexive and obsessive.

Trying to decide what online mental health treatment programs to use can be difficult. There seem to be so many of them! Which one will be easiest to use? What style is best? Should I choose something specific for the problem or something more general?

Questions exist in the minds of most parents and carers about their teenagers’ use of digital technology. How much is too much?

I think I’ve finally found a cognitive reframe that works for me – and it’s all about terminology.

Many of my consultations these days include some discussion of the distress my patients are feeling about something they have seen or something that has been said or done to them on social media. Often it’s just a misunderstanding by a sensitive and vulnerable person. But it is sometimes due to deliberate attempts by others to upset and disturb them.

Managing bipolar disorder is challenging for patients and practitioners alike. Making the diagnosis in the first place is often a challenge, but once it’s made many patients and their health care practitioners are unaware that there’s more to managing bipolar disorder than juggling the medications and doing the blood tests. Listen to the podcast and read the blog.

Is that a typo in the title? Should it say hugs? Well, “hugs” is getting close but not really quite there.