Expert Interviews & Perspectives in Counseling

The gut is home to as many as 100 trillion microorganisms, weighing about two pounds in the adult, that make up the gut microbiome. The vagus nerve can sense metabolites produced during microbiome activity.

College student culture makes bad sleep habits, such as staying up late, pounding energy drinks, having strange napping schedules, and pulling all-nighters, seem normative. Peers might single out students who actually pursue good sleep hygiene as being odd.

Codependency can be a tricky topic in the world of mental health. Broadly speaking, codependency means relying upon someone else to a detrimental extent, where the desire to help causes further harm.

While studies have shown that short-term stress boosts the immune system, chronic stress has the opposite effect, suppressing the immune system and placing us at risk for a host of physical and psychological disorders.

Learning and attention issues can pose difficulties for individuals acquiring academic skills like reading, writing, and math. They can also pose challenges in other areas related to learning like listening and comprehension, organization and focus, and even social and motor skills.

Bullying can affect people of all ages emotionally, mentally, and physically. While it is an issue that predominantly affects children and adolescents, bullying can still be problematic through adulthood. The effects of childhood bullying can be long-lasting, with many adults being able to vividly reference times they were bullied decades after it happened.

Cancer is the leading cause of death by disease for children in the US. Each year, an estimated 15,780 children across the country are diagnosed with cancer, and an average of 40,000 children in the US are in active cancer treatment at any given time; approximately 20 percent will not survive it.

“Together for mental health” is this year’s campaign by the American Association of Suicidology in honor of National Suicide Prevention Month. Know the signs, be aware, ask questions if needed, be kind, and seek professional help for you or for others.

Recent acts of racism and discrimination have opened simmering mental health wounds and further amplified the stress minorities face on a daily basis. The Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, George Floyd’s brutal murder, and the proliferation of anti-Asian hate crimes during the pandemic are just a few examples.

Around 12 million Americans suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Once referred to as shell shock and combat fatigue, PTSD is often associated with military veterans, but it also affects survivors of domestic abuse, sexual violence, car accidents, and other forms of trauma.