Mentally STRONG Academy: Embrace the Journey

Have you always been afraid to leave the house or is it just post pandemic? We were all forced to stay home for a long time and learn to like it and function. Agoraphobia is that fear of going out, fear of not being able to escape when you go out. Dr. B here with our series on demystifying the DSM and we're in the anxiety disorder categories and today we're going to talk about agoraphobi...

Ketamine and Esketamine (Spravato) are approved for use in treating refractory or treatment resistant depression and suicidality. Have you been considering ketamine treatment and are wondering if it's safe, physically and emotionally? Is Ketamine safe?  Dr. B has experience administering ketamine for different purposes over a long period of time starting when she was 17 years old in the army....

Watch this video if you are interested in learning more about the Healing Through the Mentally STRONG Method live course in Colorado Springs. Next Course Date: Friday, July 15th 2022 - 9 am - 5 pm Register: mentallystrong.com/events 8 CEU credits available for licensed professionals. -- Dr. Cristi Bundukamara, Ed. D, PMHNP-BC --- A Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner and a Doctor of Healt...

PANIC DISORDER - Using the Mentally STRONG Method, we would take a Thought Map and we would say: Panic anxiety, last time you had a panic attack. What was going on? What about in the past when you had a panic attack? What was going on? You know, when was the first time you had a panic attack and what was going on? Did you ever have a panic attack or even anxiety in your childhood, right? These are...

What can you do when grief gets in the way of your Personal Vision? Listen to this podcast to find out how Dr. B handles it when grief gets in the way. www.mentallystrong.com/grief -- Dr. Cristi Bundukamara, Ed. D, PMHNP-BC --- A Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner and a Doctor of Healthcare Education has experienced unimaginable trials that have caused many feelings such as depression, a...

Do you think you have social anxiety? Does one of your best friends or someone you really care about have lots of anxiety or anticipation about going out into social settings? Listen to this video. All right Dr. B here with our series on demystifying the DSM and the next one is social anxiety. I often hear people say, “Oh, I have social anxiety.” But to have social anxiety, remember anything in th...

Do you or someone you know have a very specific phobia that isn't related to another diagnosis such as PTSD? Watch this video! 😱 Dr. B here with our series on demystifying the DSM and today, we're going to be talking about specific phobias, which is one of my fun topics that I talk about. But just to clarify, specific phobias are around a specific thing, not associated with another diso...

SELECTIVE MUTISM – Are you wondering whether your child is showing signs of Selective Mutism? Dr. B discusses the diagnosis in the DSM-V. See below for a transcript of the video: Dr. B here with our series on demystifying the DSM. Today I'm going to talk about Selective Mutism, which is also, I talked about with separation anxiety disorder, this is often a symptom of something else, but it do...

Dr. B here with our series on demystifying the DSM and we're going into anxiety disorders, which is a huge bucket or cluster of symptoms. Oftentimes, I'll be saying, we really need to be assessing and looking at what's going on because these really are not, many of them, are not isolated individual diagnosis. Okay, so the order, I'm going to just stick with consistency and go i...

Dr. B here with Demystifying the DSM and this video is specifically on that cluster of other depressive disorders which I'm going to include, for all of us who experience depression. What can we do about that? The next several pages in the DSM talks about substance or medication induced depression. Again, anything that crosses the blood brain barrier: illegal drugs as well as even cannabis ca...

Dr. B here with our series on Demystifying the DSM and today I'm talking about PMDD, and if there's men listening, this is a real disorder, and it should be treated. Oftentimes many, many women experience PMS symptoms. But PMDD is to a point of really needing treatment. And even PMS, I want to empower women that even PMS can be treated. I personally take birth control pills on a constant...

Dr. B here with our series on Demystifying the DSM. So, the next depressive disorder in the series is called persistent depressive disorder or dysthymia. In the clinic environment we often don't see people with Dysthymia. But maybe they've gotten into their late 20s, early 30s, and now they're going, “Gosh, I just, I've been depressed or down my whole life.” But don't meet...

Dr. B here with our series on Demystifying the DSM. Today I'm going to talk about Major Depressive Disorder and it's kind of ironic to only be doing a 5-minute video on what is the most prevalent diagnosis that we see in our clinic. So many people are struggling with depressive symptoms, and so I want to really help our listeners differentiate the depressive symptoms in Major Depressive...

Dr. B here, with our series on Demystifying the DSM. Now I'm going to sum up the other bipolar type of diagnosis. I don't personally study the DSM, and so it's kind of funny that I'm doing this Demystifying the DSM series. I personally study Dr. Stahl and his symptoms and receptors, and any professionals out there, that's who I recommend that you study from. These videos a...

Dr. B here with our series on demystifying the DSM and today I'm going to be talking about Bipolar 2 which is significantly harder to diagnose and I'm very cautious and conservative in giving this diagnosis. I feel like, sometimes people have been told that they're moody, that they're bipolar by their friends or their significant other because they have extreme fluctuations in...

Dr. B here with our series on demystifying the DSM. Today I'm going to be talking about Bipolar I. This is the most severe type of bipolar. Although the DSM clearly distinguishes bipolar 1, bipolar 2 and cyclothymia, I see clinically that this is more like a continuum. Bipolar diagnosis does not necessarily mean a severe mental illness, but Bipolar I - severe can be very, very debilitating an...

Hi! Dr. B here demystifying the DSM and finishing up the psychotic disorders. So, we've been going over all the different psychotic disorders and the last you know 7 disorders here in this cluster are really not specifically psychotic disorders treated by psychiatrist. We have the substance abuse psychotic disorder, so this means that somebody is intoxicated, and they come in, and they'r...

Dr. B here in our series demystifying the DSM and we are on psychotic disorders. Today I'm going to be talking about schizoaffective disorder, so if you came across this just in like a search for schizoaffective disorders, it's going to be important to also look at the schizophrenia video and either the bipolar or depressive videos. Because Schizoaffective brings in those symptoms. And i...

Dr. B here Demystifying the DSM and we are in the series on psychotic disorders. I don't want to lose some of my followers. Psychotic disorders are our least common diagnosed mental health concern. However, they are the most catastrophic and life changing as far as function and that really brings me to the diagnosis of schizophrenia. When somebody is diagnosed with schizophrenia, they have ha...

Dr. B here with demystifying the DSM and we're in the series on psychotic disorders and I'm going to clump the next two together. Brief psychotic disorder and schizophreniform. So, brief psychotic disorder, say someone presents to the emergency room or a psychiatric hospital, or even in the outpatient psychiatric center and they are meeting criteria for psychosis. They have maybe delusio...

Dr. B here with our series on demystifying the DSM. The next six videos will be specifically on psychotic disorders, so that's the second cluster in the DSM and I'm just going to go in order, not in order of how often we see them. But just in order of the DSM, so that if you are following along and trying to learn. We're just going chapter by chapter. So, in the first part of this....

Dr. B here doing our demystifying the DSM of neurodevelopmental disorders and I'm ending with adult ADD ADHD. Confession, I have ADD but I also choose not to treat it with medications, so I'm going to go through why and the pros and cons and how to know if you truly have ADD or ADHD. If you were diagnosed as a child, then likely it has followed you into adulthood and that diagnosis is a...

Dr. B here and we are demystifying the DSM and we are going through neurodevelopmental disorders and today I'm going to talk about ADHD which is the most commonly diagnosed in children. It's very important that we don't just take a child and say, oh he's hyper, he won't pay attention. And I say “he” because ADHD is most commonly diagnosed in boys. And you know, slap that l...

Alright Dr. B here with demystifying the DSM and we are in the neurodevelopmental chapter of the DSM and I would like to talk about autism today. Unfortunately, this is a diagnosis that we are continuing to see a rise in. Lots of young children are being diagnosed with autism.  What that is from is not what this video is about, but it's something that every practitioner and even parents and s...

Dr. B here starting my series on demystifying the DSM. So, the DSM is a book that we use to diagnose mental health conditions and there are several versions.  We're on version 5 right now. It changes a little bit each time  a new version comes out. I'm going to spend this year literally going through this and talking about how we treat these things here at Mentally STRONG  And how to use...