CORA Mental Health

01/28/2025

01/28/2025

💡 Melatonin Dosage: Are We Overdoing It?

Most melatonin pills on the market are 10–30x the ideal dose! Here’s the deal:

🌙 Less Is More
The sweet spot? 0.3 mg. Here’s why:

• Elderly studies: 0.3 mg improved sleep better than higher doses with fewer side effects.
• Blind individuals: 0.3–0.5 mg optimized circadian rhythms, while megadoses (20 mg) threw them off.
• Younger adults: Research shows 0.3–1.0 mg works, with 0.3 mg closely mirroring natural melatonin levels.

⚖️ What Do the Experts Say?

• UpToDate: 0.1–0.5 mg for insomnia or jet lag.
• Mayo Clinic: 0.5 mg.
• Johns Hopkins: 1–3 mg max.

🛑 Why Avoid High Doses?
While not outright dangerous, too much melatonin can:

• Lead to tolerance.
• Mess with your natural rhythm.
• Cause unnecessary side effects.

✅ Bottom Line
Stick to 0.3 mg for long-term use. Keep it simple, stay in sync, and avoid overloading your system.

💬 What’s your go-to melatonin dose? Let’s compare notes!

01/24/2025

🩺 My Heartbreak with the Medicaid System 🩺

I never thought I’d be in a situation like this. I’ve worked as a mental health provider because I genuinely love what I do. Helping people, supporting them through their struggles—it’s not just a job to me; it’s my passion. But right now, that passion feels like it’s being crushed under the weight of a broken system.

Since October, I’ve essentially been working for free due to a Medicaid "error." This isn't just a paperwork mistake. This is my life, my livelihood, my ability to support my family. I have bills to pay, mouths to feed, and a future to plan for, but instead, I’m left wondering how long I can keep doing this.

I tried to help the most vulnerable population, and in the process, I made myself vulnerable. Medicaid already pays providers the lowest rates, making it nearly impossible for people to find the help they need. And now, because of this error, I’m supposed to just "work it off"? Imagine being told your hard work, your time, and your dedication don’t matter—that you have to keep going WITHOUT compensation.

I feel stuck, powerless, and heartbroken. This isn't just about me—it's about the patients who rely on me and others like me. How many providers will give up entirely because of situations like this? How many patients will go without care because fewer and fewer people can afford to take Medicaid?

This has to change. For providers, for patients, for the system as a whole. Because right now, it feels like no one wins. 💔

01/24/2025

Here we go!

01/24/2025

As I was walking my dog one morning, I couldn’t stop ruminating on a situation.

I kept mentally separating myself from the topic and trying to come back to the present or thinking about my day, but the second I’d let my mind drift, there it was again.

As I turned the corner to my house and it happened yet again, I felt extremely frustrated.
This wasn’t logical. There’s something deeper here.

So as I sat down to begin my work, I instead closed my laptop, quieted my mind, and allowed the energy behind the rumination to come up.

And what I found was grief.
A grief that I needed to sit with for a few minutes. A grief that went much further back in my history and was being touched by this current situation.

After a few minutes, I began to soften and to feel lighter, and to feel like I could focus on the present again.
I was also able to be more present to the situation I’d been ruminating on, and not stuck in this old feeling.
I was able to see things with more clarity and less emotion.
I was able to step out of my old pattern.

Often when our minds are spinning out around a topic, it’s because there’s a feeling fueling the chaos. And until we acknowledge and sit with the feeling, it’s going to be impossible to “solve” the problem.

Once the energy moves, we’re able to come back to the feeling with our wiser mind and think again, but if we try to ignore the feeling it will continue to drive from the backseat until we acknowledge it.

If you want reminders like this sent to your phone daily (the ol' algorithm just keeps changing!), consider signing up for daily texts from Genny and The EQ School. It's a bit different than what I post here, occasionally answering your questions via voice message and offering reflective questions to support you on your journey.

https://hdly.me/theeqschool

01/18/2025

This perspective is spot on from an Addiction Psychologist. The impact of TikTok on attention spans and mental focus cannot be overstated. The sheer volume of content consumed daily—close to 180 videos—is enough to overwhelm anyone’s cognitive capacity. As a society, we’ve become conditioned to rapid bursts of entertainment with little room for depth or reflection. The reality is, this constant stimulation has left many of us on autopilot, navigating through life without fully engaging in the present moment.

When TikTok shuts down, we’ll have a unique opportunity to reflect on how much of our time and energy has been tied up in this endless scroll. Will we take a step back and reconnect with the deeper, slower aspects of life, or will we simply replace one platform with another? It’s up to us to decide how we want to engage with the digital world going forward—and whether we’re willing to prioritize our attention, our well-being, and ultimately, our mental health.

01/18/2025

Quote originally from Synergy: gentle parenting resources. Repost from L.R.Knost - Little Hearts/Gentle Parenting Resources and the Australian Psychologist 💛

01/09/2025

From an Addiction Psychologist:

As evidence of health harms continue to pile up, more and more people are reevaluating their relationship with alcohol. This year's Dry January is expected to see the largest participation to date, estimated at 75 million.

Great article below about how alcohol has been woven so tightly into our culture that it's difficult to adjust, much less to escape.

Even more interesting than the article, though, are the comments. So much honesty there, from hundreds of people choosing to share. Worth a read.

On a related note, I wrote a piece a few months back about what I like to call "Alcohol Blindness" in America. For those interested: https://lnkd.in/griBTcDm



https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/08/opinion/alcohol-drinking-dry-january.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Yes, you can become sober and remain social.

01/09/2025

01/03/2025

𝐈𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐭 𝐡𝐨𝐦𝐞.
Fueling their mind.
Watering their thoughts.
Showing them grace and asking for forgiveness when we’ve fallen short.

𝐈𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐭 𝐡𝐨𝐦𝐞.
Building healthy relationships.
Teaching them manners.
Showing them the power of kindness.

𝐈𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐭 𝐡𝐨𝐦𝐞.
Using words that honor.
Speaking life into our situations.
Refusing to give up when the going gets tough.

𝐈𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐭 𝐡𝐨𝐦𝐞.
Prioritizing the right things.
Making memories in the mundane.
Feeling our emotions rather than bottling them up.

𝐈𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐭 𝐡𝐨𝐦𝐞.
Being there for them.
Opening the lines of communication.
Getting to know them more each and every day.

And each and every day, I pray that home will be a place they remember as learning, laughing, growing, forgiving, and setting a strong foundation for many years to come.

Artwork: Alev Neto
Words: Fire Wife Chronicles by Lizzy Christian

01/03/2025

🎉 New Year, New Mindset! 🧠💪

Forget "new year, new you" — how about new year, better YOU? 😏

This year, let’s skip the guilt of unused gym memberships and embrace resolutions that actually feel good. 🎯 Prioritizing your mental health isn’t just a goal—it’s a glow-up from the inside out. ✨

✅ Take those deep breaths.
✅ Set those boundaries.
✅ Book that mental health appointment.

2025 is calling, and it says, "Let’s thrive, not just survive!" 🌟 Let’s make this the year you feel as good on the inside as you want to look on the outside. 💖

Ready to kickstart your mental health journey? Let's chat about how we can support you in crushing your self-care goals! 🚀

Call now to connect with business.

01/03/2025

https://www.healthday.com/health-news/neurology/workgroup-recommends-updated-guidelines-for-alzheimers-dementia-diagnosis

FRIDAY, Dec. 27, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- Alzheimer’s disease experts have updated their diagnosis guidelines for the first time in more than 20 years, laying o

12/30/2024

𝗬𝗲𝗮𝗿-𝗘𝗻𝗱 𝗥𝗲𝗳𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 ✏️
Can you believe 2024 is almost over? Set aside time to reflect on the past year's areas of success and opportunities for growth.
Grab your sheet here ⤵️
https://bit.ly/3XKoT5N

12/30/2024

Raise your hand if this is you 🥴

Revenge bedtime procrastination is staying up late even when you know you need sleep. Our guide covers why sleep procrastination happens and how to address it.

11/14/2024

Oh, where to even begin with this absolute masterpiece of bureaucratic ineptitude? Iowa Medicaid has really outdone itself here, creating a perfect storm of inconvenience, frustration, and utter disregard for the realities of running a healthcare practice.

First off, they cheerfully admit that they made the error—back in March, no less—and yet it’s the providers who are left holding the bag. Providers, who have been faithfully serving patients, billing based on the rates Medicaid itself provided, and, in many cases, barely scraping by due to already abysmal reimbursement rates. Now, eight months later, Medicaid decides to hit “undo,” and somehow this colossal error is just our problem to absorb. No appeals, no dispute process, no recourse. It’s like a bad joke—except no one’s laughing.

Let’s talk about these “payment adjustments.” Providers will have their payments clawed back, retroactively, for services rendered eight months ago. These aren’t just numbers on a spreadsheet; this is actual money already spent on staff salaries, rent, supplies, and keeping the lights on. Now, in the middle of an already strained healthcare system, Medicaid is essentially saying, “Oops, our bad—but we’re going to take it all back anyway. You’re welcome!” And as if that weren’t insulting enough, they’ve kindly decided that no one will even receive the courtesy of an overpayment letter or notice. No transparency, just offsets hitting future claims like some Kafkaesque lottery of doom.

And what about the “expeditious” reconfiguration of MCO systems? It’s comical. They’ve given themselves until October 18—seven months after the fact—to fix this. Providers, meanwhile, are supposed to just wait patiently while being blindsided by sudden deductions, all for services that were billed in good faith, using the rates Medicaid provided. Retroactive punishments for their own error? Unreal.

The cherry on top of this bureaucratic mess is the finality of it all. “No appeals. No disputes.” In what world is this acceptable? Providers are expected to just absorb the financial impact, while Iowa Medicaid gets to shrug off accountability for a mistake that they freely admit was entirely their fault.

This is not just unfair—it’s downright insulting. Providers are not Medicaid’s piggy bank to be raided whenever they screw up. This is the kind of shortsighted, heavy-handed policy that drives good providers out of the Medicaid system entirely, leaving vulnerable patients with even fewer options for care.

So thank you, Iowa Medicaid, for once again showing exactly how much you value the providers who keep your system running. Bravo.