The Mindfulness Antidote to V-Day

By Christine Moffa, MS, RN, AJN clinical editor

by Foton28/via FlickrI can’t resist acknowledging that dreaded day that’s coming up this weekend. Whether you are a believer in Valentine’s Day or a skeptic who thinks it was created by greeting card companies and florists, you can’t escape it. There are commercials all over TV, signs in every drug store, and now a movie with it in the title (which I had planned on seeing, until I read some reviews). My personal feeling has been that it makes single people feel lonely and pathetic and people in relationships disappointed with the ones they have. Not to mention that it’s impossible to get a good meal at a decent restaurant. A friend of mine who’s a social worker told me she’s thankful it falls on a weekend so she will be spared dealing with back-to-back appointments of heartbroken clients. 

This is the perfect time to practice my latest self-help discovery: mindful self-compassion. Christopher K. Germer, author of The Mindful Path to Self-Compassion: Freeing Yourself from Destructive Thoughts and Emotions (pardon the shameless product plug; neither I nor AJN has been paid off in any way!), posted an exercise on his blog during the holidays this past December that I think is a good fit for getting through this weekend (if you or someone you know finds it difficult). He suggests:

If you feel lonely […], see if you can stop and name the experience (“I’m […]

2016-11-21T13:19:21-05:00February 12th, 2010|Nursing|4 Comments
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DSM-V Draft Ready for Public Comment–What’s It To Nurses?

As many of you know, a draft of the proposed DSM-5 is just out and it’s bound to stir plenty of comment and controversy. First, I’ve got to congratulate the DSM-5 crafters for making the draft public and for seeking public comment. That’s right: the APA wants to hear from members of the public, not just medical professionals. So let them know what you think.

Meanwhile, let me offer some preliminary comments:

1. Internet addiction isn’t included, which is fine by me and likely will save the APA much sniggering and criticism.

2. Bipolar disorder type 3 or subthreshold bipolar disorder is not included either and that is definitely a victory for critics like me who’ve long held that the softening of mood disorders–such as with bipolar disorder type 2–has led to millions of Americans being overdiagnosed and overmedicated.

Read more of this post at Furious Seasons, a thoughtful blog belonging to a health care journalist who has long suffered from mental illness (I can’t seem to link directly to the specific post, but at least for today it’s still at the top of the blog’s landing page).

We draw your attention to his observations because we’re interested in how nurses—perhaps especially psych nurses, but all nurses, or, for that matter, nurses who are patients—may be reacting to the release for public comment of a draft of the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). Your thoughts are always welcome here; we also hope to cover this in more detail in the journal […]

2016-11-21T13:19:23-05:00February 12th, 2010|Patients|0 Comments
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Views expressed on the blog are solely those of the authors or persons quoted. They do not necessarily reflect AJN’s views or those of Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.
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