Rebecca Lundquist, MD

We are thrilled to introduce our next class!

Here are some 💯 real stories from me, a nice Colorado girl, forced to live in Massachusetts for 4 years and completely bewildered by the general attitudes and affects there:

For the record: the idea that trauma can cause mental, emotional, and physical symptoms originated with Freud in 1895. Before Freud, people who had what we now call conversion symptoms or (more recently) “functional neurological disorders” were believed to have nervous system diseases that required medical treatment. These diseases were treated by neurologists. Psychoanalysis, and ultimately the profession of psychotherapy, was born with the recognition that the physical symptoms had psychological meanings—and could be understood and resolved through talking and listening. Freud’s insight changed everything. Before Freud, the prevailing view was that physical symptoms could be caused only by medical disease. After Freud, it became universally recognized that physical symptoms can be caused by *psychology.* This was the birth of the psychotherapy professions: treatment grounded in psychological meaning rather than biological mechanism. Talking and listening… imagine that. Which is why all the trendy “therapy speak” of today—“nervous system” this and “nervous system” that—is so bizarrely anachronistic. It is turning away from psychological meaning and a return to the medical model of the of the 1800s.

Just an FYI, insurance companies bank on patients not filing appeals. FILE. THOSE. APPEALS. And if you have an opportunity to file an external appeal which goes through an independent review board, do it. Those have a high reversal rate.

“A recent analysis by Rotenberg and his colleagues found taping or sealing the mouth closed or strapping the chin to keep the mouth closed could pose a serious risk of asphyxiation.” Be careful and talk to a sleep specialist ketv.com/article/pros-c… ketv.com/article/pros-c…

About a quarter of the way through this on @JonathanShedler 's recommendation. Fascinating and would be good reading for all the anti-therapy bros who think therapy is just being professionally reassured and comforted.

As someone who very much does want a village and indeed has it (I currently have 4 neighborhood kids under 6 at my house joining us for dinner. Part of a baby swapping system I started in 2021), after having pretty painstakingly built it over years, I want to make two points...

If a residency program continues to struggle to match students that rotate, here’s 5 things I think PDs can do to coach their faculty that require little effort but may prevent students from getting “bad vibes” and going elsewhere:

My son was homeless. He slept in a tent, 35 minutes from us. I always felt a lot of guilt, because we had 3 empty bedrooms. But I knew i couldn't live with an addict. I'd go pick him up. He'd do his laundry, and I'd cook for him. He'd shower. But I always drove him back to his tent. Talk about a long ride. I always felt so guilty. I'm never going to stop spotlighting the drug crisis we are facing. He died 7 years ago. When he would actually agree to get help, we'd take him to a center and they'd say the beds were full. Come back tomorrow. Addicts change their minds in a nano second. By tomorrow they're chasing their next high. I'm imploring each and every one of you to vote differently. What we've been doing isn't working. Clearly.

The reason America has a 25 times higher gun homicide rate than any peer nation is easy access to guns. We don't have higher rates of mental illness. It's not divorce or video games or medications. It's the guns.

APA’s new Immigration Attorney Consultation allows APA member psychiatry residents and early career psychiatrists who are international medical graduates (IMGs) a free, one-time, 30-to-45-minute consultation with an immigration attorney. ow.ly/jX8p50TxtZZ

Here’s one reason we can’t expect patients to tell us their treatment goals from the get-go. They may never have experienced another way of being & so cannot conceive of what that would even look like. Formulating goals is a process not an event—and a job for two minds, not one👇

oh my god

I organized a big meeting today in Danbury to talk about our state’s suicide prevention work and how leaders like me can help. So many people in need aren’t getting the services that could save their life.

1/ Sixteen psychoanalytic concepts for our time (updated) 🧵 Splitting: Perceiving others in black-and-white categories; seeing them as one-dimensional, as good or bad

Study of children in grades K-3 finds beliefs that older girls would struggle on a STEM exam and men are more competent in STEM professions. Girls perceived STEM jobs as more difficult than non-STEM jobs; boys perceived them equally difficult. @kimelsesser forbes.com/sites/kimelses…

Not a solution. Even $5 isn’t an acceptable thing to charge someone with for just existing. Still includes criminal charges. Still will make people hide like dogs just to sleep.

Don't wait – check your state's voter registration deadline today and make sure you're registered and ready to vote. And then share this with your friends and family so everyone's ready to vote early or by Election Day. VoteSaveAmerica.com/Obama

1/ Pro tips for therapists🧵 At first appointment with a new patient/client, there are three things you want to find out 1️⃣ What's wrong? 2️⃣ How are they hoping therapy can help? 3️⃣ Why now? Some elaboration on these 3 things... ➡️ People don't come to therapy for sport. They

One time, I pulled my resident aside after a tough day in regional anesthesia I asked the same first question I always ask when a trainee is struggling, “How are you doing? How are things at home?” The answer is usually, “I’m fine” This time the answer was “I have cancer”