I’m a recovering addict who has now been sober for more than a decade. I grew up in a household where both of my parents struggled with addiction. I know what it’s like to hit rock bottom having served my first prison sentence at age 20. But, more importantly, I know what it takes to […]
The coronavirus pandemic, no doubt, has triggered all sorts of emotions over the last two months. Even those who aren’t prone to crying may feel the tears trickle down their cheeks, a result of the sadness that comes with constant news of death and hospitalization rates. Or, maybe it’s the viral videos of balcony singalongs […]
Fact: The date for a return to normalcy keeps getting pushed back. Fact: People are dying. Fact: This will end, eventually. But when? As news cycles continue to broadcast unimaginable content through every possible screen, our minds, bodies and souls are under siege. Words like pandemic, lockdown, and school closure keep coming at us relentlessly. […]
Roughly a week after a March press conference hosted by S.F. Mayor London Breed announcing a regional shelter-in-place order, Matt Willis, Marin County’s public health officer and a Marin native, started to feel like he was coming down with some- thing. With chills and a dry cough, he went back to his San Anselmo home, […]
Many of my patients are women with heart disease. They report that healthcare workers have made them feel guilty when they called 911, since their chest pain was most likely not due to a heart attack. While COVID-19 heightens the need for emergency response, the reticence for some to call for help is heightened by […]
Our world has changed radically in the past six weeks. Suddenly, seeing your doctor quickly switched from an in-person event to a matter of logging into your computer. Telemedicine is now a main source of health care. Telehealth had originally been intended as a way of reaching rural communities with a shortage of doctors. As […]
In the throes of COVID-19, the simple question, “How are you?” has more weight, meaning and consequence than it did just a few months ago. Social media feeds are filled with questions like, “How’s everybody doing?” And the answers are rarely upbeat. At least 316 million Americans are staying home, many are working remotely. Millions are missing […]
My daughter’s life looks practically perfect. No one would ever guess that Emma’s brain tortures her continuously with a looped cacophony of critical, negative, self-loathing thoughts. But, that’s exactly what she has wrestled with since she was 12 and suffered the onset of clinical general anxiety disorder (GAD) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Sadly, I didn’t […]
In good times, getting a solid eight hours of shut-eye every night can be a struggle for many people—even if you follow all of the “clean sleep” commandments like keeping your bedroom cool and dark and going to bed at the same time every night. Now, as the global coronavirus pandemic persists, sleep has become more […]
“I have a dread that I carry with me when I go to the doctor, about attitudes toward me,” a colleague recently told me about his fears of going to the emergency room during the COVID-19 crisis. His concern is based on his perception of the doctors’ bias due to his disability. He lives a […]
