LifeStance Insights
Our team of expert clinicians give their perspectives across a range of subjects, touching on current topics, family and loved one issues, mental health struggles and the comprehensive services that can help you live a better life.
FEATURED STORY
Postpartum Depression Medication Red Flags: A Psychiatrist Explains
In the months before the case that put Lindsay Clancy’s name in the national news, this Massachusetts mother was reportedly prescribed about a dozen different medications in a matter of weeks. Postpartum medication took center stage in the Lindsay Clancy trial. Testimony named drug after drug – antidepressants, an anti-anxiety medication, an antipsychotic – and traced a dizzying series of changes in the weeks leading up to it. Much of the public conversation that followed pointed a finger at the drugs themselves. To most watching, a key question was surfacing: did the medications help, or did all that switching make things worse?
The honest answer is that both things can be true at once. Finding the right medication after childbirth genuinely takes time, and a few adjustments early on are normal, not alarming. A revolving door of prescriptions with no real improvement, on the other hand, can be a warning sign that the diagnosis, not the medication, may need a second look. And sometimes the issue is not the prescription at all, but whether it was ever fully taken. Reluctance to start a medication, or stopping it early, can undo even the right choice.
Let’s examine what giving each medication a fair chance to work should look like after a birth, where it can go wrong, and when repeated changes – or an individu...
Read More
Article Categories
Search Articles
Anxiety
Can Trintellix Help With Anxiety? What the Research Shows
Trintellix (vortioxetine) is a prescription antidepressant FDA approved to treat major depressive disorder (MDD). It works by influencing the activity of serotonin, a brain chemical that affects mood, emotions, and how we process stress. Because serotonin also plays a central role in anxiety, psychiatrists sometimes prescribe Trintellix off-label for anxiety disorders.
Off-label prescribing happens when a doctor prescribes a medication that’s FDA approved to treat a condition that’s different from what the patient has. This is a common occurrence, and it’s estimated that about 1 in 5 prescriptions are off-label prescriptions.
How Trintellix Can Help With Anxiety
Trintellix affects the brain's serotonin system, the same system that most anxiety medications target. What makes it somewhat different from standard antidepressants is that it influences serotonin activity in more than one way, which researchers believe may help...
Read More
Can Trintellix Help With Anxiety? What the Research Shows
Trintellix (vortioxetine) is a prescription antidepressant FDA approved to treat major depressive disorder (MDD). It works by influencing the activity of serotonin, a brain chemical that affects mood, emotions, and how we process stress. Because serotonin also plays a central role in anxiety, psychiatrists sometimes prescribe Trintellix off-label for anxiety disorders.
Off-label prescribing happens when a doctor prescribes a medication that’s FDA approved to treat a condition that’s different from what the patient has. This is a common occurrence, and it’s estimated that about 1 in 5 prescriptions are off-label prescriptions.
How Trintellix Can Help With Anxiety
Trintellix affects the brain's serotonin system, the same system that most anxiety medications target. What makes it somewhat different from standard antidepressants is that it influences serotonin activity in more than one way, which researchers believe may help...
Read More
Share 
Eating Disorders
What Is ARFID? The Eating Disorder That More Than Tripled in Four Years – and Why So Few People Recognize It
Nearly everyone has heard of an eating disorder. Most people are familiar with anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa and can describe the basics. Far fewer know about avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder, or ARFID. Yet from 2018 to 2022, insurance claim lines for ARFID rose 305 percent, according to a FAIR Health analysis of private healthcare claims. But clinicians urge caution with that number, because it does not necessarily mean that ARFID is becoming more common. It likely means more people are finally being recognized, named, diagnosed, and offered a path forward.
Because ARFID is often mistaken for, “picky eating,” many people go years, or even decades, without a diagnosis. That includes children who eat only a few foods and adults who have built their lives around what they can tolerate. Knowing what ARFID is, and how it differs from picky eating, is the first step towards getting help.
What Is ARFID?
ARFID st...
Read More
What Is ARFID? The Eating Disorder That More Than Tripled in Four Years – and Why So Few People Recognize It
Nearly everyone has heard of an eating disorder. Most people are familiar with anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa and can describe the basics. Far fewer know about avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder, or ARFID. Yet from 2018 to 2022, insurance claim lines for ARFID rose 305 percent, according to a FAIR Health analysis of private healthcare claims. But clinicians urge caution with that number, because it does not necessarily mean that ARFID is becoming more common. It likely means more people are finally being recognized, named, diagnosed, and offered a path forward.
Because ARFID is often mistaken for, “picky eating,” many people go years, or even decades, without a diagnosis. That includes children who eat only a few foods and adults who have built their lives around what they can tolerate. Knowing what ARFID is, and how it differs from picky eating, is the first step towards getting help.
What Is ARFID?
ARFID st...
Read More
Share
Anxiety
Quiet Cracking and Its Impact on Mental Health
You can show up every day, hit your deadlines, answer every email, and still feel something quietly coming apart underneath. No dramatic blowup, no resignation letter, no obvious breakdown that anyone around you would notice. Just a slow, private erosion of motivation and a sense that you are running on a battery that never fully recharges.
That feeling now has a name, and the data behind it is striking. In a 2025 survey of 1,000 U.S. employees by training platform TalentLMS, more than half reported experiencing some level of quiet cracking, with 1 in 5 saying it happens frequently or constantly. It started as a workplace term, but the same pattern is showing up in living rooms and kitchens too, where exhausted parents are quietly cracking under a load no one fully sees.
What Is Quiet Cracking?
Quiet cracking describes a gradual, internal erosion of well-being and engagement that builds slowly enough to stay hidden, often...
Read More
Quiet Cracking and Its Impact on Mental Health
You can show up every day, hit your deadlines, answer every email, and still feel something quietly coming apart underneath. No dramatic blowup, no resignation letter, no obvious breakdown that anyone around you would notice. Just a slow, private erosion of motivation and a sense that you are running on a battery that never fully recharges.
That feeling now has a name, and the data behind it is striking. In a 2025 survey of 1,000 U.S. employees by training platform TalentLMS, more than half reported experiencing some level of quiet cracking, with 1 in 5 saying it happens frequently or constantly. It started as a workplace term, but the same pattern is showing up in living rooms and kitchens too, where exhausted parents are quietly cracking under a load no one fully sees.
What Is Quiet Cracking?
Quiet cracking describes a gradual, internal erosion of well-being and engagement that builds slowly enough to stay hidden, often...
Read More
Share
Anxiety
Catastrophizing: Why Your Brain Jumps to the Worst-Case Scenario (and How to Stop)
Catastrophizing happens when the mind jumps to the worst possible outcome and treats it as the most likely one. It is a common thinking pattern in people with anxiety and depression. In everyday life, it might look like assuming a slow email reply means a relationship is falling apart or worrying that a minor headache is a sign of a serious illness. While this way of thinking may feel protective, research shows people who catastrophize report more severe anxiety, more depressive symptoms, and greater functional impairment than those who do not. The good news is that catastrophic thinking can often improve with practice and the right tools.
What Is Catastrophizing?
Catastrophizing, sometimes called catastrophic thinking, is a thought pattern in which a person assumes the worst possible outcome will happen and treats that outcome as both certain and unbearable.
The term was coined by psychologist Albert Ellis and later exp...
Read More
Catastrophizing: Why Your Brain Jumps to the Worst-Case Scenario (and How to Stop)
Catastrophizing happens when the mind jumps to the worst possible outcome and treats it as the most likely one. It is a common thinking pattern in people with anxiety and depression. In everyday life, it might look like assuming a slow email reply means a relationship is falling apart or worrying that a minor headache is a sign of a serious illness. While this way of thinking may feel protective, research shows people who catastrophize report more severe anxiety, more depressive symptoms, and greater functional impairment than those who do not. The good news is that catastrophic thinking can often improve with practice and the right tools.
What Is Catastrophizing?
Catastrophizing, sometimes called catastrophic thinking, is a thought pattern in which a person assumes the worst possible outcome will happen and treats that outcome as both certain and unbearable.
The term was coined by psychologist Albert Ellis and later exp...
Read More
Share
Trends and Predictions
Psychology of Horror: What Your Favorite Movie Says About You
What’s your favorite scary movie? Maybe it’s one you’ve seen a hundred times. You know the rules, you know the killer. Or maybe it’s one with no rules: a ghost, a curse, a wish gone wrong.
This year's box office shows how different horror taste can be. Scream 7 is the highest-grossing Scream movie. It’s a slasher, and fans know Ghostface by heart. Obsession is the highest-grossing original horror movie of the century. It’s a brand-new story that centers on a supernatural wish.
Why do such different movies both work? Because we all seem to have a different appetite for fear. Here’s how your favorite horror movie fits your own “sweet spot,” and what it may say about you.
Why Everyone Has a Different Sweet Spot for Horror Movies
Your brain is like a prediction machine. It's always guessing what happens next, then adjusting when it's wrong. Researchers have proposed that horror works by playing with that guessing. It seems to...
Read More
Psychology of Horror: What Your Favorite Movie Says About You
What’s your favorite scary movie? Maybe it’s one you’ve seen a hundred times. You know the rules, you know the killer. Or maybe it’s one with no rules: a ghost, a curse, a wish gone wrong.
This year's box office shows how different horror taste can be. Scream 7 is the highest-grossing Scream movie. It’s a slasher, and fans know Ghostface by heart. Obsession is the highest-grossing original horror movie of the century. It’s a brand-new story that centers on a supernatural wish.
Why do such different movies both work? Because we all seem to have a different appetite for fear. Here’s how your favorite horror movie fits your own “sweet spot,” and what it may say about you.
Why Everyone Has a Different Sweet Spot for Horror Movies
Your brain is like a prediction machine. It's always guessing what happens next, then adjusting when it's wrong. Researchers have proposed that horror works by playing with that guessing. It seems to...
Read More
Share
Anxiety
How to Cope With Layoff Anxiety: 5 Science-Backed Strategies
Layoffs used to come in waves. But many companies are now making smaller, more frequent cuts instead of one big round. These “forever layoffs” never really stop long enough for anyone to feel secure. According to the 2026 Work in America™ survey from the American Psychological Association (APA), about 1 in 3 (32%) U.S. workers are concerned about losing their job in the next few weeks or months.
But layoff anxiety doesn’t seem to affect everyone the same way. Here's why some people tend to handle it better than others, and five steps you can take to help buffer against it.
Layoff Anxiety: What It Is and Why It Hits Some People Harder
Layoff anxiety is worry about losing your job. It can show up even when your job may be secure. Your mind treats the possibility of job loss like a real, present danger. That can keep your body in a stress response for weeks or months, even if nothing bad ever happens.
But this worry doesn't...
Read More
How to Cope With Layoff Anxiety: 5 Science-Backed Strategies
Layoffs used to come in waves. But many companies are now making smaller, more frequent cuts instead of one big round. These “forever layoffs” never really stop long enough for anyone to feel secure. According to the 2026 Work in America™ survey from the American Psychological Association (APA), about 1 in 3 (32%) U.S. workers are concerned about losing their job in the next few weeks or months.
But layoff anxiety doesn’t seem to affect everyone the same way. Here's why some people tend to handle it better than others, and five steps you can take to help buffer against it.
Layoff Anxiety: What It Is and Why It Hits Some People Harder
Layoff anxiety is worry about losing your job. It can show up even when your job may be secure. Your mind treats the possibility of job loss like a real, present danger. That can keep your body in a stress response for weeks or months, even if nothing bad ever happens.
But this worry doesn't...
Read More
Share
Trends and Predictions
How I Use AI to Protect My Mental Health Without Losing My Creativity
A few months ago, I was sitting in front of a blinking cursor trying to write an essay I knew I was capable of but couldn't quite access it. I had the idea; I had the direction, but the words weren't coming together the way I needed them to. I kept typing and deleting; the cycle continued for about two hours. Out of frustration, I finally opened an AI tool and asked it to help me figure out how to start.
Within seconds, I had options. Angles I hadn't considered, headlines that actually sounded good, a loose structure that suddenly made the entire piece feel possible again. At first, I felt relieved. What was once heavy suddenly felt manageable. But almost immediately, I felt something else, a question. If I continue writing the essay based on what AI had helped me start, was it really mine?
That question didn't go away. It stayed in the background, even as AI started to become a regular part of my creative process, mainly executive function related. In turn, I felt guilty. While yes, it made certain parts of the creative process easier, faster, less overwhelming, it also introduced a set of questions about originality, identity, self-trust, and what it means to call something your own....
Read More
How I Use AI to Protect My Mental Health Without Losing My Creativity
A few months ago, I was sitting in front of a blinking cursor trying to write an essay I knew I was capable of but couldn't quite access it. I had the idea; I had the direction, but the words weren't coming together the way I needed them to. I kept typing and deleting; the cycle continued for about two hours. Out of frustration, I finally opened an AI tool and asked it to help me figure out how to start.
Within seconds, I had options. Angles I hadn't considered, headlines that actually sounded good, a loose structure that suddenly made the entire piece feel possible again. At first, I felt relieved. What was once heavy suddenly felt manageable. But almost immediately, I felt something else, a question. If I continue writing the essay based on what AI had helped me start, was it really mine?
That question didn't go away. It stayed in the background, even as AI started to become a regular part of my creative process, mainly executive function related. In turn, I felt guilty. While yes, it made certain parts of the creative process easier, faster, less overwhelming, it also introduced a set of questions about originality, identity, self-trust, and what it means to call something your own....
Read More
Share