Mental Health Episodes

We're at a point in time when there's a tremendous amount of interest as well as confusion surrounding cannabis-based treatments for MS. My guest is Aryn Sieber, the CEO and Founder of the CannaCauses Foundation and Cannaisseur Brands. Aryn is a strong advocate of using cannabis-derived treatments to help relieve symptoms of disease processes, particularly MS. And he's partnered with MS centers and neurologists to better understand how cannabis-based treatments can help people manage their MS s...

Cognitive dysfunction can profoundly affect people living with MS, yet it's frequently overlooked and left untreated. That's why the National MS Society convened a working group of world-class experts to explore how cognitive dysfunction was being assessed and to develop a set of guidelines designed to improve the process of cognitive screening and management in MS care. My guest is Dr. John DeLuca, the Senior Vice-President of Research & Training at the Kessler Foundation, and the co-author of...

Shawn Feliciano was diagnosed with MS in 2009, and in 2012, she decided to challenge herself while raising awareness about MS by going on a Big Hike -- hiking 817 miles, from Utah to Arizona. Shawn's Big Hike may have been the perfect metaphor for living with the challenges of MS, and we're talking about having the resilience to take on a challenge, no matter what your personal Big Hike might be. We're also talking about a new study that demonstrates why it's in your best interest to stay on M...

You've heard the statistic before -- 50% of the people living with MS will be diagnosed with depression. And research has shown us that some of the most troubling MS symptoms, including fatigue, cognition, and even physical disability, are all made worse by depression. Unfortunately, among people living with MS, depression is often overlooked, undiagnosed, and left to only get worse. So imagine an app that will tell you when you're heading toward depression before you even feel it. That's not s...

The caregiver's journey doesn't always get paid the proper amount of attention until a family caregiver finds themselves feeling isolated, overwhelmed, drained, and depressed. But it doesn't have to come to that. My guest is Dr. Kate Lorig, lead author of Building Better Caregivers: A Family Caregiver's Guide to Reducing Stress and Staying Healthy. And we're talking about how to go about building better caregivers. We're also talking about a new MRI technique that may enable doctors to identify...

Experts estimate that depression affects about 50% of the people diagnosed with MS. And, left unchecked, depression can take your vibrant, colorful world and re-draw it in somber shades of gray. If there's good news about depression, it's that it can be treated. In this special Vacation Edition of RealTalk MS, we're going to revisit a really important conversation that I had last November with Dr. Amy Sullivan, Director of Behavioral Medicine, Research and Training at the Mellen Center for Mult...

Depression affects over one million people around the world who are living with MS. And when you fail to treat depression, every other aspect of life seems to get worse - and that can include your MS symptoms. My guest on this week's podcast is Dr. Athena Robinson, the Chief Clinical Officer at Woebot Labs, and we're talking about Woebot -- a breakthrough app that lives on your smartphone and has been proven to be effective in treating depression. We're also talking about a robotic arm brace t...

Whether it's research, news, or even pending legislation, there's a lot happening around the world that's going to impact families living with MS. In this week's podcast, we'll round up some of that news and bring you up to speed on some of the things that you ought to know about. We're talking about how the pending income tax legislation can be financially devastating to families living with MS - and we'll explain what you can do about it right now. We'll look at a new clinical trial testing a...

November is National Family Caregivers Month, and we're talking all about caregiving. Being a caregiver for a family member with MS or any chronic illness can be one of the greatest blessings that a person may receive. It can also be one of the most stress-producing, anxiety-creating, and even life-threatening undertakings that a person may endure. No one ever applies to be a caregiver, and the job doesn't come with an instruction manual. So we're going to be discussing: The real costs -- both ...

Experts estimate that about 50% of the people living with MS are impacted by depression. And left untreated, depression can darken your entire outlook on the world. It has a way of making everything less. We're going to explore MS and depression with my guest, Dr. Amy Sullivan, Director of Behavioral Medicine at the Mellen Center for Multiple Sclerosis at the Cleveland Clinic. We're also talking about a study that may offer some good news about what seems to be a highly effective drug therapy f...