I want to briefly address control, helplessness and spirituality. Depression is thought of as a state of ‘Learned Helplessness’ (Martin Seligman). Generally speaking, we strive to have control over the things that we deem are essential to our self-esteem: power, achievement, money etc. When we perceive that we have lost hope of controlling these things—i.e., […]
Hope & Healing
Dr. Hedaya was recently interviewed by the Integrative Medicine Clinician’s Journal. He was asked about the role of hope in the healing process. This is his response: “Hope is critical in all healing. A book written by Jerome Frank Persuasion and Healing deals with this topic very effectively. Hopelessness is one of the cardinal features […]
Dr. Hedaya Speaks at Georgetown University Wellness Conference
Achieving Optimal Wellness Conference at Georgetown University Doro Bush Koch, Patricia Reilly Koch and colleagues of the BB&R: a Lifestyle and Wellness Advisory firm hosted the Achieving Optimal Health Conference 2011 at Georgetown University “to inspire, motivate, and educate our attendees to create a healthier and more balanced life.” The program included presentations by Dr. […]
Executive Vitality: Mind-Body Connection
We are believers in the mind-body connection. Each affects the other—no way around it. Therefore, we thought it would be useful to seek out some information from a specialist in holistic medicine. We sought advice from functional medicine doctor, Robert Hedaya, M.D., who takes a holistic physiological and psychosocial approach to health and mental health. […]
Response to “The Angelina Effect”
“The Angelina Effect” [May 27] in Time Magazine details Angelina Jolie’s decision to have a double mastectomy. The May 27th cover story, “The Angelina Effect” was well done. However, what was not covered in the media generally, nor in the article, was the important fact that genetic testing may give false results. Both physicians and the […]
DSM-V & Why Psychiatrists Need to Be Open to Other Fields
Talitha Stevenson’s Book Review in the Financial Times newspaper (“Mind field”, Life & Arts, May 24) shed much need light on the release of the DSM V, and the ensuing national dialogue about psychiatry and its definitions of mental illness. As a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, practitioner of The Center for Whole Psychiatry + Brain Recovery, and […]
Response to NY Times Opinion Column: “Don’t Take Your Vitamins”
The New York Times article “Don’t Take Your Vitamins” (Opinion, June 8) puts readers at real risk by presenting an unbalanced, over-generalized perspective and selective attention to the body of evidence. First, the title gives a directive about the general category of vitamins, when the body of the article only addresses a subset of vitamins: […]
Top 5 Things to Know about Teenage Depression
Depression is a syndrome, not a disease. While we in the western world are trained to think of depression as a disease, in fact, it is just a collection of signs and symptoms whose causes vary widely. Just like all pneumonia is not caused by one thing (i.e., pneumonia may be due to HIV, tuberculosis, […]
