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From the Armchair
TALKIATRY’S MONTHLY MENTAL HEALTH NEWSLETTER
This month’s mental health tip
Not all anxiety comes from what's happening in the present. Sometimes it's tied to past experiences your brain and body have learned from. If a worry feels especially intense, ask yourself what might be beneath the surface.
Three things a psychiatrist wants you to know about trauma
With insights from:
Sophia Monsour, DO
Chief Psychiatrist
Trauma affects millions of people worldwide, but there are still many misconceptions about how it shows up. In honor of PTSD Awareness Month, our clinicians share insights to deepen understanding of post-traumatic stress and recovery.
Trauma is about impact, not just what happened
People can respond to traumatic experiences in different ways. For some, the effects of trauma persist long after an event has ended, and PTSD can be diagnosed when those effects meet certain clinical criteria. One of the core ideas behind trauma-informed care is understanding how past experiences influence present-day thoughts, emotions, relationships, and responses to stress.
Not all trauma looks the same
People often associate trauma with a specific, identifiable event like an accident, assault, or sudden loss, but that's not the only form it takes. Complex trauma can result from repeated or prolonged experiences, often during childhood, and may show up as patterns like difficulty trusting others, heightened vigilance, or intense emotional reactions. Because there's no single moment to point to, it can be harder to recognize.
The brain can relearn safety
Trauma leaves a mark on the nervous system, and your body and brain learn to expect danger. Over time, that learned response can make certain situations feel unsafe even when they aren't. The encouraging part is that the brain can learn to feel safe again. Evidence-based therapies like EMDR and trauma-focused CBT help people reprocess past experiences so they no longer trigger the same alarm. Healing doesn't require willpower or forgetting. It requires the right kind of support.
DEEP DIVE
Supporting LGBTQ+ mental health
Created with:
Ruosi Liu, MD
Staff Psychiatrist
Identifying as LGBTQ+ is not a mental health condition. But LGBTQ+ people do face real and documented stressors—discrimination, stigma, and the weight of navigating a world that doesn't always affirm who you are—that meaningfully increase the risk of depression, anxiety, and other mental health conditions.
If you're struggling, you're not alone, and treatment works. Here are five things you can do to support your mental health right now.
1. Build a support network or find a mentor
Opening up can feel scary, especially if you've experienced discrimination or rejection. Acceptance and safety are foundational to mental well-being, which means it matters who you let in. Support might come from someone in the LGBTQ+ community, a trusted friend, chosen family, or a mental health professional. Having even one relationship where you don't have to manage how you're perceived can make a meaningful difference.
2. Acknowledge your past to foster resilience
Understanding how your history has shaped you, including your responses, coping mechanisms, and expectations of others, can give you more agency over where you're headed. This work can be self-guided or done with a therapist or psychiatrist. Processing difficult experiences, rather than carrying them forward unchecked, can help build resilience over time. And if that feels overwhelming right now, that's okay. Focusing on future goals is a valid starting point too.
3. Practice self-compassion
Research suggests that people who practice self-compassion tend to have better mental health outcomes. Self-compassion means treating yourself with the same understanding you would offer a friend. It means recognizing that struggle doesn't indicate failure, that difficult feelings don't need to be fixed immediately, and that being imperfect is part of being human. Meditation, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), and dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) are evidence-based approaches that can help strengthen this skill over time.
4. Notice the messages you’ve absorbed
Many LGBTQ+ people have encountered messages, whether overt or subtle, suggesting that who they are is somehow wrong. Over time, those messages can become internalized. They may show up as shame, self-criticism, a tendency to self-minimize, or a feeling that you have to earn your place in spaces where you already belong.
Recognizing these patterns isn't about dwelling on the past. It's about understanding that some of what feels like "just how I am" may actually be a learned response that can be challenged and changed. A genuinely affirming clinician can help.
5. Seek support if you need it
If you feel your mental health is affecting your daily life, trust that instinct and reach out. Mental health conditions are medical conditions. They don't resolve through willpower alone, and you don't have to manage them by yourself. Many psychiatrists and therapists specialize in working with LGBTQ+ patients and can provide care that is affirming, evidence-based, and tailored to your needs. Treatment works, and you deserve to feel well.
If you are struggling with mental health, take Talkiatry's free online assessment to find an experienced clinician who can help.
ON THE SHELF
Book recommendations from our clinicians
The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk, M.D.
Learn more about the conditions we treat
ADHD
Anxiety
Depression
PTSD
OCD
Bipolar disorder
Insomnia
Mood disorders
Postpartum
Substance use disorder
Children’s mental health
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