Blog

Colorado Comparison Disorder: Summer 2024 Edition

By Anne Hosey, LPC

Posted: July 15, 2024

Summer is in full swing in Durango—the trails are dusty, the rivers are back down to a trickle, and Lake Nighthorse has reached a tolerable swimming temperature. The Animas is chock full of small, colorful boats and groups of gangly adolescent geese, and bikers are woo-hooing down the jump trails in the Gulch. ‘Tis the season for increased play and for filling the long sunny days with fun. It’s also the season when Colorado Comparison Disorder—a common and under-acknowledged problem here in our great state—rears its MIPS-protected head.

Summertime Sadness

By Anne Hosey, LPC

Seasonal Mental Health Depression

Negative Self-Talk

Posted: July 1, 2024

Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is a subset of depression characterized by depressive symptoms linked to seasonal changes. Generally, when we think of seasonal depression we think of winter, but I actually see a lot of summer seasonal affective disorder here in Southwest Colorado. Summer SAD is characterized by irritability, lack of motivation, low energy, guilt, and an increase in negative self-talk, and seems to be related to the repetitively hot, dry, windy days that dominate the southwestern summer.

Q&A with a Therapist Part III: We're all Humans Here

By Anne Hosey, LPC

Mental Health Therapy

Posted: June 17, 2024

In my last blog post on the process of therapy, I promised I’d be back in two weeks with some juicy process-related questions. And then…I got really sick. But now I’m back! And we’re on to part three of my Q&A with a therapist installment. Part three's questions are the “hot potatoes” I mentioned in my last post, like what to do if therapy isn’t working, how to handle your therapist pissing you off, and what we therapists like to do in our spare time.

Q&A with a Therapist Part II: It's a Process

By Anne Hosey, LPC

Mental Health Therapy

Posted: May 13, 2024

In my last post I attempted to answer some nitty gritty therapy-related questions like “what is therapy?”, “what is a therapist?”, and “how do I find one?” Here in part two we’ll explore questions related to the process of therapy, and what happens in the background once you and your shiny new therapist are sitting in a room together. Whereas describing the logistics of therapy is relatively straightforward, talking about the process of therapy might get a little…vague. It’s energetic, relational, nervous system, and attachment-based stuff. Let's get meta together!