Our Latest Blogs

5 Easy Self Care Tips for When You Are Depressed

Coping with Depression | Depression Tips

Depression can be a crippling mental health disorder that can erase your happiness, steal your will, and cause physical symptoms to manifest that impact your health negatively. Depression  can be caused by genetics or life stressors, but can occur seemingly randomly. Knowing the causes does not help much when facing a depressive episode, but having […]

Joseph Russo, MD

Joseph Russo

Psychiatrist
Westport, CT

Joseph Russo, M.D., is a psychiatrist in private practice serving adolescents, adults and families in Westport, CT, and the surrounding communities.

Rhoda Berger, NP

Rhoda-Berger-NP

Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner
Brooklyn, NY

Rhoda Berger, NP, is a psychiatric nurse practitioner in private practice serving children, adolescents, and adults in Brooklyn, NY, and the surrounding areas.

Failure to Launch Part 3: What It Is and What It Isn’t

Chances are if you landed on this webpage, you are concerned about a young adult who still lives at home and does not seem to be moving forward in life.  Maybe that person is you, or maybe it’s a son or daughter, or someone in your extended family.  That young person may have been diagnosed […]

College Students with Mental Health Challenges Now Have Options to Help Them Stay in School

The first big learning for me when I began my career in mental health more than thirty years ago was how many lives had been derailed by mental illness and how unnecessary that seemed to be.  I decided to specialize in the rehabilitation and recovery side of mental health because I believed that people with […]

3 Apps to Calm You Down

3 apps to calm you down

Don’t you wish you could escape the pressures and stress of your daily life, even just for a few minutes? Well, you are in luck because I’ve discovered three amazing apps that can help you calm down when stress runs high. All three of these apps can help you de-stress and improve your mental health […]

Mental Health Recovery: 6 Themes of Hope for Mental Health Awareness Month

What is Mental Health Recovery to You-

Recovery is a term much used in mental health, but not always understood. Some people think of recovery in relation to a cure or getting better.  Others associate it with 12-step recovery from addiction. Mental health recovery can be all those things, but for those living with mental illness the term most often describes an […]

Failure to Launch Part 2: Setting Expectations for Young Adults at Home

young woman

Last year I wrote an article about young adult anxiety which quickly became one of our most popular posts on rtor.org. The article, Failure To Launch:  9 Tips for Managing Anxiety in Dependent Adult Children, is based on a podcast by Yale anxiety expert, Dr. Eli Lebowitz. Since it first appeared in 2016, many people […]

Mental Health and Social Media: 5 Tips for Parents of Teenagers

teens on smartphones

  Social media is rapidly changing the way we communicate. From staying in touch with everyone you’ve ever met on Facebook to sharing your opinions on Twitter and photographs of your life on Instagram, how people connect to each other is much different from how it was even five years ago. With younger generations growing up […]

Living Well with Bipolar Disorder

living well with bipolar disorder

Bipolar disorder, formerly known as manic-depression, is a serious mental health condition that is characterized by manic highs and depressive lows. The following is a list of notable people who have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and have achieved great success in their chosen fields. This list contains mostly those who are still living, but we […]

What Parents Need to Know about Psychotherapy

boy in therapy

Today’s post comes to us from Certified CBT Psychotherapist and Family-Endorsed Provider, Elise Munoz, LCSW-R. Her article answers the many questions parents might have about getting their child started in therapy. Thank you, Elise, for sharing your knowledge with us at www.rtor.org. — Veronique Hoebeke, Associate Editor   If your child or teenager is struggling with emotional, […]

Understanding & Identifying OCD in the Classroom

OCD in the classroom

Today’s blog post comes to us from one of our Family-Endorsed Providers, Carla Kenney, LMHC. She writes on the importance of both educators and family members noticing the possible signs of OCD in children. Thank you, Carla, for sharing your expertise with us at rtor.org. —Veronique Hoebeke, Associate Editor Children say and do unusual things on occasion, or […]

Double Trouble & Beyond: Co-occurring Disorders in Our Favorite Characters from Movies, Novels and TV

Don draper

  In mental health, the term co-occurring disorders refers to the presence of two or more disorders in a person at the same time. In the past, co-occurring disorders were often confused with “dual diagnosis” (or “double trouble”), a term that was used to describe someone living with a mental illness and a substance use […]

Robin Williams Still Remembered and a Father’s Grief Takes a Trip to India

Maybe the worst thing about suicide is its finality. It is the one mistake that allows no second chances. When Robin Williams took his life in August of 2014 an entire nation grieved.  Our grief was of a partly selfish nature as we realized that there would be no new Robin Williams characters to move […]

“Out of the Ashes” by Sallie Crotty

mountain with sunset and "out of the ashes" A story of recovery and hope written over the images

  The following recovery story comes from Sallie Crotty who writes about her own experiences with a mental health disorder. Sallie takes us on a journey from her first day to her last day at the Menninger Clinic and what she learned about herself and mental health recovery in the process. We are grateful to Sallie […]

The Healing Power of a Dog

go-fetch-wellness

Today’s wellness story comes from Jeff Fink, the founder of Go Fetch Wellness. Jeff’s story demonstrates the amazing impact animals can have on people’s lives and the importance of a holistic approach to mental health. We are grateful to Jeff for sharing his story with us at rtor.org. –Veronique Hoebeke, Associate Editor    Suffering, medications, […]

5 Key Aspects of Physical Wellness

yoga physical wellness

“A wise man ought to realize that health is his most valuable possession” – Hippocrates It’s no mystery that taking care of your physical well-being is extremely important to your health and happiness. Yet, the average American leads a busy stressed-out life which puts health and wellness on the back burner. There is a lot of complicated information […]

Mental Health App Review: Pacifica

pacifica logo

  Pacifica is a free smartphone app that is designed to use the principles of Cognitive Behavior Therapy and Mindfulness to help with daily stress, anxiety and depression. With anxiety and depression being the most common mental health disorders, I’m glad that app developers are addressing this issue. There are six major aspects to Pacifica and each one has […]

Yale Expert on Childhood and Adolescent Anxiety to Speak at Laurel House on Thursday: Eli Lebowitz, PhD, Next Up in Laurel House’s Family Seminar Series

This Thursday night in Stamford, CT, our affiliate organization Laurel House is hosting a talk on childhood and adolescent anxiety by Eli Lebowitz, PhD, of the Yale Child Study Center.  Dr. Lebowitz is co-author of the book “Treating Childhood and Adolescent Anxiety: A Guide for Caregivers” and originator of the Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions […]