Mental and emotional disorders present challenges on two fronts: dealing with the disorder itself, and dealing with stigma attached to the disorder. Public understanding has come a long way in recent decades, but it’s still easy to find people who…
Category: Health & Wellness (page 5)
Hearing Loss: The Most Isolating Disability
“The problems of deafness are deeper and more complex … than those of blindness. Deafness … means the loss of the most vital stimulus—the sound of the voice that brings language, sets thoughts astir and keeps us in [human] intellectual…
Staying Healthy with a Disability
Do “disability” and “healthy” sound mutually exclusive? They shouldn’t be. An impairment to one physical or mental function doesn’t render the whole body useless: if anything, other functions become more effective as they’re exercised to compensate. Still, if the person…
The World of Forest Bathing
The Japanese term is shinrin-yoku, which translates to “forest immersion” or “forest bathing.” In English, it’s often called “forest therapy” or “nature therapy,” but “forest bathing” is popular enough to have put an International Forest Bathing Day on the calendar…
Polypharmacy: Too Much of a (Usually) Good Thing
(This article is partly adapted from “Polypharmacy: What Is It and Are You at Risk?,” a workshop presented by Jay Gupta at the Houston 2022 Abilities Expo.) Polypharmacy: the simultaneous use of multiple drugs by a single patient, for one…
The 7 Categories of Rest
The outline for this post is adapted from the book Sacred Rest: Recover Your Life, Renew Your Energy, Restore Your Sanity, by Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith. See also Dr. Dalton-Smith’s website and “Rest Quiz” (you don’t have to take the quiz…
BridgingApps Reviewed App | WW / WeightWatchers
BridgingApps just published the following BridgingApps Reviewed App on the site: The WW / WeightWatchers app is a user friendly “healthy eating” app. Rather than counting calories or requiring a certain daily amount of servings per food group, it assigns…
Emotional Support Dogs (And Other Emotional Support Animals)
Read Time 5 Minutes Service dogs have been around for over a century (or much longer than that, if you count “unofficial” service dogs that have been trained by individuals since early domestication days); but the concept of Emotional Support…
Straight Talk on Vaccinations
Read Time 3 Minutes August is National Immunization Month, and also back-to-school month in many parts of the United States. An appropriate combination, since preparations for starting or returning to school typically include bringing a child’s immunizations up to date.…
A Brief History of Service Dogs | National Dog Month
Read Time 3 Minutes In honor of National Dog Month, BridgingApps dedicates this post to all hardworking service dogs past and present. Working dogs have been part of human civilization for thousands of years. Once upon a time, a wolf…