TMS As an Essential Service
Alzheimer’s and Brain Awareness Month
Taking Stock of Mental Health in June
Racism, Violence, and Mental Health

TMS As an Essential Service

Alivation is one of the largest, and best, providers of TMS in the country. We were also one of the first to adopt it as a consistent 1^st line mental health treatment. We treat it as essential for our patients, as do they.

The science has only continued to back us up on it in the 9 years since. When you hear TMS on the news, it’s usually in the context of depression and OCD, the latter something the FDA recently approved. This is an incredibly exciting time for TMS as a result. Its possibilities are beginning to be explored more fully. We’ve seenthe longer-term benefits of its usage for years.

We’ve talked about TMS repeatedly; we’ve discussed it in podcasts, interviews, blogs, Facebook posts, tweets, articles, everything you can imagine. We believe in it because it works. But part of why we believe in TMS is because you don’t necessarily have to take our word for it—we have case studies and testimonials from hundreds of patients over several years all attesting to its benefits. We’ve seen the results firsthand.

For those suffering with clinical depression, TMS can be a life-saving treatment. Of the thousands of patients we’ve treated with TMS, a great number of them will attest to how much more life they were able to live after treatment. They’ll talk about how much happier their families were, and how improved their relationships were. Many talk about how near suicide they were until they began treatment.

It isn’t stretching the truth to say TMS saves lives. We’re being genuine when we talk about the decreased mental health toll we can offer people. We’re the largest single-site provider of TMS in the country, and we have much more experience than many other providers. We’ve turned TMS into an essential service for our patients because they treat it as one, and we’ve seen the results ourselves.

For those looking to change their lives for the better, please call today for a consultation. Check out the graphics and reviews we post on social media, and see our other past blogs about TMS to get a better understanding of what it is and how it works, and learn why TMS is an essential service at Alivation.

Alzheimer’s and Brain Awareness Month

June is Alzheimer’s and Brain Awareness Month.

Alzheimer’s is ranked as the sixth leading cause of death in the United States, although new estimates suggest the disease may rank just behind heart disease and cancer as a cause of death for older people. Alzheimer’s is not a normal part of the aging process. It’s the most common cause of dementia among older adults, and approximately 200,000 Americans under the age of 65 have early-onset forms of the disease. Alzheimer’s worsens over time, progressively worsening over the years. Eventually, individuals forget family members, lose the ability to carry on conversations, and respond to their environment at all.

This is what inspires the most dread.

Few things make up the individual like our memories. Our social connections, our familial relationships, and our memories of places and interactions form the core of our experiences. As we age, we naturally begin to forget some of those things. With Alzheimer’s, those experiences aren’t simply discarded or forgotten—they’re stolen. A grandparent, a parent, a friend losing their memory of you, who they are, and where they are is particularly tragic to us in this light. We lose our core selves.

Alzheimer’s is named after Dr. Alois Alzheimer, who, in 1906, noticed changes in the brain tissue of a woman who had died of an unknown illness—an illness that included memory loss, language problems, and unusual behavior. Upon studying her brain postmortem, Dr. Alzheimer found abnormal clumps (amyloid plaques), and tangled bundles of fibers, called tau tangles. These are still considered among the main features of Alzheimer’s, along with the loss of connections between neurons in the brain.

It’s been going on for decades, but the fight for Alzheimer’s awareness needs your help now more than ever. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, 50 million people worldwide are living with Alzheimer’s and other dementias. To raise awareness, the campaign encourages people to wear purple in support of this important month. It also encourages social media users to be active in spreading the word, using hashtags like #GoPurple and #EndAlz, or #ABAM for the entire month.

Alzheimer’s Disease is diagnosed in some of the following ways:

• Asking the person and a family member or friend questions about overall health, past medical problems, ability to carry out daily activities, and changes in behavior and personality.
• Conducting tests for memory, problem solving, attention, counting, and language.
• Carrying out standard medical tests, such as blood and urine tests, to identify other possible causes.
• Performing brain scans, such as computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), or positron emission tomography (PET), to rule out other possible causes for symptoms.

Though Alzheimer’s is a deadly, so far incurable illness, there is hope. Billions of dollars are spent every year funding research into the causes and potential cure, and the world has experienced a resurgence of interest in understanding and, hopefully one day eradicating, the disease. With increased education and awareness, the possibility increases that this may just come true, and we’ll live in a world without Alzheimer’s. In 2020, with your help, let’s work toward that common goal.

Taking Stock of Mental Health in June

June is the first official month of summer, and a great time to undertake important causes for mental health.

Aside from being Alzheimer’s and brain awareness month, it is also migraine and headache awareness month, PTSD awareness month, aphasia month, and professional wellness month. All important causes, and all important to acknowledge. With millions of sufferers globally, raising awareness for these issues has never been more critical.

At Alivation, we don’t just care about mental health—we care about the whole person, the whole being, and total wellness. We want everyone to understand that our physical and mental conditions are connected, and what we do with one system affects another. Challenges like PTSD, Alzheimer’s, and aphasia are all tough, potentially debilitating conditions that can cause great suffering. Not just mentally, but physically and emotionally as well.

And so too with the people in our lives.

Conditions such as these not only affect the patients, but their families and friends, as well. They can cause a tremendous strain on personal lives, relationships, and families. Awareness of those challenges, and the unique treatments for them, can be beneficial to the whole community. There’s a great benefit in personal wellness for all.

June is also a great time to take stock of how much we’ve achieved, and how much progress we’ve made in treating all these serious conditions. We’re gradually learning and understanding more, and working to not only manage but actually cure these challenges. It’s important to remember the great strides being done to improve the quality of life for everyone, and all those around us.

No matter your challenges in life, mental, physical, or both, there is help, and there is hope. June is when we acknowledge that, and when we work to understand, educate, and spread awareness globally.

Racism, Violence, and Mental Health

Our communities, and our world, are hurting.

The murder of George Floyd has set off a firestorm around the country; Lincoln and Omaha have had large-scale, visible demonstrations. The topics on everyone’s minds are racism, violence, police brutality, and the future. Many are afraid. What was already cast in uncertainty with COVID has been thrown into chaos by one question:

Can we be better?

It would seem easy to say yes, but it isn’t. It’s a complicated, tough question that goes to the heart of our values and our society. It cuts to the core of an individual. Many of us cannot understand the fear and anxiety that goes along with being a Black American in today’s society. Many of us cannot understand how a simple traffic stop can turn into a death sentence. Even more of us can’t understand if it can be fixed.

As we’re a mental health organization, our focus is first and foremost on the mental and interior processes. We’ve been incredibly fortunate to share in journeys with countless patients over the years. We’ve seen people come back from the brink of suicide, drug and alcohol abuse, and violence. It’s become clear that Next Level You means more, and it must. We all have another journey to take, together.

We must go from confusion, chaos, or fear, to understanding, hope, and healing. We must help our friends, our family, and our community return from dark places. If our community is in a depression, mental and spiritual, then as a mental health organization it is our priority to help it return to normal or better, as we’ve done with many patients before. It is our goal to help offer a dream of better things for a troubled world.

No one should live a life of fear. No one should live a life of anxiety and stress. Violence has cut down too many lives to ever count, and it’s a senseless tragedy that it is so often allowed to continue. It not only affects our minds, but our judgment. It affects how we treat and relate to others, and how we seek treatment. It can change what is important to us, for the worst.

We hold out hope for the mental health of our country. We’re committed to doing our part to make it better, to see as many people as possible, to provide caring, compassionate care for all. To understand, and help heal. We want to listen, and we want to partner with everyone on this mutual, continuing journey. We’re dedicated to making Next Level You stronger. We’re committed to everyone being better. We’re committed to a better future for all.