Medically reviewed by Tracy McCarthy, MD — Board-Certified Psychiatrist, IFM-Certified Functional Medicine Practitioner It Is Not in Your Head Every year around the same time, something shifts. The days get shorter. The light changes quality. And a heaviness settles in lower energy, more difficulty waking in the morning, a pull toward withdrawal, a mood that is harder to access or lift. You may dismiss it as busyness or attribute it to stress. You may tell yourself to push through. There is a...

Medically reviewed by Tracy McCarthy, MD — Board-Certified Psychiatrist, IFM-Certified Functional Medicine Practitioner When the Standard Answer Has Not Been Enough You have tried medication. Maybe it helped partially. Maybe it did not help at all. Maybe the side effects made staying on it too difficult. You have been in therapy, and it has given you useful tools but something underneath still feels off. A heaviness. A flatness. An inability to feel quite like yourself that does not seem to...

Medically reviewed by Tracy McCarthy, MD — Board-Certified Psychiatrist, IFM-Certified Functional Medicine Practitioner Something Has Actually Shifted You are eating roughly the way you always have. Your activity level is similar. And yet your body is responding differently. Energy is less predictable. Weight distribution has changed. Blood sugar feels less stable. Recovery from a disrupted week takes longer than it used to. This is not imagination, and it is not simply aging. These are...