Bob Rennebohm Clinical Social Worker

10/24/2025

In my Mental Wellness Clinician role, I review this information 2-3 times per work day with new clients. They're often looking for support/coaching for anxiety, depression, substance use comorbidities but, at the heart of their challenges is a life long dance with their ADHD. Many were diagnosed in their childhood but were never medically supported, reporting their parents response "you're not going to dope up my kid so he'll sit still at school!"
If you're still on the fence about ADHD, this is a good research summary:

https://www.additudemag.com/adhd-myths-history-evolution/?ecd=wnl_additude_251024_cons_adhd_best&goal=0_d9446392d6-124fc42eac-288704589&utm_source=flipboard&utm_content=other

10/10/2025

One of the big culprits in excessive anxiety. Figure this out, move away from your endless anxiety!

Your brain's alarm was built for predators, not texts, and this ancient wiring fuels modern anxiety. Learn 3 simple ways to retrain it and stop catastrophizing.

09/11/2025

Mismanagement of their normal anxiety processes is the single most common things that brings people to consult with me. Sorting out how to understand their mismanaged anxiety, creating and implementing an action plan is the key to a path forward. It isn't always neccessay to 'resolve' your past to use your anxiety to change your life; in fact, a deep dive into the crap we all carry is often very counter-productive.
Great article on how to understand and use your anxiety:

Most of us have learned deeply unhelpful things about anxiety, to the extent that we may not even know what this emotion does, how it works, or how to work with it.

09/09/2025

There's a form of therapy called Narrative Therapy. When I first ran across it in the 90s, I was intrigued - I knew that the language patterns (not just the content) people used to describe their lives was a pathway to understanding their difficulties. The idea seemed to be that teaching people the skills to (perhaps) 'change your story, change your life' could be part of helping people to begin a shift to a healthier, happier life. Not surprisingly, it proved a complex undertaking and, 30 years later, I'm still using the concepts in my 'mental wellness' role. This article is about your 'internal dialogue', often the culprit in folks with depression or persistent anxiety. It plays out in a related way - 'change your dialogue, change your emotional state, remove the basis of your anxiety/depression'.

Understanding and reshaping internal language empowers individuals to improve self-awareness, reduce stress, and transform negative thought patterns into purposeful, life-enhancing dialogue.

07/18/2025

I periodically post about the limited research/empirical support for antidepressants. In particular, the marketing oy that they affect your neurotransmitters is long debunked, raising the question of how (if?) the brain is the main driver of a depressive process. To complicate this picture, consider the microbiome? This article looks at the impact antidepressants have on the microbiome - what if the gut/microbiome are a bigger driver of depressive processes than is the brain? My guess would be that Big Pharma is already chasing this area, knowing full well that the ship has sailed on their lucrative antidepressant business.

A surprising new study reveals a twist in the gut-brain connection. While anxiety and depression are linked to distinct gut bacteria, commonly prescribed medications show an even stronger association with microbiome changes than the mental health conditions themselves.