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.

07/10/2025

Not within my scope of practice but not to be ignored! If I was mid-career, I'd absolutely be learning this approach:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/reducing-suffering/202506/can-hypnosis-enhance-psychedelic-assisted-psychotherapy?utm_source=flipboard&utm_content=topic%2 psychology

Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy (PAP) can have a powerful impact on mental health. When used correctly, hypnosis can likely enhance PAP; sloppy use, however, will likely muddy it.

07/02/2025

Comprehensive look at the ADHD diagnosis:

The diagnostic category of adult ADHD is becoming more inclusive. That’s not the same as it being overdiagnosed

06/07/2025

My new 'mental wellness clinician' role: a shorter term focused position with a view to assist people to avoid mental illness. Anxiety and depression travel together (are comorbid) - one of my better teachers noted that anxiety (untreated) precedes depression by about 2 years in his clinical experience. Anxiety arises in the part of your brain that tracks environmental danger, looking for patterns that, in the past' have been problematic. Think of anxiety as your brain saying 'there's something wrong here, better do something or bad things are going to happen'.
Not surprisingly, I'm getting about 75% of my referrals with a presenting anxiety problem. I'm pleased to note that folks respond quickly to an explanation of the biology underlying the process by which their anxiety arises and, more importantly, are responsive to the resources/tools I'm able to teach them. This article is about an early step in our process - distinguishing between 'solvable' and '' unsolvable' problems. Anxiety associated with solvable problems can be eliminated quickly if you solve the problem (do your homework, practice your new skills, stop cheating by kicking your problem down the road). Anxiety driven by unsolvable problems requires self-care skills and tending to your mental fitness (think: if life requires you to run a marathon, sitting on the couch, drinking beer is a sure fire recipe for suffering).
So, get at it - sort your problems in to the two piles and get busy, the solvable problems won't fix themselves (but if you wait long enough, they'll push you into depression), the unsolvable ones need you to start trainng for their required marathon (because depression is already beckoning to you).
The article is a useful look at this:

Psychotherapy aids by either confronting issues or helping clients adjust to them. It improves well-being, whether through symptom relief or fostering emotional resilience.

02/19/2025

Good update on ADHD.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/beautiful-minds/202502/adhd-isnt-a-trauma-reaction?utm_source=flipboard&utm_contentOTHER

I am inundated with Instagram ads telling me that “ADHD is not laziness, it’s a trauma response.” Well actually, it's neither! These falsehoods are so popular, yet so wrong.

02/06/2025

Wise words: sometimes these are hard concepts for people bend their brains around. However, we really do create our reality and we have lots of wiggle room in how much anxiety/stress we manufacture for ourselves depending on the reality we create. Psycho babble? Read the article and see what you think.

The only person who can manage your stress is you, but these thoughts can give you a boost.

01/07/2025

From a Mental Wellness perspective, recovering from a 'mental illness' is not just the absence of the symptoms that got you that diagnosis in the first place. The departure of symptoms might be an important part of your process but mental wellness isn't just the absence of mental illness. This article provides a framework for you to consider in your own mental wellness.

What does true recovery from an eating disorder look like? Let’s explore this “murky” but meaningful journey.

06/13/2024

This article teaches a fundamental technique for overcoming negative thought patterns. It's based on some neurophysiology - the newest part of our brains, the neocortex, is where we get ourselves into mental health trouble. This is where we do our catastophization, over-inclusive thinking, obsessing and so on. If these are familiar to you, you also know how hard it is to turn these off once they start. This technique relies on the ability of older brain systems to over ride the neocortex. Our survival functions are embedded in the mid-brain, they are more important to our survival than the offerings of the neocortex. Turn your sensation system on, turn your attention to it and the part of your brain complaining to you about how useless you are fades away. I teach this one to most clients, it's simple and sure fire:

Depression can cause you to think too much — and physically sense too little, suggests a growing body of research.