Why Don't Doctors Talk To Us About Self-Care? (And How To Bring It Up)- By MBG/Kelly Gonsalves

These days, "self-care" is a household term. The self-care movement—grown in response to our modern, high-stress lifestyle born of the digital age and its accompanying mental health crisis—has taken hold of our collective consciousness. We know we're supposed to spend time on ourselves, doing things that heal and restore our spirits and fill our cup back up. Conversations about what self-care looks like have flooded social media and wellness spaces (hello!), but one place where they're conspicuously absent? The doctor's office.

A new study found three out of four people haven't talked to their physician about self-care in at least two years. Yet the majority of patients—72% of those surveyed—wish they did.

The survey, conducted by the Harris Poll on behalf of Samueli Integrative Health Programs, asked more than 1,000 adults and more than 300 physicians about self-care. A whopping 96% of those docs called self-care an "essential" part of a person's health, but nearly half of them say patients don't seem interested in talking about it. Weird, because 57% of patients say they want to talk to their doctors about what's important in their lives, 66% wish their doctor would give them more self-care guidance, and 65% want their doc involved in "all aspects" of their health.

"What these results show us is that patients have a strong desire for their physicians to be involved in more aspects of their health—beyond pills and procedures," Wayne Jonas, M.D., .....Read more here