Buddhism asserts that attachment is the primary source of suffering. So then detachment or “non-attachment” would be our ticket out of that pain. Except that it’s not so easy … letting go of a person, place, or thing that has our heart temporarily held hostage. You may be grieving the death of a loved one,...

I carry a few different business cards in my purse. Because I never know what conversation I will have with a stranger at any given time. A month ago I fetched cream for my coffee at a café in South Bend, Indiana. Naturally my family didn’t know a soul in the joint. However, by the...

One form of cognitive behavioral therapy is exposure therapy, where your brain is supposed to form new connections and rewrite the language of your amygdala (fear center), so that it doesn’t associate every dog with the pit bull who took a bite out of your thigh in the fourth grade. By doing the exact thing...

I loved this post by Elvira Aletta, Ph.D. on Psychcentral! To view the entire post, click here. I have excerpted her five tips for people who love persons afflicted with mental illness. 1) Be informed. Go to the library or do a Google search to learn more about whatever diagnosis our loved one has. Be...

The question of whether or not you should start taking antidepressants is complex and difficult to answer. But even fuzzier is the question of when or if you should stop. Last May, NPR ran a piece called “Coming Off Antidepressants Can Be Tricky Business.” Joanne Silberner writes: Several top psychiatrists say there’s just not enough...