Today I have the privilege of interviewing Dr. Norman Rosenthal, the noted research psychiatrist about his new book, “The Gift of Adversity,” that explores how life’s disappointments and difficulties provide us with the lessons we need to become better, bigger, and more resilient human beings. As a world-class psychiatrist, what have you found to be […]
Knowing when to commit yourself or a loved one to the hospital to be treated for severe depression can be a very gray matter. I wish there was a set of directions much like those when you are in labor: if contractions come within five minutes of each other and last a minute long, pack […]
According to Dr. Cliff Arnalls, a British psychologist with Cardiff University, a number of factors coincide to make January 24th the most depressing day of the year: It’s dark. Not as dark as December 21st, the shortest day of the year, but dark enough to make our heads and bodies crave sunlight. Christmas bills come […]
The Paradoxical Commandments were written by Kent Keith in 1968 as part of a booklet for student leaders. Since then they have made their way to lot of refrigerator doors, speeches, and articles. Mother Teresa hung them on the wall of her children’s home in Calcutta. Here are a few: People are unreasonable, illogical, and […]
The self-defeating thoughts that accompany depression are among the most painful elements of the illness. When I’m in the thick of the darkness, I can’t see anything remotely positive about myself. I concentrate solely on my weaknesses. The other day I wrote down some affirmations to say when I’m in this place, to remind myself […]
Some of you may recognize my dream, but I like to repost it every now and then to keep it alive and give it legs. In celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr.: I have a dream that one day I won’t hold my breath every time I tell a person that I suffer from bipolar […]
If a woman doesn’t want to have sex with her husband but does it anyway to please him, is she codependent or compassionate? That was the subject of debate a few days ago among some friends and I. Half said she was codependent and half said compassionate. The line between codependency and compassion can be […]
For two decades Richard J. Davidson, founder of the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds and the William James and Vilas Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has documented how meditation can alter your brain. He has studied the brains of Buddhist monks who, for instance, have a much stronger “gamma” wave […]
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a non-invasive procedure that stimulates nerve cells in the brain with short magnetic pulses. A large electromagnetic coil is placed against the scalp which generates focused pulses that pass through the skull and stimulate the cerebral cortex of the brain, a region that regulates mood. The procedure was approved by […]
In his book “Emotional First Aid,” psychologist Guy Winch shows us the strategies he uses with patients in his own practice to help heal psychological wounds so that we can feel better quickly and improve our lives over the long haul. Dr. Winch discusses the seven most common psychological injuries we suffer from in daily […]
It’s flu-fighting season and time to stock up on vitamin C, vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin E, B vitamins, selenium, zinc, probiotics, flavonoids, certain amino acids and fibers … or just eat the foods that contain them. Here, then, is a list of the top 10 immune boosters, tasty chow with nutrients sure to power […]
Some of my favorite quotes on why it’s best to be yourself … Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind. –Dr. Seuss I should love to satisfy all, if I possibly can; but in trying to satisfy all, I may be […]
Both David Burns (bestselling author of “Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy” and Abraham Low (founder of Recovery, Inc.) teach techniques to analyze negative thoughts (or identify distorted thinking — what psychologists call “cognitive distortions”) so to be able to disarm and defeat them. This is one of the major precepts of cognitive behavioral therapy. Since Low’s […]
One of the best pieces of marriage advice I heard before walking down the aisle was a nugget of wisdom that’s been circulating rooms of 12-step support meetings for years: before you open you’re mouth, consider whether you’re HALT (hungry, angry, lonely, or tired). In our house, the sleeplessness has been the biggest culprit toward […]
There is no word in the English language I despise more than “relapse,” because by the time I use it, I have suffered months of agonizing depression that involves the typical of symptoms you check off at a psychiatrist’s office: overwhelming guilt, fantasizing about death, no energy, lots of tears, trouble sleeping, eating too much […]
Research by Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis, and Annie McKee indicates that most change efforts—like New Year’s resolutions—fail after the initial implementation or honeymoon phase. Self-discipline isn’t enough to make positive changes stick. In their book, “The Power of Full Engagement,” Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz propose that we create rituals to help support our resolutions […]
