I need all the pep talks I can get. The following are my favorite quotes on courage. Courage is not the absence of despair; it is, rather, the capacity to move ahead in spite of despair. –Rollo May You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear...

Insomnia is aggravated and perpetuated by a set of false beliefs. Sometimes we don’t even realize what we believe about sleep–and how those beliefs trigger anxiety and compromise a good night’s sleep—until they are laid out before us. In their book, “Quiet Your Mind & Get to Sleep,” authors Colleen Carney, Ph.D. and Rachel Manber,...

In his book “What Happy People Know,” Dan Baker argues that you can’t be in a state of appreciation and fear, or anxiety, at the same time. “During active appreciation,” Baker writes, “the threatening messages from your amygdala [fear center of the brain] and the anxious instincts of your brainstem are cut off, suddenly and...

Good sleep can mean the difference between crazy and sane … between crying between meetings at work or lashing out at your husband over laundry and a semi-functional person who can fake it enough to keep her marriage and her job intact. It’s one of the members of my holy trinity of good mental health,...

A review in the journal “Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience” awhile back highlighted certain medications that can cause depression. The following medications should be used cautiously in people with current or prior depression, or those who are otherwise at high risk for depression: Barbiturates Vigabatrin (Sabril) Topiramate (Topamax) Flunarizine Corticosteroids Mefloquine Efavirenz (Sustiva) Inteferon-alpha These medications...