You’ve heard it all at dinner parties, graduations, school fundraisers, and family cookouts … At least, I have: Psychiatry is a business that is medicating every normal syndrome out there: Too shy to ask a girl to prom? Take Zoloft for Social Anxiety Disorder…. Grieving the loss of a spouse a year after he passed...

I’ve long been interested in the connection between mental health and addiction because the worlds of recovery are so similar and yet so different. One of my biggest frustrations in addiction recovery circles is the lack of awareness of mental health–especially the physiological nature that threatens lives. And many depressed folks don’t take seriously enough...

The night we turn back the clocks for Daylight Savings Time has always been for the universe’s invitation for me to get out my mammoth HappyLite from the bedroom closet and start soaking in the 10,000 lux that I hope soaks lots of sanity into my head. I realize that Daylight Savings doesn’t take the...

A new study from Ohio State University and the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid in Spain, and published in Psychological Study found that when a person writes an unwanted thought down on paper and throws the paper away, he or she mentally discards the thought. Conversely, when a person writes down a thought and puts the paper in his or...

As a manic-depressive, my postcard from the Caribbean would say, “Having a ball, wish I were dead.” (My guardian angel, Ann, came up with that one.) That’s how moody I am. And my moods definitely fluctuate according to the seasons.Thus, my love-hate relationship with October. Typically, in a non-global-warming world, this is the month when...