Inspired from all the comments she received from my interview with her on chronic illness, Dr. Elvira Aletta compiled some suggestions for finding a good-enough doctor. In her Psych Central post called “Tips to Find a Good-Enough Doctor,” she throws out three basic qualities she looks for in a doctor: Expertise, knowledge, intellectual curiosity and...

In her gutsy book, Think: Straight Talk for Women to Stay Smart in a Dumbed-Down World, attorney and national television legal analyst Lisa Bloom paints a dire picture: The problem is not just about that 25 percent of young women who would rather be hot than smart; rather, it’s about a culture that actually makes...

This week I have the pleasure of interviewing Michelle Russell, who writes the fantastic blog, “Practice Makes Imperfect.” Since we talk about perfectionism a lot on Beyond Blue–because it’s so related to depression–I thought she’d be a perfect guest to interrogate on this topic. Therese: What are five ways a person can tackle perfectionism? Michelle:...

Below, I have reprinted a fascinating article by James Potash, associate professor of psychiatry and co-director of the Mood Disorders Program (where I graduated with the help of Dr. Smith) at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore. More and more research is showing that the brain actually shrinks with severe depression, and that...

Back in the mid-twentieth century, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross identified the five stages of grief—denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance—and they stuck. Heck, I just wrote about them last month. According to Susan Berger, researcher and practitioner in the health and mental health fields for over twenty-five years, those five stages may work well for the dying...