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Funny People: Mental Illness As Double-Edged SwordEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
In the mid-1990's something strange happened to Martin Lawrence, an exceedingly successful Hollywood comedian. He engaged in a violent outburst and drug abuse on the set of "A Thin Line Between Love and Hate." Increasingly erratic behavior culminated in an arrest for waving a pistol and screaming at tourists on Ventura Boulevard in L.A. The answers to psychological mysteries such as this are usually a combination of nature and nurture, of self and environmental forces interacting in a precise, perfect storm sort of way. Indeed, there may be a combustible relationship between a comedian's mindset and the social world of Hol...
Source: Psychology Today Stress Center - August 13, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Jeremy Clyman Tags: Addiction Anxiety Creativity Depression Happiness Media Relationships Therapy adam sandler blood disorder comedian comedians comedy comedy and tragedy environmental forces erratic behavior film film history funny joke Source Type: consumer

ADD and SexEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
As many of you have seen, I am on a mission to highlight some of the traps to be avoided by those lucky individuals who have symptoms of ADD and ADHD. Being categorized in this realm for all my life, I will always be grateful for my "condition" because once I got beyond the heavy regimentation of academic education, I found my brain dynamics to spur me into tremendous advantages of creativity and personal gratification in fantasy and life philosophy of joy.But yes, there are some traps I have learned that can be trials, both for the individual and those who have to live with him or her. My last discussion was about flying,...
Source: Psychology Today Stress Center - July 29, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: G. Frank Lawlis, Ph.D. Tags: Anxiety ADD or ADHD relationships Sex problems Source Type: consumer

What Really Matters?Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!" Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare, The lone and level sands stretch far away. --Percy Bysshe Shelley "Time is on my side." --Jagger "Time, that great eater of Time." &nb...
Source: Psychology Today Stress Center - July 29, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Eliezer Sobel Tags: Aging Anxiety Creativity Happiness Health Memory Personality Philosophy Resilience Spirituality Work accomplishment appreciation being caregiving Facebook Father William McNamara flow future Gracem identity. awareness Source Type: consumer

OCD Treatment: As Good As It Gets?Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
I got a call from a psychiatrist colleague of mine a while back. He was an old-school Freudian psychoanalyst who had his patients come in twice a week to lie on a couch, talk about their dreams, free-associate about childhood experiences, and so on. Although this type of treatment might be useful for some patients - especially those who wish to better understand and change troublesome personality patterns - it has not always been strongly supported by research.As it turned out, the psychiatrist was calling to ask if I would take on one of his patients who suffered from obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) - a debilitating m...
Source: Psychology Today Stress Center - July 20, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Stephen Ilardi, Ph.D. Tags: Anxiety Psychiatry Therapy anafranil behavior therapy brainer childhood experiences favorable treatment free associate freudian psychoanalysis freudian psychoanalyst institutes of mental health Jack Nicholson medication nationa Source Type: consumer

Is Harry Really Hairy?Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
In a recent book, and accompanying article, autistic savant Daniel Tammet explored the connections between associative thought and creativity. Inspired by his thoughts, I found myself exploring all the ways associative thinking manifests in my life. As I explored, I realized something that I hadn't expected - that the roots of many of my social issues lie at the intersection of visual and associative thought. One of my first "A-ha!" moments in my Asperger's journey was reading Temple Grandin's description of her particular brand of associative visual thought, which is very similar to mine. She...
Source: Psychology Today Stress Center - July 15, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Lynne Soraya Tags: Anxiety Autism Child Development Creativity Happiness Health Memory Neuroscience Relationships Resilience Self-Help Social Life asperger syndrome ' s disorder death fear feet friends names phobia Temple Grandin Source Type: consumer

Why the draw to Michael Jackson now?Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
In conclusionI should note that the above list is by no means exhaustive. However, I did find a lot of value in thinking about how BIRGing, death as scarcity, death as existential terror, and nostalgia were being evidenced, especially by people who weren't huge Jackson fans. In many ways, this isn't really a blog about Jackson per se, but rather about how people seek ways to extend their sense of self to others in the service of connection and self-worth. Civic pride, high school reunions, sports teams, and even political party affiliations can serve these roles as well. Like most things psychological, many of these proces...
Source: Psychology Today Stress Center - July 8, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Allen R. McConnell, Ph.D. Tags: Anxiety Happiness Media Relationships Resilience Social Life baseball team birg chicago cubs chicago cubs fan college graduate constructions core fans death everyday people first person plural king of pop lazy weekend m Source Type: consumer

Taowinism: Tao+Darwin & Serenity prayer variations Part 2Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
I'm a Taowinist--a cross between a Taoist and a Darwinist. I remember the night I realized it. I was reading Alan Watts on Taoism and this sentence jumped out at me:The lifestyle of one who follows the Tao must be thought of as a form of intelligence. That is, knowing the patterns, structures, and trends of human and natural affairs so well that one uses the least amount of energy dealing with them. At the time I had been thinking a lot about Darwinism and the serenity prayer. You know the serenity prayer, right? Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and th...
Source: Psychology Today Stress Center - July 1, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Jeremy Sherman, Ph.D. Tags: Anxiety Behavioral Economics Evolutionary Psychology Personality Philosophy Relationships Self-Help Social Life Spirituality Work change choice courage Darwin decisions dilemmas doubt flexibility options serenity pray Source Type: consumer

Ending Emotional Abuse Requires a Commitment to CompassionEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
A quarter century of working with chronic resentment, anger, and abuse of all kinds has firmly taught me what the ancients knew. The only way out of the relentless pendulum of pain that keeps loved ones hurting each other, over and over, in fairly predictable intervals, is through sustained compassion.I don't mean the Mother Theresa kind of self-sacrificing compassion. I'm talking about simple, everyday, basic humanity compassion that allows you to be true to your deepest values even when you greatly disagree with loved ones and when you must set limits on their behavior.The first thing we require in our Love without Hurt ...
Source: Psychology Today Stress Center - June 9, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Steven Stosny Tags: Anxiety Depression Happiness Health Psychotherapy Relationships Resilience Self-Help compassion emotional abuse verbal abuse Source Type: consumer

Fungibility: Build to last forever; be ready to leave tomorrowEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
A few weeks ago I wrote an article called Job Security: loving your work whether you’ve got work or not. Basically it was a case for cultivating backup plans, fungible, functional equivalents to your main plan. I applied for a job recently that I didn’t get, and it didn’t bother me because I have lots of other work to do. In that respect I have “job security.”The title of that article plays with an ambiguity around the word “work.” How can you love your work whether you’ve got your work or not? By applying two different definitions of work. The first one, the work to love, is your li...
Source: Psychology Today Stress Center - June 8, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Jeremy Sherman, Ph.D. Tags: Anxiety Behavioral Economics Happiness Parenting Philosophy Relationships Resilience Self-Help Social Life Spirituality Work ambigamy commitment flexibility love romance stress Source Type: consumer

Beer, Meds and Men Don't Mix - Or Maybe They Do?Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
From my real, and not so imagined, life as a bipolar princess:So Nick and I rip onto the highway, heading west. It's summer. Hot, scorching really. We're in his, what really should be an ‘off-the-road' vehicle. No, I don't mean an ‘off road' vehicle, but literally a car that should be impounded. Certain parts, which look to me as fairly operationally essential, appear to be held together by silver duct tape (and probably a lot of his spit and some crazy glue). It's a Ford Pinto - I think. Meaning either a bean or in Brazilian slang: penis. Really. Somehow very appropriate. My fear of dying by spontaneously combusting i...
Source: Psychology Today Stress Center - June 5, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Victoria Maxwell Tags: Anxiety Depression Relationships Sex Social Life bipolar disorder dating humor humour hypersexuality love mania manic depression mental illness passion personal experience psychiatric ward psychiatry recovery romance Source Type: consumer

Taking the relationships of ADD seriouslyEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
In the last two posts I have written rather humorous aspects of my personal experiences being diagnosed with ADD and the dangers in marriages. In response to my perceived levity I have received responses that these approaches were not appreciated as much as I enjoyed writing about them. Hopefully, I can correct the perception that these and other personality factors related to the issues with ADD are challenging and sometimes overwhelming, but I suspect that the humor may be part of the issue as well as well as one problem in marriage relationships as well.I think it is well documented that the mind of someone with ADD has...
Source: Psychology Today Stress Center - May 22, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: G. Frank Lawlis, Ph.D. Tags: Anxiety ADD humor Source Type: consumer

Give Your Brain A Break!Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Doesn't your brain just want to explode some days? Between keeping your own schedule (and your kids' and your spouse's and maybe even your boss' too), remembering all your internet passwords, tracking tasks and projects at home and at work, and managing your home -- life can feel overwhelming. Your brain is an amazing little machine with unfathomable capabilities, but sometimes the poor thing just feels FULL! Give your precious brain a break by... creating a simple process to capture the information that swirls around in your head, taking your attention. How can you be fully present to watch Idol on Tuesdays if you're all ...
Source: Psychology Today Stress Center - May 21, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Monica Ricci Tags: Anxiety Happiness Memory Self-Help Work blog boss brain breaking point capabilities distracting thoughts Facebook internet passwords little pieces managing your home nbsp pda pencil productivity repository sleep t Source Type: consumer

Job Security: To love your work whether you've got work or notEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
I play bass and sing in jazz combos. Unlike rock, where band members stay together for years if they can stand each other, jazz gigging is more like pickup softball games. You get a call asking if you can make some café gig and if you can, you’re often meeting fellow players for the first time while setting up for the show. Like pickup games you can learn something about where you are in the pecking order by when you’re called. If you’re called right before a gig it probably means you’re pretty far down the list. When I was young I hated that aspect of pickup games. I wasn’t great so they’d g...
Source: Psychology Today Stress Center - May 19, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Jeremy Sherman, Ph.D. Tags: Addiction Anxiety Creativity Depression Philosophy Procrastination Psych Careers Social Life Spirituality Work business economic downturn gigging jazz Jeremy Sherman laid off Tao Te Ching underemployment unemployment Source Type: consumer

Emotional Abuse: Why Anger Management Didn't WorkEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Anger management programs for emotional or verbal abusers sometimes produce short-term gains that disappear when follow-up is done a year or so later. That was probably your experience if your partner took an anger management class. If you're lucky, you may have seen a lower tone to the chronic blame - anger management classes sometimes turn a yeller into a stonewaller.The worst kind of anger management class teaches men to "get in touch with their anger" and to "express it" or "get it out." The assumption is that emotions are like 19th century steam engines that need to "let off steam" on a regular basis. These kinds of c...
Source: Psychology Today Stress Center - May 13, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Steven Stosny Tags: Anxiety Relationships Self-Help anger management anger problems emotional abuse verbal abuse Source Type: consumer

Emotional Abuse: Why Your Individual Therapy Didn't Help and Your Partner's Made it WorseEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Many abused women in individual therapy withhold important details about their relationships. Most say they're embarrassed to be completely honest with their therapists.One of the women I treated in connection with an Oprah Winfrey Show was convinced that her therapist, whom she thought was "awesome," wouldn't like her if she knew about the harsh emotional abuse she endured at home. She saw that same therapist for five years without ever mentioning her husband's severe problems with anger and emotional abuse. By the time I met her on the show, she was suffering from acute depression and anxiety that were ruining her physic...
Source: Psychology Today Stress Center - May 6, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Steven Stosny Tags: Anxiety Depression Happiness Health Psychotherapy Relationships Self-Help Social Life emotional abuse marriage marriage help marriage problems verbal abuse Source Type: consumer

How To Survive Mother's DayEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
My mother died when I was a teenager and, although I have grown step-sons, I have never raised a child of my own.On the surface, it would seem as if I have more a connection to almost any other holiday--including Flag Day, Arbor Day, and Periodontal Appreciation Day--than Mother’s Day.But just as fish are not necessarily the best authorities on water, so are mothers not necessarily best authorities on the causes and effects of motherhood.“Causes?”you might be saying, with an emphasis on the plural. “Did they invent another way to get pregnant while I was out of town?”But indeed there are lots of ways to become a ...
Source: Psychology Today Stress Center - May 5, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Regina Barreca, Ph.D. Tags: Anxiety Creativity Depression Gender Happiness Parenting Personality Philosophy Relationships Resilience Self-Help Social Life childless humor loss Mother ' s Day parents Source Type: consumer

Emotional Abuse: Why Your Marriage Counseling FailedEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
If you live with a resentful, angry, or emotionally abusive person, you most likely have tried marriage counseling that made things worse at home.By the time couples come to our boot camps for chronic resentment, anger, or emotional abuse, they have been to an average of three marriage counselors. A major reason for their disappointment is that marriage counseling presupposes that both parties have self-regulation skill - the ability to hold onto self-value while they regulate guilt, shame, and a state of inadequacy, without feeling entitled to blame them on one another. In our Age of Entitlement, fewer couples seem able o...
Source: Psychology Today Stress Center - May 3, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Steven Stosny Tags: Anxiety Depression Happiness Health Psychotherapy Relationships Self-Help anger management marriage marriage counseling verbal abuse Source Type: consumer

Managing Anxiety About Swine FluEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
In conclusion, keep things in perspective and maintain a hopeful attitude. Frankly, I personally am affronted by much of what I what I see and hear the "talking heads" on television say about the current situation. Thus I recommend that you and your family avoid staying "glued" to the TV news programs but rather seek periodic updates from more credible sources such as the CDC website. Good luck. Primary WebMD XPG: 4067: flu Secondary WebMD XPG: 2951: anxiety (Source: Psychology Today Stress Center)
Source: Psychology Today Stress Center - April 29, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: John A. Call, Ph.D., J.D., A.B.P.P. Tags: Anxiety Health Resilience Self-Help american psychological association apa CDC cdc states center for disease control checklists flu flu crisis flu pandemic hopeful outlook influenza influenza pandemic magnitude outbreak Source Type: consumer

Hypochondriacs Get Sick,TooEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Jerry insisted his eyes were yellow, but they didn't appear yellow to me. I moved in for a closer look. Fluorescent lights like those in the office where I practice internal medicine can make subtle jaundice, a sign of liver disease, difficult to detect. No, his sclerae were as white as mine and, as usual, Jerry seemed to have absolutely wrong with him. Jerry visited my office frequently. He was in his mid twenties, handsome and well built, someone who should have felt invulnerable. Most men his age need to be talked in to going to the doctor occasionally--and talked out of taking risks with their health. Jerry needed no s...
Source: Psychology Today Stress Center - April 27, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Suzanne Koven, M.D. Tags: Anxiety Health Integrative Medicine doctors Source Type: consumer

The Leading Cause of Emotions: EmotionsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
By the time we're adults we have developed many conditioned inhibitions of emotional display which are largely motoric and automatic. These can lead you to feel misunderstood and to misunderstand others, especially if you or your therapist focuses on your feelings apart from their social context. But sometimes conditioned inhibition occurs with the emotion itself and not merely its display. In that case, other emotions, rather than motor reflexes, serve the inhibitory function.The primary inhibitory emotions are fear and shame. Once these become conditioned to occur with other emotions, enjoyment can cause shame of unworth...
Source: Psychology Today Stress Center - April 23, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Steven Stosny Tags: Anxiety Happiness Health Psychotherapy Relationships Self-Help Social Life anger conditioning emotions resentment Source Type: consumer

Fighting Flight FatigueEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Remedies for the jet lagged. (Source: Psychology Today Stress Center)
Source: Psychology Today Stress Center - April 15, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Tags: Stress Source Type: consumer

The Wisdom of Spontaneity (Part 3)Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
On Those Who Are Neither Spontaneous Nor Impulsive So far, I've talked about the many advantages of acting more spontaneously--and the various disadvantages of behaving impulsively. But what about those who almost never respond either way?--those whose habit is to painstakingly ruminate over almost every act, every choice, every decision? Such individuals, who might be seen generally as obsessive in their whole life orientation, fear the loss of control more than anything else. They're afraid of anything that could lead to failure or rejection--and the accompanying feelings of guilt, shame, or humiliation. Because, t...
Source: Psychology Today Stress Center - April 10, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Leon F. Seltzer, Ph.D. Tags: Anxiety Personality Philosophy Psychiatry Relationships Self-Help fear of losing control obsessive-compulsive personality disorder obsessiveness over-controlled personality spontaneity and anxiety Source Type: consumer

What Your College Rejection REALLY Means!Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Last week the University of California at San Diego mistakenly offered congratulations to nearly 29,000 applicants on their acceptance when, in fact, these poor souls were actually rejected by the school.This caused--as you might imagine--much discussion in various academic as well as non-academic circles, raising questions about the college application and acceptance process itself, about the emotional resilience of today's students and their helicopter parents, about the philosophical implications of all forms of institutional responsibility, and about what to do when you hit the "send" button before proofreading.Maybe t...
Source: Psychology Today Stress Center - April 9, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Regina Barreca, Ph.D. Tags: Anxiety Child Development Parenting Philosophy Resilience Social Life Work admissions College application computers education emails helicopter parents news school Source Type: consumer

Your Dysfunctional FamilyEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Families are not fair and we don't choose the one we are born or adopted into. Today a family is what most people are in recovery from. What is a functional family, anyway? Why doesn't yours match up?Here are three key elements of "the functional family".1.The functional family encourages the optimal growth of all of it's members and provides a safe space where individuals can more or less be themselves. Families promote of sense of unity and belonging (the "we") while respecting the separateness and difference of individual members (the "I"). 2. Parents make and enforce rules that guide a child's behavior but they do not ...
Source: Psychology Today Stress Center - April 6, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Harriet Lerner, Ph.D. Tags: Anxiety Happiness Parenting Relationships Self-Help anxious systems dysfunctional family good parenting ideal family Source Type: consumer

Blind Terror Meets Bunny EmpathyEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Our first born, who has asked to be called Alice, started out as a dog lover. In fact, she took her first steps in pursuit of three frolicking pups. She fearlessly toddled to the panting dogs, giggling with delight when they swiped at her cheeks with their long pink tongues. We thought that was it; she'd be a dog lover for life. But around age four, she began to recoil when dogs jumped to greet her; suddenly she seemed to perceive their open mouths and high energy as threatening. By third grade her terror had deepened to the point where even a small dog trotting down the opposite side of the street could send her leaping i...
Source: Psychology Today Stress Center - March 25, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Sybil Lockhart, Ph.D. Tags: Anxiety Happiness Parenting Pets Resilience Trauma cognitive therapy phobia Source Type: consumer

Controlling AngerEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
How to keep anger from eroding your life. (Source: Psychology Today Stress Center)
Source: Psychology Today Stress Center - March 17, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Tags: Stress Source Type: consumer

Mass Murder is Nothing to FearEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Two terrible incidents of violence occurred last week. Michael McLendon went on a killing rampage in Alabama that took the lives of 10 people before he killed himself. Half a world away in Germany, at about the same time, Tim Kretschmer attacked a school and murdered 15 people before killing himself. All told, 27 people died in these two incidents of mass murder.The news media in the United States has spent enormous amounts of time covering both incidents. We have not watched the German media, but it too has probably focused a lot of attention on the two incidents. It is probably safe to assume that news watchers in both c...
Source: Psychology Today Stress Center - March 16, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Joshua D. Foster Tags: Anxiety Law and Crime availability heuristic death fear mass murder probability Source Type: consumer

Marriage Help: Editing the Negative Movies in Your HeadEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Parts I and II of this post described how we make movies in our heads starring the people we love and how those movies can easily turn love sour. This post shows how to edit your movies for more benign and realistic characterizations of loved ones.Step one: Compassionate Binocular visionDue to the unavoidable bias of subjectivity, your perspective is never as factually right as it seems. But regardless of how right it may be in a given circumstance, it is always incomplete. The reality of your relationship has two perspectives that must be seen simultaneously.Many people resist holding their partner's perspective alongside...
Source: Psychology Today Stress Center - March 16, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Steven Stosny Tags: Anxiety Happiness Health Psychotherapy Relationships Self-Help Social Life love marriage help marriage problems Source Type: consumer

Learning Not to Lash OutEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Rumination can lead us to lash out. (Source: Psychology Today Stress Center)
Source: Psychology Today Stress Center - March 16, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Tags: Stress Source Type: consumer

Marriage Help: Love and the Movies in Your HeadEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
When we form emotional bonds with others, we also form dynamic internal images of them. In other words, the people we love star in movie scenes that we continually play inside our heads.Our internal movie scenes give us a persistent sense of the significant people in our lives when they are absent. The 14 month-old child who closes her eyes and vividly imagines her absent mother avoids the pangs of separation anxiety; mother still exists in her imagination and is likely to return in reality. Internal movies give us a sense of continuity and security. They help us explain and predict what is happening in our relationships.B...
Source: Psychology Today Stress Center - March 11, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Steven Stosny Tags: Anxiety Happiness Health Psychotherapy Relationships Self-Help Social Life love marriage help marriage problems Uncertainty absent mother adults bad day brain emotional bonds emotions heroes hypothesis imagination i Source Type: consumer

Stocks Go Down, Paranoia Goes UpEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
For a summary of the current economic crisis, we need to look no further than the recent comment by President Obama, who said, "this is a big problem and it's going to get worse."The recession will wreak (if it hasn't already) very obvious damage: reduced pay checks; joblessness; home repossessions; loss of health insurance; hundreds of thousands of families restricting their spending to the bare essentials.Less apparent however, but just as significant, are the effects of the crisis on the nation's emotional and mental well-being. If there's one factor that is almost guaranteed to trigger psychological difficulties it's s...
Source: Psychology Today Stress Center - March 9, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Guest Blogger Tags: Anxiety addictions bare essentials downturn economic crisis employment costs hammer blow home repossessions hundreds of thousands joblessness levels of stress paranoia psychological difficulties psychological problem relationsh Source Type: consumer

The Psychotherapy of Value = the Value of PsychotherapyEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
It was clear as we neared the end of our first session that Tom had worked hard to cultivate an ironic sense of humor, which had attracted many acquaintances but few emotional connections in his 41 years on earth. So I expected some witty remark to try to lighten the tone as he looked down at his fingers, toying with the loose fabric of the chair in my office. Still, I was in no way prepared for what he said on that summer afternoon some 15 years ago."I'm just another guy looking for a rainbow," he sighed.Maybe it was the shadowy tone of voice in which he said it or the thinness of his smile immediately afterwards. For wha...
Source: Psychology Today Stress Center - March 8, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Steven Stosny Tags: Addiction Anxiety Happiness Health Psychotherapy Relationships Self-Help Social Life anger compassion resentment value distant mountains ebb and flow emotional connections emotional experience glorious revolution ironic s Source Type: consumer

On Fetishes and Clean Pencil TipsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
There is a deep connection between phobias, fetishes, and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. In each, someone has an emotion that threatens to overwhelm her. Or, she has a complex brain--so her own racing thoughts threaten to derail her. In response, she compartmentalizes things in the outside world. A person with a fetish handles the monster of desire by focusing not on whole people but on parts--just a shoe, or the butt, or the slit in skirts. Focus on one thing organizes or restrains multiple feelings. A person with a phobia is similarly able to contain anxiety by condensing emotion to one target: She only fears spiders, or...
Source: Psychology Today Stress Center - March 8, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Ilana Simons, Ph.D. Tags: Anxiety Gender Happiness Health Personality Relationships Self-Help Sex Social Life dominant fetish male obsessive-compulsive phobia submissive color scheme coworker cuckold elevators fetishes freezer humiliation Source Type: consumer

Human Nature Abhors a Vacuum, TooEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
If scientists ever come up with a physics of the psyche, one of its first axioms might be the above title. We humans crave stimulation, and on many different levels. To experience ourselves as fully alive, we all have various "arousal requirements"-whether physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual. And if we feel under-stimulated, we'll generally complain of being bored, antsy, anxious, irritable, lonely, or even depressed.This post explores some of the less fortunate ramifications of our constant need for stimulation. Perhaps more than anything else, our arousal needs--and the negative emotions and states of mind we exper...
Source: Psychology Today Stress Center - March 5, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Leon F. Seltzer, Ph.D. Tags: Anxiety Depression Personality Philosophy Relationships Self-Help feelings of emptiness impulsive behavior inner void or vacuum need for stimulation under-stimulation accidents axioms charismatic leader emotional problems fri Source Type: consumer

Love, Marriage, and the Illusion of CertaintyEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
If you're like most people, you rode into married life on powerful waves of affection and intimacy that crashed occasionally into self-doubt and apprehension, only to rise again, stronger than ever. In other words, you believed that you married for love. That was the easy part. Lots of research shows that love is more effective at bringing us together than keeping us together. You may have heard the saying, "Love is easy; relationships are hard." The truth is relationships are hard because love is easy. Strong feelings and sensations of any kind carry an illusion of certainty. With the exception of resentment, no emotional...
Source: Psychology Today Stress Center - March 2, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Steven Stosny Tags: Anxiety Happiness Health Psychotherapy Relationships Self-Help Social Life compassion illusion of certainty love marriage help marriage problems affection apprehension backache couples disillusionment emotional experience Source Type: consumer

Are You Older than Edith Bunker or Norma Desmond?Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
It is astonishing how young a woman may be and yet be thought of as old, and how old a man may be and yet be thought of as young. I've been considering it. A lot. This started after I had my gallbladder removed, although I don't think that everyone necessarily experiences this as a side effect. When I was recuperating (already I'm introducing a wonderfully youthful phrase, right?), I caught the end of one of the world's best movies, SUNSET BOULEVARD. Enthralled, I watched it for the twentieth time, but--and this is the crucial factor--for first time in about ten years. Let me ask you: without checking-- no Googling n...
Source: Psychology Today Stress Center - February 28, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Regina Barreca, Ph.D. Tags: Aging Anxiety Creativity Gender Happiness Media Personality Philosophy Politics Self-Help Sex Trauma delirium demille films funny women gallbladder gloria swanson googling humor joe gillis mid-life crisis middle Source Type: consumer

Stress decreases risk-taking in older adults.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Stress clearly changes people's behavior. Just think about the last time that you were driving and someone nearly plowed into you. Your driving behavior was probably affected for some time to come. Short-term stress reactions like this are influenced by hormones. When you experience a stressful event, your body releases the stress hormone cortisol, which is known to affect both the brain and the body. A paper by mara Mather, Marissa Gorlick, and Nichole Lighthall in the February, 2009 issue of Psychological Science examined how risk-taking behavior was affected by stress both for young adults (between 18 and 33) and older ...
Source: Psychology Today Stress Center - February 24, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Art Markman, Ph.D. Tags: Aging Anxiety risk-taking stress 7 seconds hormones last time manipulation mara marissa mather older adults participants psychological science stress condition stress group stress hormone cortisol stress reactions stres Source Type: consumer

Facing Unemployment: Ten Steps to Handling Your Unemployment AnxietyEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Throughout the country we hear of factories closing, massive layoffs as companies retrench, stores going out of business and people everywhere facing unemployment. In January, 598,000 new people were added to the ranks of the unemployed in the United States for a total unemployment rate of 7.6 %. The total number of unemployed people reached 11.6 million in January 2009. Most forecasters expect the unemployment rate to go higher—perhaps to 9% or 10%. The unemployed face increased risk for binge drinking, depression, anxiety, and suicide. There is decreased quality of mental health, life satisfaction, and objective ph...
Source: Psychology Today Stress Center - February 23, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Robert L. Leahy, Ph.D. Tags: Anxiety Financial Anxiety Financial Worry Robert Leahy unemployment binge drinking depression anxiety factories financial situation forecasters going out of business health life hopelessness important things kindness life sat Source Type: consumer

How Do You Know You're Getting Better?Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
It’s been three days since The Operation. How do I know I’m getting better? I made lasagna today: 3 big ones, two little ones—with sausage, full-fat ricotta, the whole deal. Okay, so I couldn’t lift them (not even the little ones) because the stitches still pinch, but cooking them was a pleasure; Obviously, my appetite is back. It was gone for about, oh, an hour and a half. That was while I was unconscious. The moment I returned to consciousness, I had ginger ale and a muffin. By the way, I from what I recall, which is nothing, the anesthesia worked like a charm. I could talk on the phone, although...
Source: Psychology Today Stress Center - February 23, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Regina Barreca, Ph.D. Tags: Anxiety Diet Happiness Health Personality Relationships Resilience Self-Help Sleep Social Life Trauma comfort cooking drugs food friendship healing percocet recovery surgery wellness burning incense chimp conf Source Type: consumer

In Families, Blood May Be Thicker . . . but Skin Is Thinner (Part 3 of Why Criticism Is So Hard to Take)Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Originally, I was going to call this post, "I'm Always Getting Criticized: The Trials of Marriage." But I opted for the more "picturesque" title above. The main thing is that as a therapist I so frequently hear from couples that "she's always criticizing me!"--or "he's always criticizing me!" And in fact, if your relationship is sagging under the weight of daily squabbling or bickering, it's likely that each of you is experiencing the other as constantly judging or second-guessing you. Why is it that we often feel so compelled to find fault with our mate?--and to be considerably more vocal about our frustrations with them ...
Source: Psychology Today Stress Center - February 22, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Leon F. Seltzer, Ph.D. Tags: Anxiety Child Development Evolutionary Psychology Parenting Personality Philosophy Relationships Self-Help blood is thicker than water criticism in marriage parental bonding sensitivity to criticism thin-skinned people betrayal Source Type: consumer

Uncertainty Is Your Friend, Part III: Emotions Are All of the AboveEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
All available evidence suggests that the brain has enormous flexibility to do a lot of different things at one time. Mental focus is hard because it forces the brain to concentrate its resources, something it is naturally inclined to do only with the prospect of reward or in the face of threat. We lose sight of brain flexibility in emotions in part because when we express an emotion, it seems like we experience only one. Thus we confuse the limitations of expression, particularly linguistic expression, with the multi-tasking of actual brain function. One example of the brain's spectacular flexibility is the arousal of sens...
Source: Psychology Today Stress Center - February 20, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Steven Stosny Tags: Anxiety Creativity Happiness Health Psychotherapy Relationships Self-Help Social Life alarm system brain brain function conscious attention different things emotional processes emotional responses emotions enormous flexibil Source Type: consumer

A Recovering Catholic Wants to Confess...Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Tonight I wish could go to a Drive-By Confessional and rattle off my sins to an anonymous priest, and be awarded absolution, forgiveness, mercy, and/or a nice little indulgence, if possible. (I only thought of an indulgence because the Roman Catholic Church is making them available again, according to a recent piece in the New York Times, and they sounded nice).I'm a recovering Catholic: I can never be anything else, but I can't engage actively in the practice without endangering myself.I miss confession's luxuriousness, the "whew" of completed penance. When I left the church, they hadn't yet changed the name to ...
Source: Psychology Today Stress Center - February 19, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Regina Barreca, Ph.D. Tags: Anxiety Gender Happiness Health Memory Personality Philosophy Psychotherapy Resilience Self-Help Spirituality Absolution Catholicism Confession Forgiveness friendship guilt religion church ritual desperation fancy s Source Type: consumer

The PTSD Solution: New Hope through Brain PlasticityEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
As new programs continue to grow in response to the huge demand of patients who believe they are victims of PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder), I am becoming more frustrated with the mercenary trends of the professional community in trying to "catch the next wave" of fad diagnoses. Not that I am calling PTSD a fad, but practitioners are coming forth with only a modicum of understanding of what this complex is and how to treat it. This blog may be more of an editorial than educational.The DOD fiasco of caring for these vets has led to many of these professionals losing credibility by the tons when they exclaim ...
Source: Psychology Today Stress Center - February 16, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: G. Frank Lawlis, Ph.D. Tags: Anxiety Psychotherapy adjustment PTSD therapeutic steps childhood and adolescence cognitive therapy environmental influences exposure therapy fad diagnoses fiasco group therapy military status modicum next wave normal brain d Source Type: consumer

Uncertainty is Your Friend, Part II: Testing the Illusion of Certainty about EmotionsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
There's a famous story about the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein watching a sunset with a student and marveling about how anyone could have believed that the sun revolved around the earth. "But Professor," the student said, "It seemed as if the sun revolved around the earth." Wittgenstein replied, "How would it have seemed if it seemed as if the earth revolved around the sun?"We cannot make inferences about what seems to be true and then use what seems to be true as evidence to support the inferences. Yet that's what we do all the time with our emotions - we buy into the illusion of certainty,...
Source: Psychology Today Stress Center - February 16, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Steven Stosny Tags: Anxiety Happiness Health Integrative Medicine Psychotherapy Relationships Self-Help Social Life anger anger management anger problems biological processes central nervous system chemical signals conclusions emotions evidenc Source Type: consumer

Facing an Operation: Fears, Jokes, Monsters, and General AnestheticsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
I'm having an operation next week and I'm scared. There, I admitted it. I think about fear far too much, but I also believe that acknowledging fear is inevitably better than desperately pretending what frightens us doesn't exist. Emily Dickinson wrote a powerful poem about the sudden unexpected appearance of a snake; it obliterated her sense of calm when she was out on for an afternoon's walk. She describes her sense of terror as feeling like "zero at the bone." That's sort of how I feel right now.For many years, I felt this way more often than not; fear was a constant companion. I would cringe if not cower, weep...
Source: Psychology Today Stress Center - February 12, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Regina Barreca, Ph.D. Tags: Anxiety Depression Gender Happiness Health Personality Resilience Self-Help humor laughter medicine operations surgery women ' s fears circumstance constant companion darkness emily dickinson epidural gallbladder Source Type: consumer

Want a Sure-Fire Way to Score a Valentine's Date? Spray on Some AxeEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
You've seen the TV commercials. One little spritz and bikini clad women trek across the globe to hunt you down. One whiff and hot women will strip you down while chanting some cheesy porn music... Bom chika wah wah. It's called the Axe effect. Is it true that a simple deodorant spray is enough to turn a dud into a super stud? Researchers have found that there is indeed truth to the Axe effect. Wait, before you go dashing off to the deodorant aisle, let's look at what the researchers found. A study recently published in the International Journal of Cosmetic Science (there's an International Journal of Cosmetic Science?...Se...
Source: Psychology Today Stress Center - February 12, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Jared DeFife, Ph.D. Tags: Anxiety Gender Happiness Media Relationships Sex Social Life dating single Smell Valentine ' s Day attractiveness axe effect axe lynx bikini clad women british equivalent british scientists chika cosmetic science Source Type: consumer

Uncertainty is Your Friend, Part IEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
A number of years ago the dean of a leading medical school opened the commencement ceremonies with a message to the newly graduated physicians, "Fifty percent of what we taught you is wrong. The trouble is, we don't know which fifty percent." The uncertainty percentage is much greater in social sciences, due to the enormous number of variables that influence even a barely adequate analysis of complex phenomena. Almost everything I learned in graduate school about emotions is wrong. I can read certain things I wrote just six years ago and be amazed at how wrong they are, given new developments in technology that r...
Source: Psychology Today Stress Center - February 11, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Steven Stosny Tags: Anxiety Happiness Psychotherapy Relationships Self-Help Social Life anger problems emotions meaning Science Uncertainty adequate analysis adrenalin amphetamine amphetamines commencement ceremonies cup of coffee emotional Source Type: consumer

Breaking AwayEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
There's a saying that "entrepreneurs are like teabags - you never know how strong they are until you put them in hot water." Well, we're all in hot water now. The next year or two should provide us with a remarkable opportunity to test our mettle.The funny thing is, despite all the grumbling that accompanies a capital crunch, lean years are actually good for new companies. Many major brands like 3M, General Motors, IBM, General Electric, Microsoft, and Sun Microsystems all got their start during the lean times of recession. The worst recession since World War II was from 1973 to 1975, when the country's gross dom...
Source: Psychology Today Stress Center - February 10, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Moses Ma Tags: Anxiety Creativity Work entrepreneurship innovation plasticity recession adult brain cognition gross domestic product lean times lean years levels of stress major brands mettle moderate levels neuron neuroplasticity pro Source Type: consumer

Anger Problems: How Blogs and Emails Make Them WorseEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The proliferation of blogs and emails may be partially responsible for the increase in anger of recent years. We can learn a lot about the emotions that motivate many blogs and emails, as well as reactions to them, from, believe it or not, a few observations of animals. Anger, for instance, is the fight part of the primitive fight/flight/freeze response common to all mammals. It functions primarily to protect self and juvenile offspring from harm. Activation of the fight/flight/freeze response requires a dual perception of threat and vulnerability. Animals respond to lesser threats with greater anger, fear, or submission (...
Source: Psychology Today Stress Center - February 8, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Steven Stosny Tags: Anxiety Happiness Relationships Self-Help Social Life Therapy alpha males anger anger management anger problems annihilation blogs chief executive cougar emails executive power hierarchy mammals matriarchs necessary c Source Type: consumer

The Mindful MonkEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Bridging the gap between East and West. (Source: Psychology Today Stress Center)
Source: Psychology Today Stress Center - February 6, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Tags: Stress Source Type: consumer