Writing

Well, none of us saw this coming, did we? That a bunch of high school students would become the super heroes we’ve all been waiting for. The Parkland, Florida school shooting has been so dominant in the news lately that this article can go without a preamble – but I will tell you that it’s been inspiring for me to see the NRA on its heels like never before. It…

Do you know what a panic attack is?   For many people who experience one, it feels like shortness of breath, a racing heart, sweating, shaking, nausea, chest pain, and/or a sense of “depersonalization” – the surreal sense that you’re no longer fully rooted in your body or its surroundings. Sounds like a blast, right? No. Not fun. Beyond the symptoms though, do you know what a panic attack really…

There’s been a little flurry in the news recently – perhaps a headline has caught your attention: neuroscientists from Tel-Aviv University have discovered the underlying “cause” of depression. That’s quite a find! According to the research, instead of depression being created by a shortfall of serotonin in the brain (the hypothesis that many people have been operating with for decades now, even though it’s been met with controversy) this new model…

The summer after my freshman year in college, I landed my first job in mental health care. It was at a psychiatric hospital in western Connecticut, and, at the risk of sounding strange, I was really excited about it. I’d been studying psychology informally since I was in the 7th grade (no joke: I was like the Doogie Howser of mental health), and I was the kind of kid who…

I just wanted to kill her. Metaphorically-speaking, of course, but I gotta tell you – this woman was driving me CRAZY. So crazy, in fact, that I needed to give myself an attitude adjustment. That course-correction, and how you can do the same for yourself, is the subject of this article. First, though, let me back up for a minute and set the scene. A few weeks ago I had…

Whether we like it or not we live in a time where watching the news appears to be an exercise in anxiety and depression. Regardless of whether it’s local, international, cable, or evening – its producers rarely have something uplifting to report. Missing planes. Mud slides. Climate change. Colony collapse. I can’t remember the last time I watched or read the news and was left feeling optimistic about the future…

If you’re like most people, my guess is that – at least some of the time – you feel a little blue or a little anxious. Maybe you feel more than a little that way. Regardless, figuring out the why can be tough, right? Especially when you’re constantly being told to “think positively,” or to stop complaining about your “first world problems.” What you might not know is that those messages may, in fact,…

People sometimes make the mistake of thinking that meditation needs to not only happen in a quiet, seated position, but that it needs to happen on the ideal cushion, and in the most serene and peaceful setting.  We want to shop for the best Zabuton, create a beautiful alter, and even have a separate “meditation room” – and when one of those things fails to come to fruition we somehow…

I don’t know about you, but something feels different about my brain from how it did five or six years ago, and I’m not referring to age-related decline.  Something about it feels… full. It’s not like that all the time – thankfully – but it’s an unmistakeable feeling that I get after I’ve spent a lot of time online.  Self diagnosis?  Media saturation. For a couple of reasons (the fact…

Plenty of resources exist for those of us who identify as alcoholic (Alcoholics Anonymous [AA] is free and world-wide, for example, and there are countless books available on the subject of addiction), but this post isn’t about that. This post is for those of us who probably don’t qualify for a diagnosis of alcohol abuse or dependence, but could stand to explore our relationship with what I like to call…