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On the Colorado shootings and fighting the stigma of mental illness
Fighting the stigma of mental illness is a difficult and never-ending process, despite the great progress we have made in the last few decades. Unfortunately, the recent shooting in Aurora, Colorado,...
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Show me the money (if you want to learn something about suicide and stigma)
Today, September 10, is World Suicide Prevention Day. This is potentially a time to reflect and celebrate how far we’ve come. Would that we could. Death rates from many of the top killers in this...
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Social networking site joins the battle to prevent suicide
These days “friend me” has become an action, indicating someone wanting to establish contact on Facebook. What started as a purely social networking site has expanded into a medium for change, but...
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Pseudologia fantastica: the truth about pathological liars
Some of us are experts at picking up on it, others find themselves victims of it, but we are all guilty of it: It’s the common experience known as lying. White lies, big lies or simple exaggerations...
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What, me worry?
I never wore flip flops out of the house until recently. Previously, I always wore laced-up shoes or running shoes. I had a motive: Caution. Preparedness. Readiness. If there were a fire somewhere, I...
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To save a life, speak up about domestic violence
Mention a victim of domestic violence and who do most people immediately imagine? Perhaps a disheveled young woman with bruises on her chin and a black eye, looking sad, frightened and forlorn. This is...
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Confessions of a Peace Corps dropout, or how I learned the meaning of social...
When I began my studies in social work, I had some pretty big ideas of how I was going to change the world. I very purposefully made the choice not to study clinical social work and decided that I...
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Losing faith in times of suffering
Grief, loss and suffering are unavoidable components of life; in fact, they’re such common experiences that numerous books, treatment programs and theories have been developed to help people cope...
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Pot can blow your mind, permanently
Mexican heads macheted off at the neck and dopers lying around stoned out of their minds. What’s the connection? If you’re an American and smoke dope, you’re contributing to the current violence in...
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Washington and the fiscal cliff: leaders or lemmings?
Perhaps the commonest observation about the 2012 election was that it painted a picture of “a nation divided,” red in the middle and blue around the edges. But there’s at least one sentiment that...
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Responding to the Sandy Hook tragedy: What of the soul?
In our impotence to undo the travesty that took place at Sandy Hook Elementary, we console ourselves with conversation – and arguments – about what to do to prevent similar tragedies in the future. As...
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Was the Sandy Hook mass shooting “evil?”
We naturally strive to understand actions that are out of the ordinary—we can’t help it. If we see a woman suddenly slap a man in a restaurant, we will speculate about her state of mind, her reasons...
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Shifting Sandy Hook information landscape means understanding will have to wait
The nature of the devastating tragedy in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, is virtually unimaginable, and the outpouring of grief from our nation has been understandably strong and sustained. A torrent of...
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Where is Providence in the midst of tragedy?
Providence—the belief that God sees all things, reigns over all things and is concerned for all things, to bring about the ultimate divine purposes of creation—is always at the forefront of discourse...
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POT: What’s new in plain old therapy?
More than two years ago, I wrote a post on this blog entitled, “Is psychotherapy going to POT?” Tongue in cheek, I was protesting the proliferation of brand-name, evidence-based therapies with all...
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We need our prefrontal cortex to work
I am fortunate to have a challenging job that requires flexibility and creativity, but it’s often difficult and sometimes downright exhausting. One time I complained about this effortful experience to...
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Veteran suicides, drug overdoses and other causes of early death: epidemic or...
How are Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans dying? Is there an epidemic of premature deaths, relative to their civilian counterparts, among the still relatively young men and women who saw combat...
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Can we handle the truth? Exploring society’s drive for the idealized image
If you had the opportunity to live a “golden life” and achieve your dream of success and fame, would you do it? What lengths would you take to pursue this image or pathway to success? Would you too...
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Dreams: What are yours telling you?
How many of us can relate to awakening from a dream that felt so real the residual emotions remained with us for hours afterwards? Or eagerly recounted the unusual plot of a recent dream to friends or...
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Examining the criminalization of mental illness
Serious mental illness is debilitating, confusing and overwhelming. As a society, one might imagine our response to mental illness might model the response to other public health challenges like heart...
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