I’ve surpassed that age at which you know that something is “a thing.” Fortunately, I teach young people who find my lack of awareness endearing. They share their music, expressions, and other forms of pop culture with me. It really wasn’t all that long ago that they explained “adulting” to me. I asked if it […]
I hate prefacing myself, but when I talk about spirituality, I anticipate objection and so I lead with, “I’m not religious in any way.” Organized religion is usually off-putting to survivors and people in recovery of every kind. Working as a trauma therapist, I get asked a whole lot of questions about “God” and they’re […]
I see myself in every addict of every kind. When I say, “There but for the grace of God go I”, I am relating and identifying. I do so with compassion, but more importantly, with empathy. Compassion is feeling for someone. Empathy is feeling with someone. It’s not that I am more blessed than anyone […]
Forgiveness is an emotional process. Too often we take shortcuts. In order to avoid conflict and/or to preserve existing relationships, we tell ourselves to simply, “let it go.” In this light, what we’re really doing is denying ourselves the right to feel what we feel and the right to express it. This approach tends to be at […]
People often confuse high levels of anxiety with panic attacks. In truth, what we call “anxiety attacks” are simply times in which we feel overwhelmed, struggling to cope emotionally, and focus our thoughts. Panic attacks are best understood as the culmination of chronically high levels of anxiety over a period of time, coupled with intense physical symptoms. […]
The Tao of Pooh contains a story I often recommend entitled, “busybacksoon.” It’s a series of lessons gleaned from Winne the Pooh. The silliness of the story is based in a message Christopher Robbins left. It should have read, “Busy, back soon”, but Christopher was apparently too stressed for grammar. Pooh decided that “busybacksoon” must […]
Movies, television, blogs posts, and sites like WebMD are how the average layperson understands mental health conditions. Obviously, there is a great deal missing from these sources. The most confusing aspect of mental health conditions is the degree to which symptoms overlap. Think of it this way: If I cough and sneeze, do I have […]
At various points in our recovery, whether from trauma, mental illness, or addiction, we often find it difficult to get a clear sense of how we’re feeling/doing. I encourage folks to check in with their bodies, as to varying degrees our emotions and stress manifest physically. Our facial expressions and body language communicate to others […]
“We accept the love we think we deserve” – The Perks of Being a Wallflower This post started out as a message to a friend of mine, but it made me think of hundreds of others I’ve known, who, like me, struggle to receive love. Sometimes I think taking good things to heart is like trying […]
Most of us have a limited ability to recognize depression in ourselves and others. We tend to associate depression with being observably sad, lethargic, and as feeling stuck or hopeless. While most of us experience these symptoms at some point in our lives, there are far more subtle symptoms that are easy to misinterpret and/or […]
