Conflict Avoidance Can Be Hazardous To Your Mental Health
Fighting in a relationship can be exhausting. Who really wants to do it? Isn’t it much nicer to have peace?
Category: Depression
The Magic of Finding Our Voice
“When did you lose your voice?”, I asked Paula. She said, “I know exactly when.” Paula didn’t realize that her depression had anything to do with her marriage. She thought she had a chemical imbalance. Until the therapy with the family, Paula didn’t even let herself know that she felt angry at being shut out by her self-assured husband. She had given up trying to get him to hear her, and her quiet despair and helplessness showed up as depression. As the therapy unearthed these patterns, she discovered her voice. Her mood lifted.
Relationship Imbalance Instead of Chemical Imbalance
For the last thirty years ago a story has been built up about depression that it’s caused by a “chemical
A Woman’s Unexplained Symptoms Lead to A Surprising Personal Discovery
In life feelings can be painful, even excruciatingly so. It’s really all a part of being human. But what happens if we don’t even let ourselves know what we feel? That’s where, sometimes, our bodies take over and try to help. Here’s one woman’s story, and what she discovered.
A Woman’s Mask of Anger Hides Her Depression
When this couple first came to therapy the husband was certain that he was being victimized by his wife and her anger. As it turns out, he couldn’t have been more wrong.
Men in Therapy: Dealing With The #MeToo Movement, and Themselves
In his thoughtful Op-Ed from The New York Times, psychotherapist Avi Klein reflects on the men who come to him
“Control Issues”: A Young Woman With An Eating Disorder Challenges Her Family
In contemporary culture, as portrayed in commercials for pharmaceuticals, family members are portrayed as bystanders to suffering, having to “manage” the symptoms of their  bi-polar loved one, or “suffer” the effects of the depressed person’s symptoms or behavior. But families, couples, all of us, can unwittingly get stuck in patterns, sometimes destructive patterns, of which we are unaware. Those patterns can cause distress in ourselves and others, which can show up as a “symptom” in one person. This is rarely intentional, more a product of the tricky,  powerful and subtle  nature of relationship dynamics.
Eating disorders are no exceptions. Most of the clinical writing and popular assumptions about anorexia and other eating disorders note that these conditions are characterized by the need for individual “control”. There’s truth to this. But if you expand the lens to include the family, Â you learn a lot about what this “control” can look like.
Beware: What Doctors Don’t Tell You About Anti-Depressants
From today’s New York Times: “Long-term use of antidepressants is surging in the United States, according to a new analysis
A Crazy Solution For Depression
Depression is not a straightforward problem; it typically doesn’t yield to straightforward solutions. Here Dave consults on a case of an elderly depressed woman. His seemingly crazy intervention brings surprising results. Enjoy.
Don’t Worry About Feeling Bad
We have become a nation of fixers. We want to fix stuff as soon as its broken, including our moods. We don’t have much tolerance for ambiguity, or lack of resolution. Or emotional pain. What’s the problem with that, you might ask? Because often our attempt to “fix” our moods, or our pain, ends up making the problem worse, or more long-lasting. Here’s another way to do it.