How to Spot a Narcissist Early in a Relationship
Many people ask me how to spot a narcissist or what I call an “Other-Blamer” early on in relationships. Watching for the following “verbal tells” is one way to do it. We often think of lack of accountability as the inability to admit fault and apologize. However, we...
“Why Am I So Indecisive?”
Some life decisions are life changing — think: getting married, having children, choosing a career, buying a house, etc. They should, rightfully, cause us to pause and consider deeply before jumping in. But some people are so indecisive they don’t just pause, they can...
Separation Anxiety and Sleep Issues May Be Signs of Permissive Parenting
Gina was a typical 8-year-old girl - active, creative, and confident at her soccer games. But when it came to bedtime, she cried, demanded that her parents stay in her bedroom, and repeatedly expressed fears about the dark and burglars. Jamal was a five-year-old boy...
DISPELLING THE MYTHS: REAL FACTS ON MENTAL HEALTH & PSYCHIATRIC DRUGS
Facts dispelling the myths about mental health. Anti-psychiatry, anti-DSM, anti-medical model of mental health. How DSM diagnostic labels harm rather than help. How psychiatry promotes ineffective and harmful psychiatric medicines over psychotherapy. How antidepressants, antipsychotics and ADHD meds work and harm the brain. How to talk to your doctor about psychiatric medications and get informed consent.
A Democrat Sequestered with a Room Full of GOP Extremists: My Experience as a Poll Worker
I have worked as an “election inspector” at local polling places a number of times in the past decades. In 2020 I worked in the absentee precinct at my local city hall, where we count all the absentee ballots on election day. Unlike at other precincts, we are...
Strengthen Your Self-Worth with Self-Compassion
NOTE: I find that everyone can benefit from information on how to strengthen self-worth with self-compassion, so I highly recommend these practices for my therapy clients. I know that learning to be self-accepting was life-changing for me. This information is...
Now Blogging for Great Lakes Psychology Group
Communication Skills to Build Secure Attachment in Romantic Relationships
What Defines Self-Acceptance and Emotional Health?
What constitutes an emotionally healthy and mature, fully functioning, psychologically sound human being? I achieved self-acceptance, or self-actualization or enlightenment through self-compassion concepts and practices and discovered that healthy shame tolerance leads to healthy self-acceptance. Learn the traits of self-acceptance: equanimity, compassion, decreased approval seeking, acceptance of imperfection, wisdom, intuition, true empathy, accountability, flexible social hierarcy skills, healthy humility and pride, integrity, values, character, resilience, self-discipline, hard work, frustration tolerance, persistence, likeability, open-mindedness and curiousity, and prosocial behaviors.
Psyche Article Spreads Misinformation on Depression
Well, the pro-drug forces are at it yet again. The website psyche.co just published an extremely biased and misleading article raving about the supposed benefits of anti-depressants (ADs) by a psychiatrist in Scotland. There are so many problems with this article I...
Stress & Heart Disease
Chronic psychological stress, recent studies indicate, may be as important — and possibly more important — to the health of your heart than the traditional cardiac risk factors. In fact, in people with less-than-healthy hearts, mental stress trumps physical stress as a potential precipitant of fatal and nonfatal heart attacks and other cardiovascular events, according to the latest report.