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Five Ways to Boost Your Natural Happy Chemicals
You can stimulate more happy chemicals with fewer side effects when you understand the job your happy chemicals evolved to do. Here's a natural way to stimulate each, and to avoid unhappy chemicals. #1...
View ArticleRace Matters but then Again it Doesn’t
Americans need not worry about the vast shifts in the racial composition of the new world order. We’ve got all the bases (or races) covered. The United States is now in the middle of a pivot from being...
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Fake and Funny: Twitter as Interactive Performance Art
In spite of Facebook’s prominence in the social media ecosystem, Twitter is becoming a central source for breaking news. From natural disasters to political campaigning, Twitter delivers real time...
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A Medical Rx for a Stress Free Holiday
Holidays are a time for celebration with family and friends. It’s a time to mentally, physically and spiritually rejuvenate. However, as we can attest to, we celebrate but end up physically and...
View ArticleMislabeling Medical Illness As Mental Disorder
Many readers of my previous blog listing the ten worst suggestions in DSM 5 were shocked that I failed to mention an eleventh dangerous mistake- that DSM 5 will harm people who are medically ill by...
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Why We Must Actively Pursue Happiness
Recently, I've come across a number of articles—both online and off—warning of the dangers of deliberately aiming to become happy. In Viktor Frankl's book Man's Search for Meaning, for example, he...
View ArticleThe Fine Art of Doing Nothing
Doing nothing, or time spent with no discernible point or purpose, is often met with contempt. My mother used to call idle hands the Devil's playground, and I still sometimes feel a little guilty about...
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Exposure Therapy for HOCD?
Intrusive worries that someone has become gay—although he (she) has been straight for years with no doubts—have gained the label HOCD, homosexual obsessive-compulsive disorder. More properly such...
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What Child is This?
Tis the season for Christmas Carols, tunes of “Peace on Earth” and “Silent Night” fill the air. Each carol vividly paints a picture of calmness, peace and serenity; that is unless you live in a house...
View ArticleSupporting Older Adolescents in Hard Economic Times
The reader asked: “What about parenting older adolescents in the current economic climate, often requiring an extended dependence on parental support in various ways?”This is a serious question, and...
View ArticleThe New Science of Friendship
For a long time, friendship has been the neglected relationship of the social sciences. There is a vibrant science of relationships, with its own journals and conferences and courses and all the rest....
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First Do No Harm
Jim Abrahams witnessed his son Charlie, who had childhood epilepsy, undergo frightening seizures. The boy would convulse and loose consciousness. Medications didn't help. As his seizures continued, his...
View ArticleSuccess! I am now a legal Costa Rican resident!
Success! The witch is dead, I got her broom, her ruby slippers, her DNA, and her mother’s maiden name. I am not going home, alas, to Washington, but at least I am going home to Potrero, as a legal...
View ArticleThe Brain Drain of Inactivity
Every week new studies come out reconfirming the benefits of physical activity. In this entry I will highlight some recent studies that link regular physical activity to improved learning and memory....
View ArticleThe Forgotten First Step to Shared Decision-Making
Catherine Smith is a 39-year old woman who is confused, scared, and feeling terrible. She is generally pretty healthy and active, but this morning, she woke up feeling queasy. Throughout the day, she...
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Energy Management: Hell Week Edition
First of all, nothing about the quality of the past week’s events was hellish. My book, The Introvert's Way, came out Tuesday, and the launch has been nothing but superduperswell. Really. Every minute...
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Will Slain Rapper Biggie Smalls' Murder Ever Be Solved?
With the release of an autopsy report in the shooting death of rapper Biggie Smalls, it begs the question: Will the murder of the rapper, born Christopher Wallace who recorded as Notorious B.I.G., ever...
View ArticleIntroducing a New Treatment Tool for Patients and Clinicians
I often say I learn everything I know from my patients. Here is a case in point. One of my most knowledgeable patients, I’ll call Tory A. Recently Tory told me that she liked journaling her food and...
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