Keith R Wilson

What if We’re Wrong?

What if a person really could forget the horrors of the past? Yes, I know; we therapists tell you it’s impossible to do without paying a price. We say that you have a lumber room of the mind, a hidden closet in which you stuff all the traumas and memories you wish you had noContinue reading “What if We’re Wrong?”

Mental Illness Happy Hour

If you have ever thought you were the only person who thinks the thoughts that you do, in the way you do, I would recommend that you listen to the Mental Illness Happy Hour. There, you will hear yourself think. The weekly, hour-long audio podcast of interviews with artists, friends and the occasional doctor isContinue reading “Mental Illness Happy Hour”

Peeling the Onion

When you meet someone for the first time, you’re generally on your best behavior. You’ll present the most polite, least objectionable version of yourself that you can come up with. This is called the public face, the mask, or the persona. Most of us cultivate this persona as carefully as we edit our Facebook page.Continue reading “Peeling the Onion”

What’s the Best Form of Therapy?

The easiest method of doing something is not always the most effective; but it is the easiest, so that’s saying something for it. Easy is more effective than the most effective if the most effective is impossible for you to do. When it comes to treatment for mental illness, if I were to rank theContinue reading “What’s the Best Form of Therapy?”

Project I am Not Ashamed

If you have a mental illness, you know stigma. There’s stigma in the shame you feel if you say you have a mental illness. There’s stigma in the way people react if you say you have a mental illness. There’s stigma in the way mental health coverage is still something that needs to be foughtContinue reading “Project I am Not Ashamed”

Grounding

So, you’re anxious. It happens. There are basically two things to do with anxiety. You can face it or avoid it. Avoiding it is often the sensible thing to do if it’s a thing you are not likely to encounter very often; like snakes, for instance. I’m afraid of snakes. If I got a jobContinue reading “Grounding”

Love: The Prisoner’s Dilemma

I can guess how this sounds, but love relationships remind me of the Prisoner’s Dilemma. Two conspirators are arrested and brought into separate interview rooms. They are both given the opportunity to turn state’s witness against the other. The one that takes the deal goes free, and the other gets ten years. If both confess,Continue reading “Love: The Prisoner’s Dilemma”

Multiple

There aren’t many mental illnesses that therapists are accused of creating, but dissociative identity disorder, or multiple personality disorder, as it officially used to be known, is one of them.

It’s a Fearful Thing to Love What Death Can Touch

Judah Halevi was a Jewish poet, living in Spain about a thousand years ago. He left us a beautiful poem that I think captures the essence of grief. The translation has been attributed to Chaim Stern, around 1930.

Why I Don’t Specialize in Anything

As a therapist, I could’ve had a specialty. I did some post grad work in family therapy and some more in substance abuse. I sought for ways to address the desire my clients had to quit using tobacco back in the days when few others were doing so. I ran therapy groups for sex offenders.Continue reading “Why I Don’t Specialize in Anything”