Bringing you the best of mental health every week. People go crazy because they’re bored. Workers hate their jobs because they are bored. Partners cheat on their spouses because they are bored. The leading reason why addicts tell me they relapse is they are bored. Also, writers write, painters paint, players play, and inventors inventContinue reading “The Shrink’s Links: Book Review: Boredom”
Author Archives: Keith R Wilson
The Road to Reconciliation: See the Context
The world may have been created out of nothing, out of a nameless void, they say; but since then, anything that has happened has arisen out of something else. We call this context. If you want to come to some peace over something that has happened to you, then see the context from which itContinue reading “The Road to Reconciliation: See the Context”
The Shrink’s Links: The Defensive Functioning Scale
Bringing you the best of mental health every week. It’s not a question of whether or not you use psychological defenses. Everybody does. It’s really a question of what they are. Some, you see, are better than others. The first defenses we develop are the primitive ones, cheap and dirty, the barrel bombs of psychologicalContinue reading “The Shrink’s Links: The Defensive Functioning Scale”
The Road to Reconciliation: How to Re-Traumatize Yourself
First, a bad thing happens. Rape, murder, combat, abuse. You don’t have a lot of control over it. That’s the point. Something happens way, way out of your control. You barely make it. Now you’re left with the memories. That’s the trauma. Second, the memories come up. You don’t have a lot of control overContinue reading “The Road to Reconciliation: How to Re-Traumatize Yourself”
The Shrink’s Links: Constructive Conflict
Bringing you the best of mental health every week. My book, Constructive Conflict, has just been published in print and in Kindle. Conflict in relationships is inevitable. If you haven’t had a conflict yet, you haven’t been paying attention. Communication increases conflict. If you haven’t had a conflict yet, you haven’t really been talking. ConflictContinue reading “The Shrink’s Links: Constructive Conflict”
The Shrink’s Links: The Things They Carried
Bringing you the best of mental health every week. For today, Memorial Day, I have a quote from The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien: They carried USO stationery and pencils and pens. They carried Sterno, safety pins, trip flares, signal flares, spools of wire, razor blades, chewing tobacco, liberated joss sticks and statuettes ofContinue reading “The Shrink’s Links: The Things They Carried”
The Road to Reconciliation: Don’t be Stupid
The addiction, the madness, the lying, the cheating, and the selfishness have just done too much damage. Your relationship has been crippled and you’re not sure whether it will ever be the same again. You’ve heard enough apologies. You’ve forgiven too much. You can’t forget all the things that have happened. You’ve decided to hardenContinue reading “The Road to Reconciliation: Don’t be Stupid”
Things in My Office: The Stone, a Symbol of Perfection
It’s time again to introduce you to another item in my office. It’s a stone. I got this stone while hiking in Colorado. It was a perfect day, with perfect weather, and perfect companions. The trail was the perfect length and not too steep or too flat. There were great mountains in the distance andContinue reading “Things in My Office: The Stone, a Symbol of Perfection”
The Shrink’s Links: 75 Ways To Add Variety
Bringing you the best of mental health every week. Many couples say that, after a few years, it’s easy to get in a rut with your partner, sex-wise. You think you know each other, backwards and forwards, and have tried everything. Chances are, you’re wrong. There’s something you haven’t thought of. Or, maybe you haveContinue reading “The Shrink’s Links: 75 Ways To Add Variety”
The Road to Reconciliation: Protect Yourself
You’re never going to come to peace with the awful things that have happened if they are still happening, nor should you. The most important thing in the process of coming to terms with the things that have happened is to protect yourself. Maybe your partner has stopped doing that thing that hurt you: drinking,Continue reading “The Road to Reconciliation: Protect Yourself”
Keith Wilson - Counseling 