Category Archives: Uncategorized

When Addiction Takes Over a Relationship

Even when people are firing on all cylinders, relationships can be tricky. When your partner is addicted, they can be impossible. Addiction takes a relationship into a dangerous territory where clarity turns gray and selfishness rules the day; where individuals disappear and are replaced by need; where spouses are objectified, resented, and manipulated; where weddingContinue reading “When Addiction Takes Over a Relationship”

The Shrink’s Links: Review of Room

Bringing you the best of mental health every week. No matter how well you think you understand, you don’t understand well enough. If you don’t understand what I mean, go see the movie, Room, while it’s still in theaters. Or read the book. Or, like I did, do both. The first part is set inContinue reading “The Shrink’s Links: Review of Room”

Some Things You May Not Know About Substance Abuse: What keeps you addicted

Chemistry First there’s the chemical. That calm feeling you get from Percocet is just too good to give up. The sickness you feel when you are in withdrawal is just too bad to bear. Genes get rewritten when you use cocaine often enough, so that nothing but cocaine can make you happy. Your brain cellsContinue reading “Some Things You May Not Know About Substance Abuse: What keeps you addicted”

The Shrink’s Links: CrowdMed

Bringing you the best of mental health every week. Do you have frustratingly complex medical symptoms that have you and your doctors baffled? Pay $199, submit your medical history anonymously to CrowdMed, and dozens, or even hundreds, of “medical detectives” will chime in. You get a list of suggestions, based on these detective’s rankings, toContinue reading “The Shrink’s Links: CrowdMed”

Some Things You May Not Know About Substance Abuse: You can’t stop cravings from knocking at the door, but you don’t have to answer

You could stop using whatever it is that is destroying you and you will still think about it from time to time. You’ll have dreams of using. A beer truck might roll by and you’ll feel thirsty. That old life will seem good every now and then. You could have some very good reasons toContinue reading “Some Things You May Not Know About Substance Abuse: You can’t stop cravings from knocking at the door, but you don’t have to answer”

The Shrink’s Links: Moral Injury

Bringing you the best of mental health every week. I knew a fellow who fought the Iraq War from the comfort and safety of an easy chair, piloting a drone that destroyed dozens of buildings with people in them. He was never at risk for anything more serious than tendonitis, yet he emerged from thatContinue reading “The Shrink’s Links: Moral Injury”

Relationships, Part 13: The Dance of Relationship: A Guide to the Positions

When we think about love, we may picture something like this: This position is called Turning Towards. You’re facing each other and paying attention to no one but each other. You may be touching. You might believe this is the most desirable of the positions, but it’s very intense. It’s hard to do anything elseContinue reading “Relationships, Part 13: The Dance of Relationship: A Guide to the Positions”