The experience of trauma makes a profound mark on a person. It doesn’t matter whether the injury is grave and evident, like the bruising of a battered person, or hard to see, like the emotional neglect of someone detached and withdrawn. Whatever the cause, when a person feels threatened, helpless, and unable to escape, that… Read more »
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Recently, a friend of mine who suffers from chronic lower back pain came back from yet another visit to the doctor with a bit of unexpected advice. Instead of the usual discussion of shots, medications, physical therapy, or even surgery, his doctor recommended a book, Healing Back Pain: The Mind Body Connection. The book by… Read more »
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Most health professionals understand postpartum depression (PPD) and other mood disorders are a serious mental health concern. Raising awareness of postpartum mood and anxiety disorders (PMADs) is so important for two reasons. First, professionals need to be more proactive with evaluation and diagnosis, because PMADs can be challenging to detect during a brief office visit. Women… Read more »
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In a recent article, journalist Johann Hari wrote about the doubt some scientists feel about depression being caused by a “chemically imbalanced” brain. For most of his adult life, Hari had believed that his depression was the result of a biological condition. However, after doing his own investigation into the subject, which led to his… Read more »
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I really dislike the word addict to describe someone. I believe that people are more than just their addiction! Yes, many of my clients are trauma survivors who use (or have used) drugs and alcohol (or food or self-harming behavior) to feel less badly and they are/have been addicted to their drug of choice, but they are people… Read more »
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Do you ever feel like you need a friend’s support? But then stop yourself from reaching out? For all of us, healthy relationships matter. In fact, deep relationships are essential to being a healthy human being. For trauma survivors—or those who are experiencing or have experienced post-partum depression or mood disorders (which is also trauma)—the act… Read more »
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Most of us wouldn’t use the word trauma when telling our story. We may associate trauma with natural disaster, disease, war, loss or other extreme acts of violence. Unless we’ve suffered sexual or physical abuse, or even if we have, we may tell ourselves that there was no “trauma” in our early life. Yet, a… Read more »
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Survivors of childhood trauma deserve all the peace and security that a loving relationship can provide. But a history of abuse or neglect can make trusting another person feel terrifying. Trying to form an intimate relationship may lead to frightening missteps and confusion. How can we better understand the impact of trauma, and help survivors… Read more »
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We are often so focused on physical and sexual abuse that we forget to consider emotional abuse, which is more difficult to identify when it is happening to our loved ones or to ourselves. Mental abuse can occur in any relationship among adults, in adolescent peer groups and in families. We need to become more… Read more »
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In order to place the title of this blog in context, I would define parental love as behavior that enhances the well-being and development of children. As such, “love” would be all that is nurturing and supportive of the evolution of the child’s unique personality. Conversely, it would be a distortion to define as “loving”… Read more »
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