Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “Psychology”
What is rumination and how can it be overcome? Rumination, or repetitive negative thinking, can be a symptom, and possibly even a cause of depression. But where does it come from, does it have any upsides, and what can you do about it if you feel stuck in an endless loop of regret, recrimination and overthinking the past? Psychologists distinguish …
Gardening improves mood Spring has sprung and people are looking to the outdoors, plants and gardening for a mood lift, a lifestyle change and a tried and true path to happiness and fulfillment. For those who think such attitudes are maybe a tad over-optimistic, we can show a surprising amount of research on the mental and physical health benefits of …
Oxytocin is a neurohormone that is produced in the human brain and helps us form loving connections: mother-child bonds as well as the connections between romantic partners. When we are with a person who stimulates our oxytocin-producing neurological system, we feel warmed, supported, in a word: loved. However, making us feel loved doesn’t seem to be exactly the function of …
Deaths of despair increasing, but only in the USA Mortality rates are rising in the United States, especially among poor, rural populations, and specifically among whites. Life expectancy in other groups continues its historic rise, and this rising pattern is also found in 16 other countries with comparable economic levels. This phenomenon has been dubbed “deaths of despair” because the …
Four basic attachment styles determine the role you play in romance Do you cling to your partner, and take responsibility for their every happy or sad moment? Do you keep your partner at arm’s length, knowing that they may be gone forever any time now? Do you look at friends’ relationships and feel envious of how confident they are in …
Set goals and stick to them A client recently recommended a new book: Essentialism: the Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown. Our client liked the way the book encouraged her to think “is this (object or activity) going to get you to your goals, or not?” She said she learned to pare down the tools she was using, so …
Grade A for effort In a conversation with a patient who was trying to quit smoking we discovered that people often grade themselves only for final success and not for “effort”. The patient said that he did feel like he is doing better, but he still has cravings for a cigarette, and he would like to be at a place …
Suicide remains a sad mystery in many ways. Those left behind can never really know what was in their loved one’s mind at the last. We blame ourselves, and we deal with all the guilt, anger and grief that the act leaves behind, but we can never completely understand what leads someone to take their own life. Willa Goodfellow, in …
Curiosity is an aspect of the open-minded flexibility that allows us to go on learning and growing for a lifetime. To be regularly reminded that I don’t know everything is to be motivated to go on finding things out, and to recognize that I don’t have the answers to all of life’s questions, and I don’t have to know it …
ADHD lasts into adulthood more frequently than thought Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may last into adulthood more frequently than previously thought. A recent study took a longitudinal perspective and retested individuals with childhood-onset ADHD up to eight times within a 16-year period after the baseline assessment. Although it is not uncommon to find young adults have completely recovered from childhood …
A friend and fellow psychiatrist, Ravi Chandra, MD, has produced a documentary about the impact of the twin pandemics of COVID and the more visibly surfacing wounds of racial trauma, and now announces its world premiere at the Queens World Film Festival on Sunday, June 27th, 2021 at 4 pm EST. For tickets and trailer click here. Ravi writes: “How …
Sometimes you just can’t get your mind working. You wonder what’s going on, things you want to remember just slip through your fingers, and time gets away from you. It happens to everyone, but major episodes of mania or depression can result in reduced cognitive capacity, which takes time to heal. Reduced cognitive capacity can be scary; we wonder if …
Link between screen time and depression? It’s complicated A new longitudinal study looking at video gaming and social media use at age 11 compared with the same subjects’ responses to a questionnaire about depressive symptoms three years later at age 14 has come up with some complex data. Boys who played video games daily reported fewer depressive symptoms three years …
A manic or hypomanic episode (mild or severe) can lead a person to taking actions that may be unhealthy, unwise, or even harmful to self or others. This can lead, afterwards, to feelings of guilt and shame. We feel bad about what we have done, but we don’t always know how to move on and make amends. These feelings can …
“Give me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.” This “Serenity Prayer” attributed to Reinhold Niebuhr, and often associated with Alcoholics Anonymous, is known to many, and found hanging in cross-stich patterns, wood carvings and photographs on walls across the country. It seems to offer …
How good is your life? Psychologists look at factors like “subjective well-being”, “overall life satisfaction” and “positive affect” (good feelings) to measure the effects of particular events and situations on how well or badly people feel like they are functioning in the world. The coronavirus pandemic has had a notable and obvious effect on people’s sense of well-being, bringing about …
Media Use and the Pandemic We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: media use is not always good for you. Now we have the pandemic-related phenomenon of “doomscrolling”, going obsessively through your feeds again and again, reading the bad news and skipping the good. Why do that? Well, 2020 has put a lot of stress on everyone. From …
Circadian rhythms are an important component of mental health. Humans have naturally evolved to live in the 24-hour light-dark cycle that our planet creates for us, and we run into difficulties when this pattern is disrupted. Depression and bipolar are conditions that may create circadian disruptions, or they may stem from an ongoing breakage in the circadian pattern. In either …
How do you make decisions? Major depression can have profound effects on decision making, causing apparently irrational decisions, for example, not choosing to change behavior in ways that will likely lead to rewards, and choosing instead a course of action that is likely to be unrewarding. Traditional psychological theories of depression have focused on the notion that the problem is …
How to develop resilience to face difficult times Resilience is a process that people can learn and activate to help recover from personal or community disaster, trauma or loss. While it has sometimes been described as a trait that some people have and others don’t, it is better understood as a skill, or series of skills, that we can all …
