Abandonment is awful. Nobody likes it. When therapists speak of “abandonment issues”, they’re generally talking about childhood. Real or perceived abandonments by one’s parents, when one is a child, can have lasting effects. As Italian athlete Mario Balotelli put it, … Continue reading
I actually heard this in an advertisement on a YouTube video. It’s a great question! Kudos to the advertising executives who came up with it. Who says business is not a creative enterprise? Here it is: “When was the last … Continue reading
It’s tempting for many to ask for personal advice. But what is “advice” exactly? You get advice from a tax accountant. Why? Because the tax accountant knows about laws and procedures that you probably don’t know. You get advice from … Continue reading
“The worst guilt is to accept an unearned guilt,” said philosopher and novelist Ayn Rand. What makes unearned guilt so bad? When you accept unearned guilt, you hurt yourself. You take responsibility for something you did not cause. Many things … Continue reading
According to Edward Hallowell, M.D, the Harvard psychiatrist who wrote the highly influential “Driven to Distraction”: …You can’t have intimacy without attention. This sounds obvious but it’s worth emphasizing because in today’s world attention can’t be taken for granted. We … Continue reading
The latest up and coming psychological disorder? It’s called “shame attraction.” The idea is that if you aren’t attracted to a given person for whatever reason, you should be shamed for it. Everyone is supposed to be attracted to everyone … Continue reading
Most psychiatrists and psychologists insist there’s no such thing as laziness. Everything is depression, they claim. Others say there’s no such thing as depression, and that it’s all laziness. What’s the truth? Is there such a thing as being lazy? … Continue reading
Dear Dr. Hurd, While waiting in line recently, a woman and I were having a casual conversation. In response to my question, she said she was a Job Coach and worked with students with ED, then further defined the acronym … Continue reading
A lot of depression arises from a chronic feeling that one is a victim. A victim of what? The emotions never really specify. The fact that you feel like a victim of some unnamed, unidentified “cause” creates a sense that … Continue reading
According to parenting expert and author John Rosemond, the problem with American parenting today “is the 1960s.” He offered a simple solution: “America needs a ‘Make American Parenting Great Again!’ movement.” Writing in his syndicated column at Omaha.com, Rosemond said … Continue reading
With a huge spring snowstorm hitting the Northeast U.S., a reader asked me to write about “weather anxiety.” When we talk about “weather anxiety”, it’s not really the weather we’re anxious about. It’s our thoughts about the weather causing the … Continue reading
Some troubling statistics on the mental health of millennials: A 2016 UK survey found that, since 1990, rates of depression and anxiety among the young have increased by 70%, while the American Counseling Association has reported a “rising tide of … Continue reading