OCD officially packed its bags and moved out of the Anxiety Disorders “house” in 2013 when the DSM-5 came out1. Before that, it lived with all the other anxious conditions, but the experts decided OCD was just too unique to be lumped in2. Now it lives in its own fancy neighborhood called “Obsessive-Compulsive and Related...
Jeffrey Epstein did not create trauma. He industrialized it. He turned teenage girls into party favors for men who already had everything. He built a machine with drivers, pilots, butlers, lawyers, and moneyed friends. All of them claimed later they “didn’t know.” The trauma he left behind did not end when the headlines moved on....
A Hundred Years of Worry Every generation of kids has been anxious. The triggers and the parenting styles just kept changing with the times. In 1918 the Spanish flu killed about 50 million people worldwide1, and a ten-year-old could easily lose a sibling overnight. Nearly one in five American kids under 16 worked full time...
What Meditation Really Is Meditation is basically the art of sitting still on purpose, except it is more than just sitting there like a lump. It is choosing to pay attention to something in a steady way, whether that is your breath, a sound, a thought, or even nothing at all. People sometimes treat it...
Psychiatry has changed a lot in the past ten years, and not just because therapists have started using words like “vibes” in their intake notes. It’s not just about diagnosing depression anymore. These days, psychiatry is dealing with everything from gender identity to parenting styles to whether your kid’s tantrum means he needs therapy or...
During my psychiatry residency and fellowship, we met weekly to watch a film and then gather in a room to dissect it. These were not casual Netflix nights with snacks and a side of gossip. They were deep dives into character motivation, symptom portrayal, ethical dilemmas, and cultural subtext. We would watch a scene, stop...
Some girl on social media says she’s “traumatized” because a barista called her “ma’am,” and your health teacher says trauma is what happens when you experience a “distressing event,” which is vague enough to include your GPA. Trauma, PTSD, being a victim, being a survivor, it’s all real, complicated, and way more than just a...
I prescribe actual medication. The kind that’s been tested, approved, and doesn’t come in a hemp-wrapped mason jar. But I’m also not blind. Or arrogant. Or so deep in my own lane that I can’t see there might be more than one way to help someone feel like a functioning human being. That’s why I...
With all of the craziness in the world, especially in our country, I thought I’d make us some food that might help you laugh before the next existential crisis hits. So… imagine this: You take your significant other out for a nice meal. Not your boss, not your kid’s school principal, not that cousin who...
Beneath conscious awareness, the inner monologue narrating your every move, is the unconscious. The unconscious is the shadowy mental storage unit where your brain hoards all the stuff you’re not actively aware of but that still manages to hijack your decisions1. Freud, who chain-smoked cigars and saw your mom in every dream you’ve ever had,...
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