One of my strong memories of Marcy will stay, of this Halloween. She was tired after her day at school. She had gone back to college to get her nursing degree. She was tired, like a shirt that had been over washed in hot water. She was the kind of tired that looked like the […]
Mother’s-day, naturally full of shame unless we are able to be a friend to yourself, present with the bad in Me even if reluctantly. Question: What is a barrier to you becoming a friend to yourself? What role does shame play? Please tell me your story. Self-Care Tip: Get friendly with your shame.
Joana Johnson, from CreatingBrains.com, found the following story on the NPR iPhone App: http://www.npr.org/2011/07/25/138606501/one-womans-struggle-to-shed-weight-and-shame?sc=17&f=1001 One Woman’s Struggle To Shed Weight, And Shame by Tovia Smith Part of an ongoing series on obesity in America. In her 37 years, Kara Curtis has seen every dress size from 26 to 6. Looking through old photos, in her […]
Hello Friends. Tonight ends our pilot run of the self-care workshop series. Whoop! Thank you for your support. Very much. The growing process, when in the company that we have here, shifts the experience form one of fear and shame to one of …well this: friendship, with you and with our own selves. One of […]
Self-Care Tip #219 – Check your read. Be a friend to yourself. I’ve been reading the comments on suicide, thinking and reading and starting who knows how many posts for today, but just couldn’t pull it together. I spent my time rather drawn to the same words that I hear so many others say as well […]
Shame. Ah what a cloaked villain! In this post I’m going to tell you about why shame is not an enemy you want to ignore. “Michael Corleone” in The Godfather Part II was not the 1st to say it, but maybe was the first to make the quote famous Keep your friends close […]
What is it like when people talk with you, a psychiatric patient? How do all the areas we are contending with in stigma affecting your interaction with others? – Demonic possession, shame, violent tendencies, weak character, and poor moral choices? We want to hear from you. Some stories please. One patient told me that her […]
The True Self All around me I hear people talking about finding your “True Self.” I hear it in podcasts, coffee shops, in magazines and even books. What the hell was everyone talking about and if there is such thing, how does one find it? What is meant by “True Self?” First, apparently, it […]
Think of walking in a rainstorm. Your clothes and hair hang heavily. They provide no protection. They offer no remedy. You take a hand towel out of your bag and try to mop up your icy wet face. Wring it out and continue to wipe. This is like choosing to do all the psychosocial efforts […]
Mr. Clark stopped talking and walked to the ringing rotary phone on the wall. We were experts, as 7th graders, in anticipating what phone calls would be about. I’m surprised we never got around to making bets. I missed my chance to be a bookie. When the phone rang, it could mean someone was in trouble […]
Hi. I was hoping I could ask you a couple questions about ECT for a research paper I am writing. How do you address the issue of cognitive and memory impairments? What are your top 3 reasons for being an advocate for ECT? What are the differences between ‘old’ ECT and ‘modern’ ECT? My thesis […]
Finished the CME talk I did last week and thought, you might find some use for it. I’ve received bad press many times for not being, in so many words, legit or academic enough. Check out the comments on my ECT book on Amazon.com for examples :). Maybe this one leaning into that bosom of greatness […]
Me-on-Me Crime! I was doing my speed walking thing on the Balboa Beach cottage lined shore. Gorgeous, it was. Fluffy thoughts were everywhere. I was purposely passing under the low hanging docks to upscale some lower body muscles. Some string bean teens with their fishing poles moved into the water’s leisurely lipping edge ahead of me. […]
The little boy was standing in the tennis court by the fence, facing out. Doing what? Sure enough. “I’m nature peeing,” he said. Have you ever seen as much happiness than in the faces of little people peeing? Well, I love to pee, too. I think most of us do. That is until we pee inopportunely. […]
Dear Farida, I’m writing to you to thank you for the opportunity to share your experience with postpartum depression and anxiety. You are in a class where the most courageous of the courageous live. I remember when I told you that and you asked, Why? Why do you say that? I can hardly get up in […]
These topics that we take coffee breaks over; loneliness, selfishness, God, sleep, medical, these are common enough, no? The idea at, Friend to Yourself, is that these ideas are all common and in-common. They all start and end with Me. The irony of loneliness being common enough for books to sell on it! Laugh about […]
Hank had to sing an Italian song for his tests. His music instructor did not believe that he had been practicing two hours a day. When Hank asked his voice teacher to sign off on those hours, his voice teacher still did not believe him. He had nothing to feel shame about. “Then why did I?” Hank wondered. […]
When I am an old psychiatrist, I’ll be looking at you through my purple eye folds, with my wrinkled pressed lips, eyeglasses pushed tightly to my face, pride propping up my several chins, incensed with the smells of my own medicated dying body. Proud of you. Proud of me. Not the kind of pride that […]
Greg went to arrange his annual colonoscopy. Because he was having a chronic cough, his gastroenterologist (GI specialist) was wise enough to schedule him the “double dip” colonoscopy and endoscopy. Greg was not pleased. He was less pleased when Dr. GI found gastritis (inflammation) in his colon, an ulcer (inflammation) in his stomach, and esophogitis […]
Do this. Hearing this phrase, command, suggestion can be, well, triggering. Please don’t run. This is just too good to miss. My girlfriend, and mentor, Jessica Adams, was recently awarded “Kaia Queen, Fall 2013.” She is a marvel. An inspiration. A success and to be watched. Eyes right, troopers. Jessica started exercising and eating healthy […]
