“I will not spend time with you when you are drinking alcohol.” “I expect my partner to be treated with respect or we won’t come over anymore.” “I understand you are frustrated, but I will not participate in family gossip.”
“I walk in freedom in the path you have set for me.” This quote is paraphrased from King David in the Old Testament. Whether or not you believe in the book of the Bible, this quote is a great depiction of the freedom that exists inside healthy boundaries. If we know exactly where a boundary […]
When my friend’s son was in kindergarten years ago, she took him to a therapist who implied to my friend (before ever meeting her son) that he had Bipolar Disorder. She even gave my friend a book to read about Bipolar Disorder before the next session.
Difficulty paying attention, daydreaming, trouble sitting still, talking out of turn. These are most likely all symptoms many lay people can identify as part of ADHD or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. However, what about these symptoms: anxiety, racing thoughts, trouble sleeping and quick to anger? Do you think of ADHD when you hear this list […]
Choice is powerful. Choosing to be invisible and just being invisible are completely different experiences. If you are the person in your home that “signed up” to do all of the necessary yet mundane things to keep everyone going, you are much more likely to be okay with being largely invisible.
Clean clothes, clean sheets and food in the refrigerator are all things that just magically happened for me growing up. Even though we were not affluent, all of my basic needs were met and I never thought twice about opening a drawer and finding clean clothes or wondering if we would make it to the […]
Until my very own nervous system got kicked into overdrive, I did not personally know what it feels like to be in this space. I liken it to having to get on a “roller coaster” for whatever reason (a move, a new child, a death in the family) and then trying to get off and […]
I smirk even as I type this, because the “calm” lyric from this Christmas song rarely plays out in my life during this busy season. Calm is, after all, something we must carve out time to experience. And yet, I often forget this concept and run myself ragged this time of year.
If you were alive in 1987, you might remember the anti-drug campaign ad that talked about “your brain on drugs” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOnENVylxPI). The ad set out to compare our brains to an egg and how doing drugs was like breaking and frying the egg.
Prior to the 1950s, scientists believed that our brains went dormant when we slept (www.hopkinsmedicine.org). We now know this is absolutely not true. Your brain cycles through REM and non-REM throughout the night, sometimes up to 4 or 5 times. When you experience quality sleep, you are better able to both understand and remember information. […]
