Why Perfectionism May Lead to Disordered Eating

Boundaries remain important even though a parent may be heavily involved in an adult child's life. Money and the exchange of it can be symbolically charged and needs to be handled carefully and with attention. Differences in opinion about childrearing are a hot-button issue for many adult children and their...

Healthy behaviors, like eating nutritious meals, can play a critical role in living well with long COVID. The Mediterranean diet, one of the most well-studied diets, appears to help reduce short- and long-term effects of COVID. Certain foods emphasized by the Mediterranean diet—like blueberries, fatty fish, and dark leafy vegetables—may...

Following death, divorce, moving, and illness, the loss of a job is one of the top life stressors. Studies show that job instability is linked to worsening mental health. Feelings of powerlessness and lack of agency are two of the contributors to the emotional distress caused by job instability. Another...

There’s no timeline for grieving. Losing someone you care about changes a person fundamentally. It's OK to "oscillate" between facing grief head-on and taking a break at times. People often ask me, "Will my grief ever end?" The answer is yes, but it will most likely change you forever,...

Microdosing refers to taking a sub-perceptual dose of a substance, usually in the range of a tenth to a twentieth of a full recreational dose. Before microdosing, consult with a healthcare professional, understand the laws in your area, and be aware of potential negative effects. Microdosing is not a substitute...

Completing the psychological tasks facing adolescents is greatly complicated by cannabis use. Cannabis provides shortcuts to feeling autonomous, a new identity, and transcendence without requiring psychological growth. Psychological development is delayed and distorted when cannabis becomes the linchpin simulating maturity. Adolescents must be considered a separate subpopulation in any discussion...

The phrase “use it or lose it” is a familiar one to many people, but there's debate as to what it actually means. According to new research, it’s not just activity, but the diversity of your activity that can benefit your mental acuity. Maintaining different activities, from...

Many youths don’t know where to turn or how to ask for support. Some signs a teen may need help include changes in mood, sleep, school performance, diet, friendships, and overall physical health. To handle crises, parents can teach their kids strategies to be resilient or help them find...

Living single can be such a vastly different experience for different people. At one end are the people who are distraught to be single and often invest heavily in becoming coupled. At the other end are the "single at heart"—people for whom single life is their best life—their most authentic, meaningful, fulfilling, and psychologically rich life. The single at heart are not settling for being single—they are embracing it. In single life, they flourish.

Conflict analysis and management isn't the only approach. It tends to ignore the physical body, leaving many people "stuck." Many cultures use rituals to help conflicted parties get back in sync and embody improved relationships. One way that rituals work is through dissolving the sense of self and applying constructive...

Did you know lifestyle changes activate genes to fight cancers? That how you spend your time influences both genetic function and how you function?. In his groundbreaking National Geographic piece, Michael F. Roizin makes an undeniably compelling case for leading a healthy lifestyle. He asserts that 40 percent of premature deaths in the United States are related to lifestyle choices.

Romanticized success can drive unhealthy behaviors that contribute to burnout. Science shows we can shift behavior to protect our well-being through practices such as mindfulness and intermittent technology fasts. Hustle and grind culture is the new religion. Bursting at the seams, to-do lists and schedules are normalized. Messages flood our...

When one chooses the path of meditation to heal psychologically and spiritually, one forgets at times about feelings like compassion and forgiveness. One might even forget about the attitudes of kindness, generosity, and gratitude. When people meditate, they might experience feelings of ease, well-being, and lucidity. I have experienced these meditative states as beautiful and comforting. However, even though the practice of meditation allows a person to experience positive states, they need to support human, everyday living, rather than encourage escaping from what is difficult to face.

Around 42 percent of Americans "actively avoid the news at least some of the time." Research shows that different ways of engaging with the news can be either harmful to our mental health or empowering. By assuming detached engagement, we can strive to be invested in what’s going on in...

It's tempting to separate the brain and the body when thinking about disease. This separation is often artificial and leaves patients feeling misunderstood. Just because we don't understand an illness, doesn't mean it's "all in our head." In a recent commentary in the Lancet, Chloe Saunders and colleagues made a...

Feelings of excitement will give you the energy necessary to project the slightly bigger-than-life persona you need. The mental exercise required to recall an emotion has the added benefit of making you forget your nerves. Use deep breathing to various forms of meditation to maintain your calm. Is stress bad...

Studies of child development demonstrated long ago that extrinsic motivation (rewards) was less effective than intrinsic motivation (curiosity). Most children don't care about the external consequence or rewards attached to chores. Making chores a family affair teaches cooperation, empathy, and family values. The reward to doing chores as a family...

A highly relational person (HRP) is highly tuned in and reactive to relational dynamics and invested in maintaining relational connection. HRPs can find comfort and strength simply knowing that there are others like them. If you’re an HRP, when you hone your relational gift and cultivate relational skills, it can...

Answers are overrated in the art of living. Sometimes we are afraid to both move forward and turn back; we're stuck right where we are. Learning through exploration and curiosity fuels the potential for change and growth. One of my therapy clients said something so profound the other day it...

Procrastination is a tool that people use to feel good and avoid pain. Avoidance of pain through procrastination is ultimately harmful as it reduces resilience and keeps an individual stuck in procrastination loops. To address procrastination, one must look at the root emotions beneath the surface, rather than focus on...