On a regular basis I'm asked "What's it really like to be a shrink, to help people with problems all day, to listen to others pour their hearts out to you?" It can be many things: daunting, humbling, gratifying, inspiring, depressing, yet sometimes bizarre and humorous (to both my clients and me). So read on to more fully understand what happens "on the couch," learn a bit about people and what makes them tick, and see that mental health treatment is not for the "weak or crazy."
UPDATE (7/12/10): CRAZY has a tentative release date of June, 2011. Stay tuned for more specifics.
UPDATE (6/8/10): My weekly radio show with Ben Corman is now available on iTunes. Take me with you wherever you go!
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Computer Crashes, Book Salvaged
July 21st, 2010I had one goal for last night: transfer all of my Eminem cd’s onto my pretentious iPhone so that I had more than 7 songs at my disposal. Of course, given that PC’s suck at everything, the hard drive crashed during the music transfer process and the computer is now essentially dead.
I’ve been planning on getting a MAC anyway so I considered this a blessing in disguise. But then I had a dark, profound and crippling thought: my book is on this computer.
Panic set in. Not the “oh this is horrible and it will take awhile to get over this” type of angst. This was “I will definitively kill myself in the most horrific manner possible using, simultaneously, a gun, knife and crossbow”.
Because I am prone to freaking out over relatively minor inconveniences, it took two Glenlivets to remember that I had sent copies of the book file to my stepfather and ex-girlfriend. For reasons that I won’t go into here, neither of them are speaking to me at the moment, so I’ll have to make amends with them soon. Given that I’m not all that bright, I’m actually impressed that I even sent it to them in the first place. That’s forethought, my friends, and it’s what this guy is all about (points to self).
So once I have a MAC I’ll return to the B-Sides series. Until then I’ll be trying to retrieve files off of
the abomination known as my PC. Screw you, Dell.
B-Sides, Part 4: Are Parents the Cause of a Child’s Psychological Problems?
July 13th, 2010For the introduction to the ‘B-Sides’ series and to learn why it exists, click here.
Some of this material will likely be in the book, but in a much different (i.e., better) format. Since I am not an expert on child psychology , I went to Dr. John for a more seasoned take on therapy with children. When I asked him about the difficulties on working with children, he gave me a fairly scathing diatribe about parents and their role in child/adolescent pathology. I scribbled out as many notes as I could while he ranted/drank vodka, and I tried to put his voice into something remotely cohesive. His points are better than his jokes. Take a look and my apologies for John in advance if you are a good parent:
B-Sides, Part 3
June 30th, 2010Read the philosophy behind the “B-Sides” series here. See part 2 here.
This is a piece I wrote sometime in 2006. I was very angry and jaded at that time. Not unlike right now, actually:
In a landmark study, researchers Laumann, Paik, and Rosen (1999) found, in people age 18 to 59, sexual dysfunction in 43% of women and 31% of men. This essentially means that sexual disorders are likely more common than anxiety, depression, and substance abuse. These conditions include such difficulties as low libido, erectile dysfunction, and premature ejaculation, as well as some less common problems like Dyspareunia (genital pain before, during, or after intercourse). Pair the above figures with the more benign but common complaints of “I wish I could have sex more often,” and “Why isn’t sex with my husband more passionate, like it used to be?,” and it becomes clear how prominent sexual disorders and sexual frustration are.
