Substance-Assisted Spiritual Awakening?
A piece of Bill W’s story that didn’t make the Big Book, reported by the New York Times:
Were Bill Wilson’s spiritual awakening and influential sobriety the products of a belladonna hallucination shortly after his discussions with his friend Ebby Thacher? Could they have been incited by his alcohol withdrawal symptoms? Or did something else happen to him that science cannot explain?
Depression, Anxiety, Addiction and Indoor Tanning
A study finds problems–depression, anxiety, addiction, and substance abuse–associated with frequent indoor tanning.
Researchers believe individuals who have used indoor tanning facilities may meet criteria for addiction, and may also be more prone to anxiety symptoms and substance use…
Couples Therapy v. Alcoholism
A study shows couples therapy edging out individual therapy for women working to recover from alcoholism:
A new research effort assessed the benefit of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for alcohol-dependent women. The innovative research design also investigated if CBT was more effective if delivered as couples therapy rather than individual therapy [and found] that both treatment methods worked well, but women treated in couples therapy maintained their gains a bit better than those in individual therapy.
Fast Meditation
“Fast meditation”? A study posted at PsychCentral shows near-instant results from just a little mindfulness practice:
Psychologists studying the effects of a meditation technique known as “mindfulness” found that meditation-trained participants showed a significant improvement in their critical cognitive skills (and performed significantly higher in cognitive tests than a control group) after only four days of training for only 20 minutes each day.
If you’re curious, a good place to start: Jon Kabat-Zinn’s Wherever You Go, There You Are. A fast mindfulness read.
Open Therapy Hour in Silver Lake
I’ve got a prime time therapy hour available at the Silver Lake office: Tuesdays at 6:30pm. The office is at 4001 1/2 Sunset Blvd., 90027 (Sunset Junction). Write or call to talk and arrange a first appointment.
Remember Past Coping
Crisis Coping from A to Z has its R: “Remember Past Coping,” now up at PsychologyToday.com.
The key to getting through whatever you’re going through now may be revisiting a long-lost coping strategy: “I used to keep a journal.” “I used to jog.” “I used to take baths.” “I used to eat better.” Whatever it was that worked, you probably weren’t doing it just because someone told you to (except maybe at first). You did it because it worked. Scan your past for answers about how best to cope today.
Human Being v. Human Doing
Jim Taylor, PhD asks, Are you raising a human being or a human doing?
Having internalized their perceptions of being a human doing from their parents, children come to love themselves only when they are successful and experience nothing less than self-loathing when they fail.
Meanwhile, back in 2007, Po Bronson sounded the alarm about the inverse power of praise. (The article later became a book, NurtureShock.) In a line:
Giving kids the label of “smart” does not prevent them from underperforming. It might actually be causing it.
Which, taken together, sort of synch up. Sort of. In another line: Parenting is confusing. If you’re struggling with it, you’re not alone.
Stress Strikes Again
A study finds a genetic link between stress, obesity, and diabetes.
‘We showed that the actions of single gene in just one part of the brain can have profound effects on the metabolism of the whole body,’ says Chen. This mechanism, which appears to be a ‘smoking gun’ tying stress levels to metabolic disease, might, in the future, point the way toward the treatment or prevention of a number of stress-related diseases.
Los Angeles Therapist
Nearing 100 posts on this blog, I’m going to begin adding a few entries now and then with an eye toward search engine results. An experiment. Hope they won’t be too distracting. Things like, “Los Angeles Therapist.”
I am a Los Angeles therapist, in case you’re finding this site for the first time. I work out of two offices, one in Beverly Hills (Robertson and Olympic) and one in Silver Lake (Sunset Junction). Please call or write to arrange a free 15-minute consultation and first appointment.
How Not to Raise a Bully
From Time.com: How Not to Raise a Bully. (In short: teach empathy.)
Increasingly, neuroscientists, psychologists and educators believe that bullying and other kinds of violence can indeed be reduced by encouraging empathy at an early age. Over the past decade, research in empathy — the ability to put ourselves in another person’s shoes — has suggested that it is key, if not the key, to all human social interaction and morality.