Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a condition which can make trusting other people and establishing lasting relationships extremely difficult. This can make coping with BPD in relationships frustrating for the person carrying the diagnosis, as well as for a loved one who is often trying to understand and be supportive….
Maybe you’re going through a really rough breakup. Or you’ve just moved to a new city and you’re feeling extremely lonely. Or nothing out of the ordinary has happened, but you aren’t all that happy, and you want to do something about it. In all these circumstances, a viable solution…
Trust issues are characterized by fear of betrayal, abandonment, or manipulation. And this fear is often triggered as a result of betrayal (such as infidelity), abandonment (think: leaving a child or foregoing a relationship with them), or manipulation (for example, dishonesty or gaslighting). If you’re reading this, it’s possible that…
The idea of brainwashing had a viral moment in the 1950s when the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) decided to wage psychological warfare against Communism. Project MKUltra secretly experimented with “mind control” techniques, dosing people with lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) without their consent. In fact, at one point the CIA…
When I was a freshman in high school, I got the call I’d been dreading for 10 years. My best friend’s mother had passed away. She managed to beat breast cancer but mysterious complications ultimately took her life. Initially, I felt shocked. Then, I felt nothing. I was numb. I…
Grief is a normal human response to the pain of losing someone. It can be brutal, anguished, disorienting, maddening, enraging, and lonely. But ultimately, people do emerge from grief. They may feel forever changed; however, they do find meaning in their lives again. Those difficult feelings eventually make way for…
Q: I am feeling super overwhelmed and alone. What are some things that I can do to calm down? A: We’re so sorry to hear that you’re feeling overwhelmed and alone. Those feelings are really difficult and we understand that it can be hard to find ways to calm and…
I entered my first real relationship in the 7th grade (I know—young) and stayed in this relationship until my freshman year of college. I’ll do the math for you: this relationship took up roughly six years of my life. In other words, at the age of 18, I had spent…
For tens of thousands of years humans have been passionate about their fur babies. The deep bonds between Homo sapiens and other animal species seem so common and obvious that they’ve only recently been studied scientifically. So how did we get from throwing food scraps to wolves at the outskirts…
The sweet, charming, handsome ex-Marine you’ve been emailing and texting with for eight months has a family emergency and can’t make his flight to meet you for the first time. You’re crushed. You’d let yourself fall hard for this guy, and now it might be another few months before you…
I’m a happily partnered mom, but no one has to explain to me the benefits of being single. I’m not talking about the joys of online dating and casual sex. I’m talking about keeping your own hours, eating what you want, and TRYING TO WRITE A SENTENCE WITHOUT SOMEONE ELSE’S…
New research finds that people with PTSD who do not receive treatment have a higher risk of developing dementia later in life. This research also finds that veterans diagnosed with PTSD (who are more likely to receive treatment for PTSD compared with the general population) have a reduced risk of…