Mental Health Topics

Oprah Winfrey and Gayle King are in their 60s now, but they first became friends in their 20s, when they were both single women in TV broadcasting. This means that for over 40 years they have stuck together through marriages, children, divorce, and career ups and downs. Their BFF status…

Last weekend I had the classic Saturday morning experience of watching cartoons with my daughter and hearing “I want that!” at least seven times during each commercial break. It’s glaringly obvious when children are the target of advertising campaigns. Bright colors! Music! Animal mascots! But it’s not as obvious when…

You’ll be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn’t have a strong opinion about astrology, which assigns meaning to the placement of the planets and the stars. Twenty-nine percent of Americans believe in horoscopes, and the people who say they don’t are quick to defend their reasons why.  As much as…

Social media platforms are home to carefully curated content. Rarely (if ever) do we post an unflattering photo on Instagram, write an uncomplimentary Facebook status, or share a tweet that isn’t funny. I’m happy to be the lab rat here.  In the last photo I posted on Instagram, my hair…

Buena Vista is as nice a neighborhood as you could imagine: Proper houses trimmed in white, all lined up in neat rows. It’s a labyrinth of new pavement and landscaping, baking underneath the Texas sun. Somewhere, the sounds of a lawnmower swirl together with a dog barking and a child’s…

My dad is a psychologist—growing up, I remember him helping all types of people, from inmates prepping for parole to other children and teens who were having behavioral issues. As someone from a poor family and a rough area of Chicago, his life lessons were always insightful, if a little…

For the seventh time this morning, I ogle at my wrist, shuffling through the features on my smartwatch until I can see my heart rate. It’s bumping along at a cool 102 bpm. I’m sweating slightly, nervously tapping my foot against the carpet. Whether it’s from this third cup of…

It wouldn’t surprise me if cavepeople worried about getting canceled. Steal someone’s share of the weekly mammoth meat and you’d probably be ostracized by the clan, forced to make your own fire in a lesser, lonelier cave. Until your people forgave your transgression and invited you back into the fold,…

You may be considering a career change by personal choice or due to forced circumstances or a mixture of both. It is natural to feel both excited and anxious about switching your occupations. You might be concerned that you haven’t got the relevant experience, skills, and knowledge to make the…

Humanity is (mostly) made up of moral, sensitive, and compassionate beings. We love big-eyed baby animals. We love gazing at waterfalls. We hate global pandemics that keep us from hanging out with our friends. And, of course, we hate reading again and again about the imminent destruction of our homes…

Starting in the mid-20th century, father figures in pop culture, especially those portrayed on TV, have been characterized with negative attributes. Don’t be mistaken; there’s comedic gold to be mined from the blunders of characters like Bernie McCullough in “The Bernie Mac Show,” Hank Hill in “King of The Hill,”…

Weddings came back with a vengeance this summer, and let’s be honest: It had been kind of nice to see people elope for a while. So cheap. So quiet. So little pressure on friends and family. You could just send a gift instead of making small talk with strangers and…