It is no secret that marriage is popular. In Western culture, more than 90% of people marry by age fifty. Why? According to the Pew Research Center survey, most often, people marry for love (88%), followed by making a lifelong commitment (81%), companionship (76%), having children (49%), religious recognition of the relationship (30%), financial stability…
I remember growing up and playing board games with our family. I had an older brother and younger sister. Of course, most games would end up in a terrible fight where one or both siblings shouted “unfair” and stormed away in a huff, leaving the rest of us to find the scattered game pieces. Some…
Of the many lingering COVID-19 symptoms making headlines, there has been significant research suggesting a link between COVID-19 and Erectile Dysfunction (ED). In addition, news reports citing COVID’s effects on our cardiovascular system have given substantial evidence that this novel virus may, as a result, be one of the new causes of ED. When COVID-19…
In his excellent New York Times opinion piece on July 11, 2021, organizational psychologist Adam Grant discussed the influence of social interactions on our emotions. In his essay, “The Joy We’ve Been Missing,” Grant proposes that “peak happiness lies mostly in collective activity.” He utilizes the concept of “collective effervescence” coined by the French sociologist…
It’s not uncommon for me to receive a call from someone who has decided to talk to a psychologist that practices Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). They usually confess that they don’t know what CBT is or that there are different approaches to doing therapy. If this comes as a surprise, you are not alone. Many…
There is something about stepping outside on a warm, sunny day that lifts any doldrums and clears the mental cobwebs. I have often wondered if there is any biological basis for improved mood when the weather warms up. It turns out that there are a plethora of studies conducted on this topic. It is quite…
The pandemic and its associated consequences have been responsible for a skyrocketing of mental health issues. One such study cited a quadrupling of self-reported anxiety/depression symptoms during the pandemic compared with numbers from the prior year over a similar period. The mental health effects of the pandemic have been most strongly felt by young women,…
A friend recently remarked that he had PTSD thinking about this time last year, as the COVID pandemic began to entirely collapse his reality along with the rest of us. I easily related to his distress and was reminded of a useful concept called the anniversary reaction. The overlap between anniversary reaction and posttraumatic stress…
We all know by now that stress is bad for our immune system. We’ve heard it a million times, especially since 2020. But did you ever wonder how, exactly, a feeling of unhappiness or worry can turn into swollen glands or a fever? How can something so intangible as a feeling cause such a physical…
Do you ever find that you’re going through the motions of life without fully being present in the moment? How many times have you driven somewhere only to forget the entire trip completely or eaten a meal without remembering how it tasted? How often do you sit and take in the sights and sounds around…