grief
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The Joy/Sadness Dyad of Love
Do you ever feel “emotional”? Yes, just “emotional” without any real kind of definition to what this means. The symptoms of being emotional are often a tearing up in some way. You might feel something physically in another part of your body, probably depending on your personality type and temperament. You might have an immediate…
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Helpless
Helpless is a feeling. That having been said, it is a subset of “feelings” that I have written about (and that Deb and I have written a book about incorporating all of my feeling blogs). Describing helpless as a feeling is the best way I can define helpless, just as all words representing deep feelings…
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The Centrality of Fear
Fear is the most important emotion that exists in the human psyche. Furthermore, fear is the most important emotion that exists in all animals. If it were not for fear, nothing would survive. Animals would not survive and humans would not survive. Fear has to be seen as “the most important” of the four basic…
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Wanting It Both Ways
I recently had a therapeutic hour with a patient who “wants to have it both ways.” I know exactly how he feels because I have had the same desires, as have many people who privilege me by coming to my office for my presence and counsel. Let me explain what “wanting it both ways” means.…
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Daily Disappointments
S**t happens, right? Indeed it does. No way around it. Things happen that are unexpected…and ultimately disappointing. If that were the end of it, I wouldn’t be writing this blog because if people actually understood that s**t happens, they would be able to handle it, process it, remember it, and prevent the almost universal reaction…
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The Narcissism of our Times
Deb and I have a general distaste for pathology-based diagnoses, like narcissism, as well as almost all the other diagnoses that are so popular these days. We have watched as society has come to frequently identify with ADHD, depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, learning disabilities, and various personality disorders. I hesitate to write this blog using…
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Angels Unaware
When I began to write this blog, I misspelled the title of this blog with “Angers” instead of “Angels,” which is what I intended to write. This mistake seemed to fit with the essence of what I have to say about “angels,” not “angers.” It makes me wonder if anger and angels are opposites that…
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Sharing Grief
You might know that my daughter, Krissie, died just a few weeks ago. Understandably, this event has had a rather profound effect on me, as well as others who knew Krissie, both family and friends. The effect on me, and of course on others, has been one of grief. These past six weeks has been…
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Daughter
The family of Kristin Johnson, known to most as Krissie, want to share with you in our great sorrow of her passing, Wednesday, August 21, 2019. Krissie suffered from advancing Multiple Sclerosis which brought on increasing dizziness and imbalance. Not long ago she fell and early Wednesday morning, she developed blood clots that brought on…
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The Cure for Anxiety
Sadness. That is the cure for anxiety. But let me explain. Or you can read our book that devotes a whole chapter to the “cure for anxiety.” In this brief blog I will attempt to do several things: Explain what anxiety is along with its cousins: worry, fretting, fear, and outright terror Explain why anxiety…