Addiction

My patient smiled a toothless grin and told me, "I feel fine, doc." But he was far from it. His liver enzymes had risen into the thousands, his skin was a pasty yellow I didn't need the benefit of sunlight to see, and his albumin (a protein whose level indicates the liver's functional capacity as well as a patient's degree of malnutrition) had fallen far too low. Read More

Recovery is the ability to tolerate your feelings without the need to medicate, or engage in self-destructive or self-defeating behaviors and thoughts.  Read More

 Looking to make a change in your life? Why does your friend lose 150 pounds in six months? Ever wonder what would lead to your mother stopping drinking after so many years? Psychological research and expert opinion has a lot to tell you. Listen up and the first thing to change may be your perspective! Read More

We've now looked in some detail at the Daily and Weekly Weigh-Ins, a keeping of numbers that will tell you how much you've spent, what you've spent it on, and how much you could have saved had you bought only what's more necessary rather than less. In order for these numbers to begin revealing the particular figures in your shopping carpet, the patterns that characterize your spending, expect to keep this data for two-or better three-months. Read More

Like crack, certainty is something our minds are designed to enjoy and ill-equipped to resist, even when we know it may kill us. Scientific certainty addicts claim that all science is based on solid proofs, on hard facts, or at least on the best available knowledge of the moment. But science itself tells us that this isn't exactly or always true. Read More

It is as though the image of the “mother” and that of the “alcoholic” seem contradictory. However, alcoholism does not discriminate and there are mothers who are able to fulfill their roles as mothers (in the literal sense), and even as professionals—therefore being high functioning. Those around them may not believe that these individuals could be alcoholic, because their outside life may appear “perfect”. Read More

Romanticizing involves glamorizing using behaviors and, in the moment, totally forgetting about the negative consequences.  Read More

An important part of everyone's self-concept is a sense of how we compare to others in our behaviors. A common observation is that many people are overly optimistic in their judgments about themselves relative to others. For example, on average, people think they are more likely to be successful in business than others, or to be less likely to suffer from serious illnesses than others. Not everyone can be more successful in business than others, of course, so somebody in that sample must be being too optimistic.

What is the effect of this optimism on behavior? Read More

From quitting smoking to eating healthier to exercising regularly to getting more organized, most of us have a list of behaviors we'd like to begin (or end) that resist our attempts to do so. As a physician, I find myself giving advice about changing habits on a daily basis. Even though many of my patients are able to succeed in making desired changes in the short term, most of them revert to their original behaviors in the long term. What, then, are effective ways to alter behavior on a permanent basis? Read More