Shift Happens

Anxiety

What Do COVID, Ukraine, and Anxiety Have in Common?

Susan B. Winston LMFT on March 8, 2022

A Personal Perspective: Are you coping with ongoing anxiety, depression, fear of the future, and wondering if there will ever be a new normal that makes sense?

A Personal Perspective: Are you coping with ongoing anxiety, depression, fear of the future, and wondering if there will ever be a new normal that makes sense?

Do your kids say they hate school or that they're bored? They are being honest and with good reason. Education needs to change.

Looking for love in all the wrong places? You are not alone in feeling lost in the search. But you have to dig a bit deeper. Love is in the air and the apps and other great places.

Watching our parents age is one of the most difficult parts of growing older. Our children have left home. Life is a bit calmer, easier, less expensive. Then, our parents need us.

Mania

A Unique Look inside a Bipolar Mania Episode

Susan B. Winston LMFT on January 17, 2019

A thousand miles in the car, then jail, then a mental institution. That was the path of one manic episode of a bipolar young man.

A thousand miles in the car, then jail, then a mental institution. That was the path of one manic episode of a bipolar young man.

Divorce

When Someone Has One Foot Out the Door

Susan B. Winston LMFT on September 24, 2018

Do you have one foot out the door of your relationship? Is couples' therapy the answer to your plight or the band aid that will never stick? Just what should your therapist do?

Do you have one foot out the door of your relationship? Is couples' therapy the answer to your plight or the band aid that will never stick? Just what should your therapist do?

If you are feeling anxious about the incoming political team, join the club. While there is not DSM code for this psychological state, know that transitions are always uneasy.

If the thought of someone sneezing in an elevator or behind you in a public place puts fear into your mind, you are not alone. You might have mysophobia. You are not alone.

Our kids are not prepared for life beyond high school. Is it our fault as parents? The fault of our schools? How can we fix this and give our kids the necessary tools for living?

Have you noticed that there are more and more service dogs in your restaurants, stores, planes? Do more and more people need the comfort of their four-legged friends?

The holiday blues started when those first Christmas decorations appeared in the stores in August. That was followed by the change in Daylight Savings Time; a mean trick contributing to depression (no sunlight left after the typical workday). Now many people are facing the holidays alone and crawling deeper into their sadness. How can we help?

When you are in your 80s and the world suddenly becomes an electronic mess, how do you function? I may tease my mom, but she's getting the hang of it at age 87. If only she could figure out the cell phone we would be golden.

News was on fire on June 26 with the Supreme Court announcement of making same sex marriage legal in all states. So were the phones of many therapists. This was a day for coming out, not just saying "I do". And for some it was a day of wondering if they were LGBT or if their children might be. How do you answer all these questions?

When a book about tidying up your home hits the top of the best seller's list, there's got to be something worth reading in it. Or maybe this is just a wake up call for all of us to look at the kind of cleaning up we really need to do. The author asks that you completely empty your drawers and closets. I ask that you completely empty out your head.

Couples who cannot talk to one another need third part intervention: triangulation. Here, they can talk through their therapist and get the help they need in making a statement, a plea, noting a disagreement, exposing a private thought. Triangulation is often the magic pill that makes it OK to say what you feel and have it heard by another for interpretation.

Therapists are supposed to be the glue to those falling apart. Well don't let any therapist tell you that they do not often have to be their own glue. Hence, The Empty Nest Syndrome where your heart breaks each and every time the kids leave after an extended stay. The turkey was great and stuffing delicious and the cars pulling out of the drivway, heart-wrenching.

It's not writing an English paper or suffering through Algebra 2. It's bullying that is the worst problem kids and parents face in this back-to-school season and it is rampant. As a therapist I not only work with children who are the constant source of negative fodder but distraught parents who feel such pain for their kids. We need to stop this epidemic.

I have weight on my mind and my new friend carries about 430 pounds of muscle, runs marathons, is training to swim the English Channel and has taken his weight situation and turned it into a Guinness Book World Record. And I forgot to say, he is a 3 time National Sumo Champ. That's what you do with 430 pounds.

The last time I had a real conversation with my child is when I took away her cell phone and she could not text me. Is that how we really want to bring up our kids? We are trying to win their love by giving in to them on every issue. Time to give that up and get back to tough love. It is time to make our children better people and understand what that means.

Weeks after his death, we continue to talk about and mourn the loss of Robin Williams. There is another side to suicide we should look at. Who are the real victims of this tragedy. Tabloids indicate that his wife is now suicidal. I hope not. And what about his three children? How should they feel about a father who just could not work through difficult times?