Is the experience of humiliation normal? Although the experience of humiliation is extremely common, it is not normal. We were born with the emotional tools not to be reduced by the power of its attack. However, if we are not raised to use the tools, or do not learn...
Calls to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK have increased 25% since the recent deaths of two very notable people. The highly publicized deaths have shaken people with shock, fear, and awareness. The increases in calls are from friends of...
I used to believe that depression meant lying in bed all day with the covers pulled over my head. Or not going out with friends or smiling during a funny movie scene. Over time, I have come to the realization that depression is more a suppression of feelings. It can...
According to the journalist Johann Hari in the book, Lost Connections, researchers have concluded, “humans need tribes as much as a bee needs a hive” (pg. 77). When a bee loses its hive, it goes “haywire” (pg. 90). When humans lose connection with other humans, we...
As one who is all too familiar with the realities and exhausting effects of depression, I find myself looking for ways to describe it in a more tangible way to myself and the people in my life. The difficulty is that, unlike other infirmities, you cannot see...
In my experience, depression has had two opposing effects: it protected me from feeling deep pain but, at the same time, robbed me of relationships and healing. Thirty-eight years ago today, my life was changed forever. What should have been a time of joy and...
Leaders find much fulfillment in serving others. Whether it’s serving as a CEO or a parent, leaders most significant moments come when they are giving their gifts, abilities, passion, and creativity. Even so, leaders who pour out great energy doing what is fulfilling...
Anxiety takes us away from what is true and makes us fretful, distrustful, impulsive, and controlling. In anxiety, we rob ourselves of daily living and its experience. Instead of living in the present we try to control our future in order to prevent a recurrence of...
The Cost of Gladness A friend of mine told me a story of entering the seventh grade middle school. He’s a grown man, now; flies for FedEx. In fact, he is the captain that does check rides with other pilots to make sure they are topnotch. Basically, he is master of his...
No one escapes life without suffering. Whether you would describe your suffering as abandonment, rejection, grief, betrayal, or abuse, all suffering can leave us with deep wounds and name us as Forgotten, Unlovable, Damaged, and Disposable. However, suffering also...
Written by Stephen James, MMFT, LPC-MHSP and Tennyson Dodd, MTS Sage Hill Counseling has a latin phrase as its motto; Dum Spiro Spero. Translated it means, “While there is breath, there is hope.” When people first encounter this they often comment about how positive...
The Gift of Living in Tension with Heartache There is great pain in trying to be authentic, living in the tension of family, work, faith, hobbies, and other responsibilities in a way that reflects who we want to be. The pain of not being with the people we most love...
Suicide is a hard subject to discuss. Tragically, it touches too many lives. For those who attempt suicide and survive, the shame can be paralyzing. For the family and friends of those harmed by it’s effects, the pain, confusion, and anger can be...
My daughters were born on Halloween and New Year’s Day. That means that nearly all of our family “holidays” are crammed into about a 45 day window. I’d like to think that, somehow, my holidays are more stressful than yours. But that’s not really true. The Holidays...
Psychiatric drugs and psychotherapy mostly have the same purpose: to make us feel better mentally and emotionally. However, it seems like common sense to assume that they do so by very different means, the former acting chemically on your brain and the latter altering...
What is stressing you out? Work? Family? Money? All of these? Maybe your football team is stressing you out. Or your car. Maybe it’s that relationship ghost that’s been haunting you for the last 10 years. Or your addiction. Or the decision you have to make by the end...
Many professionals operate under constant stress and end up becoming disillusioned, practicing hopelessness, and physically and emotionally exhausted—especially if we work helping people. Sadly for professionals, when things get hard the only thing we know to do is...
In the Christian New Testament there is a story that takes place not long after Jesus’s crucifixion. It’s a scene where Peter and his friends have been out all night working hard fishing without catching a thing. Just days before, they had witnessed the traumatic...
Mood swings, poor appetite and constant tiredness are few symptoms that anyone suffering from depression could experience. But another symptom which surfaces and seems to get worse over time is a person’s inability to focus or think. According to a study done at...
