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Source: Elia Pellegrini/Unsplash I mentioned several months back that I’m writing in fits and starts my memoir. I’ve actually be ‘trying’ to write it for at least a decade. I know Yoda – 'Do or Do Not. There is no try.' But I beg to differ in this case. Or maybe you’re right. I ‘do’ but I have ‘do’ well. I haven’t been happy with the ‘do’ that I have done. I guess you could l call ‘do doo’. Oh dear. Anyway…I wanted to let in on why it’s been so hard for me. Maybe you can offer some insight, support or ideas. Why has it been so difficult for me to write? Well, my mental illness (perhaps like some other people’s) is a big yarn ball of psychotic and spiritual experiences. I’m trying to tease them apart; make sense of them. I’m wanting to shed light on the intersection of spiritual experience and mental illness; the struggle I had and still have of knowing my mental illness and extraordinary experiences can co-exist without minimizing either. When I’ve written my plays, I … [Read more...] about Is There Something Spiritual about Psychosis?

Source: Pixabay Key Points: The physical and emotional consequences of chronic pain can show up in ways sufferers may not expect. Recognizing that a bad mood or poor sleep are related to chronic pain could help increase compassion and limit self-blame. It’s been a hard few months for me. In addition to restrictions necessitated by the pandemic (I’m doing everything to keep myself and those around me safe), I’m experiencing an intensification of chronic pain, partly due to my ongoing chronic illness (ME/CFS) and partly due to a bad flare in osteoarthritis. This has led me to become acutely aware of several seldom-understood consequences of living with chronic pain. I’ve always known these consequences were there, but because they’re currently taking center stage in my life, I’m writing about them in an effort to raise awareness about this little-discussed subject. 1. Sleep Deprivation Some people with chronic pain can find a sleeping position that allows their … [Read more...] about 5 Seldom-Recognized Consequences of Living With Chronic Pain

Alcohol is the most widely consumed drug worldwide. For many, drinking is as much a part of daily life as having dinner. Although we consume it regularly, we don't really know what it does to us, or why it causes some of us to suddenly find streaking naked through a college campus a brilliant idea. Alcohol, according to conventional wisdom , is a depressant. Yet, that doesn't fully explain alcohol's effects. People often drink to liven up a party, not mellow it out. A few drinks can spark energy, elation, and excitement; it gives you a buzz. Alcohol may be more than simply a depressant. Classification of drugs can be explained by their chemical targets within the brain. Stimulants may influence dopamine or norepinephrine. Depressants target a chemical called GABA, the primary inhibitory neurotransmitter within the brain. As early research failed to show that alcohol targeted a specific receptor, scientists speculated that alcohol non-specifically altered cell membranes. … [Read more...] about Your Brain on Alcohol

Source: Wikimedia Commons | Nobu Tamura People have long pondered what consciousness actually is. Consciousness seems very different from other biological functions—like some sort of nonmaterial essence within our heads. Thoughts and feelings seem ethereal, untethered from anything physical. Self-awareness seems like a phenomenon utterly divorced from anything that could possibly be produced by cells comprised of physical particles. People used to think of life itself that way too, and many still do. But biologists solved the enigma of what makes things alive mid-way through the twentieth century, the foundations of that understanding having been built over the preceding century. Before that, living things were believed to possess some sort of animating essence that accounted for their difference from inanimate matter. People could not imagine how the same material particles that comprise inanimate matter could be arranged in such a way as to make something alive , without … [Read more...] about What Actually Is Consciousness, and How Did It Evolve?

Source: Nvdu/Unsplash In the course of play therapy , there are outcomes which are not only not goals but which are almost never achieved: complete insight, resolved problems. It is unlikely that any physiologic or temperamental tendencies are significantly changed. It is unlikely that the therapy has prevented the need for help again in the future. Yet the client has freely explored problems and their relationship with emotions. The client has developed a working insight of reaction patterns blocking constructive engagement with the surrounding world. The client has learned experientially new, more satisfying and beneficial methods of facing difficulties. Overall the child client has, with no little help from an interactive process involving emotional responsiveness and cathartic expression, become increasingly independent, confident, and mature in navigating existential suffering and behavioral responsibility or interpersonal communication, bonding , and … [Read more...] about What the Scientific Method and Play Therapy Have in Common