Pessimism weighs on both body and mind. But research shows optimism can be trained, and even small steps can make a difference.
Tag: therapy
People in recovery from eating disorders and OCD increasingly seek support from coaches, but some experts are wary.
Outdated labels are giving way to a new diagnostic model that sees personality traits on a spectrum. The newest revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) introduces a shift in how we understand, treat and talk about personality disorders, focusing less on rigid categories and more on individual patterns and distress.
After a brush with death in Ukraine in 2023, Colombian writer Héctor Abad Faciolince discusses his experience, survivor’s guilt, his new book, Ahora y en la hora (“Now and in the Hour”), and the war in Ukraine.
Known in the past decade as a horse tranquilizer and surgical anesthetic, ketamine is now gaining popularity as a party drug and even a life-coping aid. But while it shows promise in treating depression, its misuse brings real risks and a growing blind spot.
How are you feeling? Is it time to stop? Is it me or my therapist? Here are the questions to ask if you’ve taken that plunge.
Once sites of shock and provocation, museums are reinventing themselves as places of calm and care. From meditation cushions to medical studies, art is now being prescribed for everything from burnout to chronic illness. But what happens when comfort replaces critique?
For the author, cycling in the northern city of Chandigarh, offers the opportunity to glide past grand, sleepy bungalows, or race the early morning sun along Sukhna Lake, free from honking horns and red lights. In New Delhi, it’s not quite the same, but worthy nonetheless. It’s also a connection to our inner child.
Amid the ruins of Gaza City, women gather in a hair salon not to escape war, but to reclaim fragments of life, beauty, and selfhood. In a city scarred by loss, they color sorrow with dye, memory, and quiet defiance.
For centuries, sensory isolation has been used as a tool to achieve deep meditative states. With noise and light pollution growing around us, seeking profound silence and darkness may be the ultimate balm for modern times.
A misplaced trash bag containing a secret stash sparks an argument between sisters — and our Naples-based psychiatrist.
Motivate them or leave them alone? Be honest or say nothing? It is not easy to deal well with depressed people. But psychology professionals say that those closest can often help even more than trained experts. That doesn’t mean it’s easy. Here’s how to help…
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Marriage Counseling, Al Dente
Our Naples-based psychiatrist overhears a patient’s conversation on the phone, and comes up with a very Italian kind of culinary compromise.
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Who Cleans Up After Spilled Milk?
A couple’s therapy session puts its own mental load spin on an idiom.
A psychologist discusses with three individuals who are navigating diverse identities, as queer and Dalits, while battling anxiety disorders, ADHD and persistent depression.
Narcissistic and other deeply self-involved parents can turn their children into diffident, dysfunctional adults. But it’s never too late to help yourself and decide to step away from their toxic discourse and manipulative games.
We all know good communication is the bedrock of a healthy relationship. Here’s why keeping some of your thoughts to yourself, and a practiced lack of utter sincerity, is a bedrock of a healthy couple.
Social networks are full of false gurus who claim to be experts in mental health and well-being. Do we need new laws against these kinds of charlatans to restore credibility to professional psychology?
The complexity of danzón, a graceful and intricate dance, encourages a group of older adults to stimulate their minds, making it a key part of protecting their mental agility and memory.
Chilean-born, Buenos Aires-based writer Cristian Alarcón says it took 30 years of therapy to get over his parents’ bid to “cure” him of being gay as a child, but insists it’s too late to be angry with them.
It’s not easy coming out to your family as gay or transgender, nor for every family to accept it, especially in conformist societies like Latin America’s. But, unlike decades ago, today families can seek out sensible information and professional help to avoid hurting their children.
New Year’s Eve can be challenging for her patients, but our Naples-based psychiatrist puts a sunny spin on end-of-year wishes.
A patient tells our Naples-based psychiatrist about his questionable plans for Christmas dinner.
In the wake of Giulia Cecchettin’s death, our Naples-based Dottoré remembers one of her old patients, a victim of domestic abuse.
Our Naples-based psychiatrist talks one of her patients through the possible source of his wife’s discontent.
Israel and Hamas have reached a deal to exchange 50 Israeli hostages held in Gaza for a four-day pause in fighting and the return of Palestinian prisoners. Orna Dotan, leading a team of therapists tasked with aiding these hostages and their families, takes us inside a uniquely charged personal and political situation.
Our Naples-based Dottoré gets mildly insulted by a well-meaning patient.
Many of the contemporary philosophies that promise to help us improve our lives and well-being also require cutting off relationships with other people — one of the most important parts of living in a society with others.
Argentines readily discuss their moods and states of mind — and that’s a good thing, as long as we don’t pretend to actually diagnose each other, writes a psychologist.
Mothers everywhere are struggling with the pressures of parenting in an increasingly individualistic culture. Enter the rapidly growing empire of parenting influencers who promise to help – at a price. In Italy, where mothers have long been seen as models of strength, the novelty is particularly acute.
Based on conversations with author and psychotherapist Gregorz Dzedzić, who is part of the Polish diaspora in Chicago, as well as the diary entries of generations of Polish immigrants, journalist Joanna Dzikowska has crafted a narrative that characterizes the history of the community, from its beginnings to its modern-day assimilation.
There are many frontiers being crossed by AI lately, sparking debate and anxiety. But now, we’re entering strange, new territory: an algorithm that lets bereaved family members communicate with deceased loved ones in the most realistic of ways. Yet it comes with very real and complicated risks.
Corporations are racing to adopt the language of the mental health movement. But is this anything more than a veil to cover up the deeper problems within the modern workplace?
Psychedelic-assisted MDMA therapy for PTSD has shown some promise in the West, but plans to export it globally may be premature.
Our Naples-based psychiatrist offers a short-and-sweet exchange with a patient, on what it means to feel “different”.
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When A Psychiatrist Is Provoked
Our Neapolitan psychiatrist recounts a chance meeting with an old patient, and the benefits of taking the bait.
You swipe until your fingers are sore, seeing the same poses over and over again, the same buzzwords and backgrounds. Online dating feels so hopeless because it has killed any notion of individuality.
Five years ago, Agnese DeCarlo received treatment for cancer, but the psychological effects stayed. She found a unique and pioneering treatment for women just like her — psychotherapy on the ocean.
Society judges men and women very differently in situations of adultery and cheating, and in divorce settlements. It just takes some high-profile cases to make that clear.
On top of the traditional troubles some young people face on their own for the first time are the added factors of social media pressure and the effects of the pandemic. The crisis appears to have hit hard in Italy, with other countries, from India to France to the UK, reporting a similar situation.