Ketamine for OCD, Too?
I’ve written in the past about the use of a pharmaceutical version of the drug ketamine (known as the party drug, “Special K”) in studies with depression and with bipolar disorder. Recently, I…
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The Ecstasy and the Agony: Using MDMA to treat PTSD
My aunt alerted me to a recent New York Times article on the use of MDMA (known as the street drug Ecstasy) to treat posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). I’ve written about research on…
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Chinese Finger Traps: What a Novelty Item Can Teach Us about Acceptance
Let’s start with the obvious. In most cases, human beings want to minimize pain and discomfort. This is doubly true for emotional pain. While some people enjoy extreme temperatures, endurance sports, and pushing…
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Coping with the Winter Blues
I was recently interviewed for an article on coping with the “Winter Blues” in the Daily Muse, an online magazine. This brief article offers some pithy guidance on what to do about seasonal…
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Why antipsychotics should not be prescribed for anxiety
The Oregonian published an Op-Ed piece that my colleague Christeine Terry and I wrote. The article addresses the growing practice of off-label use of antipsychotic medications to treat anxiety-related problems. Our aim was…
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Things to Know Before You Say “Go”
In a previous post, I wrote a bit about the growing exploration among researchers in the use of psychotherapy-related smartphone apps for anxiety. In more local news, a Portland psychologist Elsbeth Martindale, PsyD,…
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Should I Be Using a Smartphone App for Anxiety Instead of Playing Angry Birds?
Recently, there’s been some press on the development of smartphone apps for mental health issues. I think this a very worthy area of pursuit. For a few dollars to download, thousands of people…
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Book Review: OCD, A Guide for the Newly Diagnosed
Although OCD is commonly used to describe someone who is overly tidy, this stereotype doesn’t capture the common struggles of someone with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Perhaps as a consequence of stereotypes such as this,…
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Problems with Pulling Your Hair or Picking at Your Skin?—Try a Little TLC
Have you ever heard of trichotillomania or the wonderful organization called the Trichotillomania Learning Center (TLC)? See below to learn more. What’s Trichotillomania? Trichotillomania—or “trich” for short—is a problem that’s a little obscure…
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Recognizing Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Awareness Month
Unfortunately, mental struggles are often given scant attention in the media. Many people are surprised to learn that others struggle with the same difficulties. Although posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has been getting more…
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Exposure Therapy on TV – “My Extreme Animal Phobia”
Not long ago my girlfriend stumbled across a YouTube video from Animal Planet’s show “My Extreme Animal Phobia.” It features a segment from the show involving a tough-looking, heavily tattooed man who is…
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Is K Okay? Using Ketamine to Treat Depression
There have been some articles on the National Public Radio (NPR) website about the use of the drug ketamine as a fast acting treatment for depression (See here and here). Originally developed as…
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Can Light in the Ears Cure the Winter Blues or Do You Need a Hole in Your Head?
Here in Portland, seasonal depression, commonly called the Winter Blues or Seasonal Affective Disorder, is relatively common. Up to 20% of the population in the rainy Pacific Northwest may be impacted. I’ve written…
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Should I Be Taking “Alternative” Supplements for Anxiety?
More and more, I have clients coming into see me who are taking over-the-counter “natural” or “alternative” products. Sometimes these are recommended by a specialist, sometimes by a friend. I was curious about…
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Spoiler Alert: Spoilers Don’t Spoil
Have you ever had the experience of learning the ending of a book, movie, or TV show that you had really wanted to read/watch and saying to yourself, “AARGH—it’s ruined for me!”? In…
