For decades, I lived in chronic, deep depression. I had no idea why I was there, or how to get out from under the black cloud. So I did what a lot of people in that situation do: I self-medicated with drugs to numb the pain. Then, one day when I was twenty-eight years old,…
When we live in a prolonged state of fear and uncertainty, or in the case or recent global events, one crisis after another, we move into a state that closely resembles what is commonly referred to as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. But is it really a disorder; or would it be more accurately described as…
We’ve all heard of the fight or flight response, a state where your body prepares for threat by releasing hormones to physiologically and psychologically deal with an imminent threat, or run away from it. But there is a third, often overlooked response called freeze, where you realize your best option is to become immobilized, either…
I can’t say when my anxiety turned into depression, but with hindsight and many years of therapy I know that it goes as far back as I can remember. Long-term anxiety, like the type I lived through as a child, eventually morphs into depression, as feelings of hopelessness and helplessness take over the psyche. Depression…
I don’t recall the exact age I suffered my first panic attack, but I do remember how it felt. As my chest tightened and my breathing became shallow, my oxygen level dropped, and I thought I was going to die. Breathing is fundamental to life, and when it gets restricted, for whatever reason, we fear…
In 1992 I began what became a two-year process of letting go of street drugs so I could spend more time with my new-found love, climbing. When I give presentations, I inevitably get asked the same question: “Didn’t you just trade in one addiction for another?” And I always give the same answer: Yes, and…
There is an invisible architecture of power in our society that is at the root of all forms of abuse, whether it is racism, bullying, or intimate partner violence. A global term for this epidemic is Sociopathic Narcissism, or in the case of the following story, what turned into Psychopathic Narcissism. With the murder of…