In 1994, the American Psychiatric Association removed sexual addiction (Then formally known as, “Hypersexuality,”) from the DSM-V – their expansive psychiatric bible that defines mental health disorders. It wasn’t strange or surprising – and it certainly wasn’t incorrect to remove it.
Read moreRead moreIf clothes aren’t physically or emotionally healthy, why are we horrified when people don’t wear them? Show a man with a gun… it’s called action. Show a man with a dick… it’s called indecent.
There’s something wrong with the way Americans have come to accept almost every aspect of the human condition except for the most natural one. We’ve accepted guns, drugs and violence, yet refuse to accept bare breasts and genitalia.
Put a man killing and raping women in a movie and it may go on to win an Oscar. Put a naked woman on the screen, and it won’t be allowed a nomination (take “Blue is the Warmest Color” for example).
Read moreWhat does marijuana do in the brain? It produces some excitatory behavioural changes, including euphoria, but it is not generally regarded as a stimulant. It can also produce some sedative effects, but not to the extent of a barbiturate or alcohol. It produces mild analgesic effects (pain relief ) as well, but this action is not related pharmacologically to the pain-relieving effects of opiates or aspirin. Finally, marijuana produces hallucinations at high doses, but its structure does not resemble LSD or any other drug formally categorized as a hallucinogen.
Read moreConfrontational methods are practiced nowhere else in the world-for good reason. Interventions are deeply humiliating. They imply a moral and psychological superiority among those staging the intervention. They remove a person’s autonomy, and removing the opportunity for choice is thoroughly dehumanizing. They deflate a person’s already deflated sense of self. Further, interventions also induce shame, guilt-feelings that actually reduce the likelihood of change.
Read moreProcrastinators, take note: If you’ve tried building self-discipline and you’re still putting things off, maybe you need to try something different. One new approach: Check your mood.
Often, procrastinators attempt to avoid the anxiety or worry aroused by a tough task with activities aimed at repairing their mood, such as checking Facebook or taking a nap. But the pattern, which researchers call “giving in to feel good,” makes procrastinators feel worse later when they face the consequences of missing a deadline or making a hasty, last-minute effort, says Timothy Pychyl (rhymes with Mitchell), an associate professor of psychology at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, and a researcher on the topic.
Read moreGustin and colleagues found that people with chronic pain were more passive and less novelty-seeking than the controls.
“Chronic pain patients are less likely to want to go out and explore the world,” says Gustin.
Imaging found chronic pain patients had greater activity in parts of the brain involved in emotions, cognition and behaviour
In particular, they had more neuronal growth in the prefrontal cortex, which is a part of the brain linked to emotions, cognition and behaviour — including seeking out new experiences.
Read moreBut although I got treatment, I quit at around the age when, according to large epidemiological studies, most people who have diagnosable addiction problems do so-without treatment. The early to mid-20s is also the period when the prefrontal cortex-the part of the brain responsible for good judgment and self-restraint-finally reaches maturity.
According to the American Society of Addiction Medicine, addiction is “a primary, chronic disease of brain reward, motivation, memory and related circuitry.”
Read morePeople who are overconfident in their own abilities are considered more talented by others than they really are, a new study finds.
These overconfident individuals are probably more likely to get promoted, to become the leaders of organizations and even nations.
On the other hand, people who are not so confident in their abilities are judged as less competent than they actually are.
Read moreScience has shown we actually can thank a phenomenon called experience-dependent neuroplasticity. “It’s a fancy term to say the brain learns from our experiences,” says Rick Hanson, neuropsychologist and author of the book Hardwiring Happiness. “As we understand better and better how this brain works, it gives us more power to change our mind for the better.”
Hanson assures he isn’t just talking new-age mumbo jumbo.
Read morePast research has suggested that infidelity is one of the leading causes of divorce. But what drives a person to become unfaithful?
Thanks to a new study published in Contemporary Family Therapy, we now have an inside look into why married women cheat.
Researchers Michelle Jeanfreau, Anthony Jurich, and Michael Mong conducted case studies on four women aged 24 to 51 who cheated on their spouses and whose marriages subsequently ended in divorce.
