In today’s Journal Métro is my 200th column. I started in September 2005 and this blog started a couple of years after that. My blog posts are mostly elaborated versions of what I put in my column with a few assorted random postings thrown in. Every other week I scratch my head wondering what I’m [...]
Category Archives: Mental health
Betting on happiness
This is mental health awareness week. It is a week when we focus on general well-being in all of us as opposed to discussing illnesses as we do during mental illness week in October. In that spirit I wrote the following article for today’s edition of Métro. Betting on happiness (Source: Le bonheur à tout [...]
Suck it up and move on: PTSD and what not to do
We were all saddened by the recent apparent suicide of Master Corporal Sylvain Lelièvre of the Canadian Forces. It was the fourth reported suicide this past week alone. Every suicide is complex and we can never know exactly which factors go into one person’s decision. Mood is affected by our temperament, our biological makeup, and [...]
Pig depression
Here is what I published in today’s Metro column: Pig Depression (Source: Dépression porcine: Journal Métro, November 05, 2013) Voir plus bas pour la version Française. Do animals feel the same things we do? Well, I suppose that if emotions evolved in humans in order to increase their chance of survival, the same must be [...]
They’re not like us: Stigma, mental illness and groupthink
It is mental illness awareness week. You may have noticed that I don’t often focus directly on mental illnesses per se. I prefer to focus on our general human nature. The greatest compliment I get is when someone says, “Hey, you wrote about me today!” This is because I try to show how character traits and [...]
My brain chemicals are out of whack!
I don’t know about you but I’ve never understood what is meant by the phrase “chemical imbalance.” Pharmaceutical companies use the term as a means of describing depression. It gives the condition a medical-sounding cause, which of course requires a medical-sounding treatment (such as the pill they happen to sell). Before I go any further, [...]
But…but…what if a tornado hits during an earthquake?
We all have obsessions. As unpleasant as they may be, they do serve a protective function. It seems even a squirrel looks more than once when crossing a street! Double-checking and triple-checking is a way of eliminating errors caused by distraction or absentmindedness. But how far can we go with this? For a person with [...]
I have a feeling about my feelings
This week’s article is about our tendency to add problems to our problems: I have a feeling about my feelings (Source: Je ressens quelque chose à propos de mes sentiments. Journal Métro, July 02, 2013) Voir plus bas pour la version Française. A funny thing about people is that we have feelings and then we [...]
Where am I?
Where am I? (Source: L’effet pervers du GPS. Journal Métro, April 9, 2013) Voir plus bas pour la version Française Have you ever noticed that if you drive someone home and he or she guides you all the way with precise step-by-step directions you will never remember the route the next time you have to [...]
