Batman’s belt

Stress is all about the challenges we face. The greater the challenge, the greater the stress. The negative emotion we feel is usually labelled anxiety when it is acute. In more chronic situations, we feel a general sense of unease which often produces burnout or depression.

These negative feelings push us to address the problem and respond to the challenge (the stressor). The counterpart to stress is our ability to respond effectively to it. The greater the ability to respond, the less stress one feels. This means that the people who have few challenges, or those with many skills, feel...

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Posted on 20 Sep 2011
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I don’t have the right nipples

It was one of those moments I wished I had a faster brain and a quicker wit so I could have capitalized on an opportunity to say something brilliantly funny. Alas I am just a simpleton.

Not too long ago, I busted a spoke on by bike’s front wheel and had to have it replaced. When another spoke broke on the same wheel during my annual century ride (a hundred miles (162 kms) in under six hours, thank you very much!), my mechanic and I decided it would be best to replace all the spokes and rebuild the front wheel. (Yes, I actually have a bicycle mechanic.) A few days later he called to say my...

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Posted on 17 Sep 2011
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Ten years after the fall

This is something I wrote for the 10th anniversary of the September 11th attacks. It is a hybrid of what I wrote for the 5th anniversary and what I published in Métro last Tuesday (De vieilles nouvelles). SVP voir à la fin pour la version Française de la chronique. Merci.

The fuel of hatred

In last week’s paper I came across a brief article on page 11 with the headline ‘Baghdad bomber kills at least 28 in mosque.’ I guess these events no longer warrant major coverage. Of course the irony is that only news makes the news and a suicide bombing simply isn’t news anymore.

Homo Sapiens?

Ten...

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Posted on 08 Sep 2011
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Vidéo sur les Troubles Anxieux

L’année dernière, le thème de notre programmation de l’École Mini-Psy de l’Institut Douglas portait sur la santé mentale chez les jeunes. J’avais donné une présentation sur les troubles anxieux. Voici le vidéo de cette présentation en deux parties (for English version, click here).

Partie I:

Partie II:

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Posted on 30 Aug 2011
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Video on Anxiety Disorders

Last year’s theme for our annual Mini-Psych school program at the Douglas Institute was youth mental health and I was asked to give a talk on anxiety. Here is the video of the presentation (it is in two parts): Pour les videos en Français, cliquez ici.

Part I:

Part II:

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Posted on 30 Aug 2011
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People categories

Here is something I had sitting in my computer for a while. I was hoping to expand the list but finally decided to submit it. It is a short list of how I categorize people and was published today. Feel free to add you own categories in the comments.

People categories SVP Voir plus bas pour la version française

There are two kinds of people in this world; those who like to categorize others, and those who don’t. I guess that puts me in the first category. Here are some of the people categories that I find most interesting, or irritating, or both:

             – People who are unable to be...

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Posted on 26 Jul 2011
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35

Good guys and bad guys

In today’s column, I returned to an old theme that remains one of the most important ones when we consider conflicts between two individuals or two groups. I’m referring to the tendency to think in groups. Here is an earlier post on the topic (Segregation).

Here is what was published in this morning’s edition of Métro:

Good guys and bad guys
(Source: Les bons et les méchants. Journal Métro, July 12, 2011)

When I was a kid war games were simple. Whenever we wanted to play good guys and bad guys the only thing to do was to pick teams and head off into battle. There were no moral debates. If...

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Posted on 12 Jul 2011
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Thick head or thin skin

If a subordinate makes a mistake do you always point it out? How do you deal with someone who reacts badly to criticism? Do you continue to criticize? Do you address the person’s hypersensitivity? Or do you step back?

The fact is, the best answer depends completely on the person being criticized. If the person is not particularly sensitive to criticism, and takes feedback well, then go ahead and say what you want to – unless of course you are an obsessive nutcase who can never be pleased, in which case, take a pill and keep it to yourself. If the person is sensitive but does a lousy job,...

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Posted on 04 Jul 2011
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34

Fortune cookies of death

I like it when my lawn is freshly mown. I like when my doors don’t squeak. I like it when my car is washed. But I also like to play golf, ride my bike and go kayaking and something’s gotta give.

Call me hedonistic but when I examine my priorities, play-time is right up there. I suppose it would (and perhaps should) be different if I didn’t have a full-time job and a part-time private practice. Unfortunately my professional obligations leave less free time than I would prefer.

The lawn gets squeezed out.

Play is only one part of a balanced life. Another is the time we make for others –...

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Posted on 28 Jun 2011
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My fifth and a half sense

One of the most inspiring yet frustrating tendency people have is to listen to their guts. This is because we can learn a lot from our gut feelings but we can also be led to believe some pretty crazy things. Indeed, our feelings can often inform us when something is amiss. Unfortunately, how we interpret those feelings is fraught with bias and misinterpretation.

Let me give you an example of how the brain works. Skip ahead if you don’t want the technical details.

There are some people who have operations to cut the corpus callosum, the band of connecting fibers between both halves of the...

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Posted on 15 Jun 2011
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