All I want for Christmas is…more stuff!

Peace and joy to all! Paix et joie à tous!

(Source: J’en veux plus. Journal Métro, December 17, 2013). Voir plus bas pour la version Française.

I’ve been slowly emptying out my parent’s house now that they are both in a nursing home. It’s amazing how much stuff people accumulate over the years. My parents were immigrants and had to make do with very little. They took advantage of deals, bought in bulk and threw away nothing. I found enough toilet paper in the house to supply an average family quite possibly until the turn of the next century.

This got me thinking about the holiday...

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Posted on 17 Dec 2013
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23

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 our circumstances. No two people react to the same event the same way. Nevertheless, when trauma happens, it will almost certainly be a major factor in a person’s decision to end it.

Trauma can never be prevented. We are unlikely to live in a world without wars...

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Posted on 06 Dec 2013
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29

The teaser and the teased

Social anxiety is one of the more challenging forms of anxiety to treat. The reason for this is because anxiety is fed by assumptions and some are harder to alter than others. If a person is afraid of a plane crash and manages to get on a flight, he or she will generally learn that the fears they had were unwarranted. In other words, facing fears usually teaches us we really had nothing to fear.

But what if you are afraid of what others think? If you sit in class for a while and then leave, will you learn that nothing bad happened? You could just as easily assume that others judged you...

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Posted on 03 Dec 2013
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20

Bicycle crash!…and other disturbing mental images

Do you every see someone with an obvious physical defect and feel like Austin Powers trying not to point out the mole on the “mole’s” face? Or how about not looking at the cleavage of a well-endowed woman?

Normally we are in ‘control’ of what we do but we occasionally confront a situation where it would be embarrassing (or even dangerous) to lose control of ourselves and do something we shouldn’t. More often than not, these thoughts are benign (staring at a mole or peeking at cleavage) but occasionally they can be quite disturbing.

Anxiety’s role is to protect us and to make us mindful of...

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Posted on 19 Nov 2013
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24

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 true for all animals.

When I was fourteen, I visited my Grandparents’ farm in Italy. At one point the family decided it was time to slaughter one of their pigs. It was not a pretty sight. Nevertheless, I bravely watched so as not to be laughed at. A few days later they...

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Posted on 05 Nov 2013
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22

Pure love

My daughter Thi Thu

 

Not too long ago I was speaking with a man who was struggling with the fact that his son’s delayed development could be a sign of autism. He was distraught at the implications for what it could mean to the future happiness and welfare of someone he loved so profoundly. 

It is still too early to tell in this particular case if he will develop autism, and if so, how severely. Nevertheless, any parent will understand how he must feel. As a wise person once said to me, “As a parent, you are only as happy as your unhappiest child.” 

My experience on the user’s committee...

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Posted on 22 Oct 2013
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30

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 circumstances affect our emotions. If a person can see him or herself in one of my stories then it isn’t so hard to imagine another person struggling with a similar issue (at perhaps a more intense level). The goal is to help people realize that we are pretty much all in the same boat of...

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Posted on 08 Oct 2013
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21

Chicken skins

When I finished the first draft of my doctoral dissertation and handed it in to my professor, I got it back from him with the comment, “It’s a good skeleton. Put some meat on it.” No other comment on the more than 100 pages of text.

Meanwhile my office mate, who was also at the stage of writing up his research thesis, stared at the draft he got back from his advisor. Every single page, nay every sentence, had suggestions and changes written in red. It was surreal. My professor focussed on the overall quality of the research while his obsessed over the wording of each sentence.

I am...

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Posted on 24 Sep 2013
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22

Rhinoceros as muse

Hi folks. Sorry for being away so long but such is life. We occasionally have to indulge our mistresses and mine is my golf game. It’s been an equally rewarding (78) and frustrating (98) experience so now I’m back to something I have a little more control over.

In today’s column in Metro I return to the topic of anxiety. There is a wide range of anxiety in people. Many suffer from debilitating fears while many others seem to be afraid of very little. I consider myself to be in the normal range: no fears strong enough to be considered phobias (fears that control your life and affect your...

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Posted on 10 Sep 2013
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25

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, I want to state that antidepressants are an excellent treatment for both depression and anxiety. I am not anti-medication in any way. However, just because pills that alter brain chemistry can be helpful in many cases (miraculous in some, useless in...

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Posted on 06 Aug 2013
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