Patients ask me all the time if lithium is still the best medicine for Bipolar Disorder even though it has been around almost 100 years. The short answer is yes lithium is still the best single medication, but now we have more good medications if a patient doesn't tolerate lithium and to use in combination with lithium to help it work better. The long answer is that we now have better … [Read more...]
Managing Bipolar Disorder with Winter Depression
It is common to have Bipolar Disorder with winter depression where people are more depressed in the fall and winter, but manic in the spring and summer. This seasonal pattern is most pronounced in people with Bipolar Disorder Type II (mild to moderate mania with severe depressive episodes), but people with Type I Bipolar Disorder (severe mania and severe depression) can develop a seasonal … [Read more...]
The Top 2 Reasons Relationships Fail
After working for several years with students who were previously married or in a serious relationship I have learn that these are top 2 reasons relationships fail. There may have been many things wrong with the relationship, but one or both of these two reasons were apparent early on. If they had heeded the warning, they could have avoided the relationship and long-term consequences … [Read more...]
The Secret to Surviving Young Children
Most people think babies and young children are so cute and adorable, but if you are the parent of a young child like I am, you know all that cuteness can disappear in seconds only to be replaced by a screaming, crying, head banging, rolling-on-the-floor Tasmanian Devil. You also know that you don’t so much succeed at parenting a young child as you merely survive it. So to that end I offer these … [Read more...]
How to Pick the Best Dating Website
There has been an explosion of online dating apps and websites over the last few years so it can be confusing which is the best dating app and best dating website to use. So instead of trying to name them all, let me give you some criteria to categorize them so you can tell what kind of site to use and what kinds to avoid. A Hookup or A Relationship? One way of looking at dating … [Read more...]
4 Things You Must Do Before Dating Online
Here are the 4 things you must do before dating online to prepare yourself to safely and quickly find the love you are looking for. What Are Your Relationship Goals? You need to define your relationship goals before you get online. Are you just looking to date someone new or different or even a hookup? Or are you looking for a long term monogamous relationship or marriage? You need … [Read more...]
How to Overcome Your Fear of Online Dating
As a dating coach, I still run across people that say they desperately want to meet someone, but in the next breath say they could never get online because they would feel like a loser or some other excuse. The only excuse I couldn’t refute was the attorney that worried it would be used against him in court by opposing counsel. For everyone else, here is what I tell my clients. Ten years ago … [Read more...]
How to Beat the Winter Blues and SAD
It has been said that January is the most depressed month of the year and it certainly feels like it at my hospital this year. We have admitted a teen that attempted suicide almost every day over the first two weeks of January and on a few days we had two. Thankfully, the rate has slowed down now and everyone survived without permanent injury, but that got me thinking that it might be helpful … [Read more...]
Saying No With Class
We feel guilty for saying no. We get ostracized and challenged for saying no, so we forget it's our choice. — Iyanla Vanzant One of the most common challenges my dating clients face is with saying no, from declining requests for first or second dates, to invitations from friends or family to ending relationships. For some of my clients, the challenge with saying no is so significant that they … [Read more...]
Manifesting Love With Sand Painting
Don’t you love it when your life flows, when you catch every green light and there’s an awesome parking spot waiting when you get there? Do you ever wish your dating life could flow the same way, that the Universe would lead you to the perfect person for you? This flow is what many indigenous cultures sought to create with their spirituality. Creating this flow was often critical to their … [Read more...]