This technique also applies to people who dissociate first and become frightened by the altered state. ‘What’s happening to me. Here it comes again. I’m going insane’. We can stop the escalation into anxiety and panic simply by being aware. ‘I’m dissociating.’ I’ve just gone into a trance state’. When we acknowledge what is happening [...]

The first step in learning to control our thinking is to be aware of what is actually taking place. To do this we can draw from the meditation technique, although with this exercise we will not be meditating. Part of meditation is becoming aware of when we get caught up in our thoughts. We can [...]

Our lack of understanding about our disorder has, in many cases, meant years of suffering, and to many people it seems that the future will be no different. One of the first things we need to do is to stop drawing on the past and projecting into the future, which incidentally is only a thought [...]

If your depression is severe, I recommend that you start treatment with a conventional anti-depressant as opposed to St John’s Wort.

I would regard depression as being severe if it disrupts important functions, such as personal relationships or work to a major degree, if it is seriously interfering with physical functions such as sleeping or eating, [...]

A recent study reported the annual cost of depression in the US to be approximately $43 billion a year. This amount includes the cost of treating the condition and the loss of productivity and positive contribution to the economy resulting from the illness. Even without taking into account the human suffering involved in the condition, [...]

A 50-year-old American woman writes to me as follows:

I first heard about St John’s Wort as a treatment for depression when I was reading about natural remedies for menopausal symptoms. I began taking 300 mg but did not find it all that helpful. This past summer my husband suggested I up the dosage to 600 [...]

Is there a time of day or night that you dread? Maybe it’s the fight at naptime, or that first early morning call, or the inevitable middle-of-the-night visit.

Take a minute to look at your trouble spots. Certainly a child can show more than one problem at more than one time of day, [...]

Sleep disturbances are common with babies. They are so common that ma parents are reluctant to define their situation as a “problem.”

A baby seems to change every day; as she grows and learns, parents expect that she will learn to sleep when she is able. Some babies learn on their own. Some [...]

All people have biological cycles that govern their days and nights. Called “Circadian Rhythms,” these rhythms include sleeping, waking, hunger and changes in body temperature and hormones throughout the 24 hour day. The timing of these cycles is linked to the ability to fall and stay asleep instance, as we fall asleep there is a [...]

If you are wondering if your child’s sleep habits qualify as a “problem,” you might want to consider the following issues. Mark each statement A (agree) or D (disagree). If yours is a two-partner family, it is helpful if both partners mark the statements separately to see how each of you [...]