What do we lose when we view boredom and curiosity as "symptoms" of ADHD? It seems we have become so casual about medicalizing and pathologizing off-task states of mind that we have forgotten that the mind often wanders for reasons having to do with boredom and curiosity, not because we were unluckily born with a “grass-hopper” brain.
Read MoreHands down, pride is the most controversial of all human emotions. There’s a longstanding history surrounding whether it is a virtue or a vice—whether it connotes justifiable self-satisfaction based on effortful accomplishment or inflated self-worth based on a sense of personal superiority. How are we to differentiate the sort of healthy pride that accompanies hard-won, noble pursuits and is emotional sustenance for a person’s self-esteem, and toxic pride, aimed at winning admiration from others as proof of one’s superiority, possibly evoking the desire to use aggression and exploitation to attain power and dominance?
Read MoreLet me summarize for you a story told to me by the mother of a 14-year-old teen whom she thought had emotionally gone off the deep end. It centered around an Airsoft gun battle her son, Billy, had planned for days in advance. It was all he could talk about, morning, noon and night. He hogged discussions and rattled on in minute detail about the types of guns and ammo he and his friends would use and how he was going to redesign the back yard into a warzone. His excitement was palpable. It irritated Billy when family members failed to share his excitement. Anyone in the family who hinted at his plans being overly ambitious was fair game for being yelled at.
Read MoreA recent Blue Cross Blue Shield report documented a 33% spike in diagnoses of depression in the United States from 2013 through 2016. It was concluded that depression ranks just below high blood pressure as the condition of greatest importance adversely impacting overall health.
It’s tempting to attribute the upsurge in diagnoses of depression to the push for primary care physicians to screen for depression. Non-psychiatrist physicians are not only becoming de-facto depression screeners, but front-line mental health practitioners. It is estimated that close to 80% of antidepressants are prescribed by non-psychiatrist physicians.
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