Over the years I have heard from hundreds of you who have read this column and taken the time to say thank you for something that I said that was helpful to you. This column is my time to say thanks to you. Thank you for reading the column and thank you for reaching out […]
In a recent Atlantic article entitled, “The End of Men,” author Hanna Rosin writes provocatively about women—in the workplace, in education, and in society. She argues that society is embracing women in a way never before seen, perhaps because “the modern, post-industrial economy is more congenial to women than to men.” Rosin cites researchers, educators, […]
In September 2005 I was driving down I-95 to a Florida treatment center for what I believed would be a 90-day stay in beautiful South Florida. I really did not know much about where I was going or what I was going to do, but Ed Ward of the North Carolina Lawyers Assistance Program had […]
The legal profession is a helping profession. Most days lawyers find themselves trying to solve problems for their clients. We are paid to have answers and to fix situations that have gone awry. One of the difficulties for professionals who are supposed to have the answers for others is that it is difficult for them […]
Drugs tap into the brain’s communication system and disrupt the way nerve cells normally send, receive, and process information. There are at least two ways that drugs are able to do this: (1) by imitating the brain’s natural chemical messengers, and/or (2) by overstimulating the “reward circuit” of the brain. Some drugs, such as marijuana […]
The heart is the literal and metaphorical center of our lives. We have either an open heart toward life or we may be closed hearted. Our response toward life may be one full of heartache or heartfelt joy. All of us have issues and challenges from time to time. How we respond will tell us […]
A new evidence-based protocol offers insight into helping those at risk because of their drinking. Most people in America drink little or nothing at all, but a significant number of those who do drink develop problems. We know from cost analyses and review of morbidity and mortality statistics that alcoholism is a number one health […]
Jacques Lusseyran was born in 1924. At school one day when he was seven, as classes ended and he was rushing for the door, he was accidentally shoved. He fell, hitting his head on one of the sharp corners of the teacher’s desk. He was wearing glasses and the blow drove one of the arms […]
I am a Double-Winner. For the uninitiated, that means that I am a member of both Alcoholics Anonymous and Al-Anon. Al-Anon is for the friends and family of Alcoholics. The focus of my story will be a little different than the kind of story you typically read. These articles usually focus on how the disease of alcoholism, and subsequent […]
In a previous column Dr. Mooney and I looked at the link between genetics and the disease of alcoholism and the neuropharmacology that leads to the compulsion to drink. We saw that once there is the onset of the disease that certain neuro-chemical sequences occur in the brain each time alcohol is introduced into the […]
Last year I had the chance to read David McCullough’s biography of John Adams and to read the Adam’s biography that preceded it by Catherine Drinker Bowen published in 1949. What is striking about the two stories of one man’s life is how McCullough focuses on Adam’s emotional life his insecurities, his emotions under pressure in […]
Lawyers are increasingly aware of the need to find balance in their lives. Balance between home life and work-life. Balance between the need for physical exercise and sitting long hours in an office chair. Balance between the mental activities of long factual analyses and hours of library research, and one’s emotional needs for fun and […]