Ideas on Mental Health & Meaning
The Hardest Kind of Forgiveness
Forgiveness is the intentional and voluntary process by which a victim undergoes a change in feelings and attitude regarding an offense, lets go of negative emotions such as vengefulness, forswears recompense from or punishment of the offender, however legally or...
Trust
"Trust is not just some vague quality that grows between two people ...it is the specific state that exists when you are both willing to change your own behavior to benefit your partner while on the other hand, distrust is when you don’t have faith in your partner,...
The Oneness of Meaning
I've been having this one idea present itself in different ways, almost every day, for the past few weeks. I've been reading (skimming) a couple of books - Franciscan priest Richard Rohr, business guru and Patrick Lencioni, and Viktor Frankl's student Elizabeth Lukas...
This @#$% Substance Abuse Problem
Maybe it's because I am too involved in the substance abuse field that it seems like it is a monstrous problem - a leviathan of social issues. But then when I think of the things I am involved in - David's Courage, and our effort to open a 44-bed residential treatment...
The Existential Vacuum of Addiction
Although he wrote many times that he was not an addictions professional, Viktor Frankl was definitely on to something when he wrote about "meaninglessness" and the Existential Vacuum leading to depression, anxiety, and, yes, substance abuse and addictions. In my years...
The Complexity of Relationships
I am teaching a graduate course in relationship theory right now - "Family Systems Theory", to be precise. I forgot just how complex relationships can be. In the class, we get to use terms like "Symmetrical and Complementary Relating" to describe communication, or...
Making the Difficult Decisions
To move the family or stick it out where you are? Take the new job or keep plugging away? Fight THIS battle, or let it go? Go back to school or stay in your current role? Work on the relationship, or end it? Discipline the child, or talk it out? We are faced with...
A Meaningful Labor Day
I hope you have enjoyed a relaxing weekend, and a meaningful Labor Day. For many, it is an extra day away from work before we ceremoniously begin to look to a new season as summer fades. For others, it may be another day at work. Wherever you might be, I hope you...
Is Your Work Meaningless?
I recently heard that the area I live in is a top 10 manufacturing location in the country. That would seem to suggest there is a lot of money coming in to the area. In the same breath, I heard that this area rates highly in the nation in substance abuse, infant and...
Help Me Become Better
Although not everyone operates on this schedule, my life is often dictated by an academic calendar - with kids in high school, a wife that teaches, and my own undergraduate and graduate teaching courses, the new academic year is as impactful as the changing of the...
On the Meaning of Work
"The meaning of life, we have said, is not to be questioned but to be responded to, for we are responsible to life. It follows from this that the response should be given not in words, but in acting, by doing. Moreover, the correct response depends upon the...
Kids & the Existential Vacuum
Recently, a young man won over $3,000,000 in a video game competition - that is incredible, life-changing money for him and his family. His mother credits his success to the 8 hours each day he spent playing the game over the past two years. 8 hours... Each day. ...