Ideas on Mental Health & Meaning
A Meaning Manifesto
Life is much more than the everyday busyness of making a living or striving for personal success. Life is much more than a constant struggle of coping with harsh reality by fighting or escaping. Life can be lived at a deeper level and on a higher plane by adopting a...
From Grumbling to Gratitude
Gratitude - the practice of reminding ourselves what we have, what we experience, to be grateful for, is a key component to psychological health and mental well being. This is the perfect time of year to practice Gratitude. Not only as we celebrate Thanksgiving, but...
Striving, Substance Use, & The Holidays Part 2
As I am finishing up writing The Meaning Centered Recovery portion of the online Substance Abuse & Recovery course on teachable.com (feel free to take a look at https://drdan.teachable.com/courses/enrolled/662861) - I have been reminded of how important "striving"...
Return of the Holidays – Part 1
There several common topics I discuss in my office at this time of year. The holidays are upon us. Thanksgiving will soon be here, quickly followed by "Black Friday" - the spending holiday - then several weeks of "joyful preparation" that may be more "stressful...
Wisdom from The Alchemist
I don't know how I've never heard of this book until now. It was published over 25 years ago, and I just became familiar with it thanks to a logotherapy conference earlier this year, and the endocrinologist who recommended it. For me, it is one of those rare books...
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...