Should you change your mind?

 

Reactive or responsive?

 

The idea of being responsive and not reactive is a common topic in my counseling sessions.

Sad or mad about climate change?

Last year The Lancet, one of the oldest and most-respected general medical journals, published a study of ten thousand young people, ages sixteen to twenty-five, in ten countries, that revealed that the majority of the respondents experienced climate anxiety as a regular part of their lives. The study concluded: “Distress about climate change is associated with young people perceiving that they have no future, that humanity is doomed, and that governments are failing to respond adequately, and with feelings of betrayal and abandonment by governments and adults. Climate change and government inaction are chronic stressors that could have considerable, long-lasting, and incremental negative implications for the mental health of children and young people.”

WHEN I ASKED HADLEY if thinking about the climate crisis left her feeling sad, she said no.

“The sadness doesn’t come through as much anymore as the anger does. I can’t mope. Or, I mean, I try not to mope. The main emotion I feel is anger at the people who did this. There are people who could fix this, people with money and power, people who could start to solve this, and they’re not. And that is what makes me mad.”

For more click here.

For even more click here.

Dogs or cats?

 A 55 year old male client last week asked me if I would write a letter to the apartment manager of the complex he is moving into declaring that his cat is a "support animal". He said he has had this cat for 4 years.

I have always thought of cats being more of a female thing and dogs more of a male thing, but I am not sure I am right. And then I wondered what is the most frequent support animal: a dog or cat and why. I have no idea and for a mental health professional supposedly having some expertise in "support animals" you might think that I would know.

At any rate here is what I have found out so far.

In my family of origin and family of intention we always had both a dog and cat and sometimes, fish, hamsters, rabbits. No amphibians or reptiles and least for not more than a few days. Turtles though. We sometimes had turtles but then the salmonella thing put us off of them.

There is no information about the sex of the owner.

I did write the letter for him.

"Gaslighting" is the word of the year.

 "Gaslighting" is the word of the year for 2022 according to Merriam-Webster Dictionary.

Gaslighting is when you question the veracity of other people's statements and they twist things around and have you believing that you're the one who is mistaken or crazy. It is a way of disqualifying and dismissing a search for truth and meaning.

Gaslighting as become a prominent strategy in politics in the last 10 years and in the cable news shows. On the internet it used to be called "flaming" when one person attempts to discredit another with ad hominem attacks.

For more click here.