Dear Michael: My friends encouraged me to write to you, but I don’t know if you can do much. They say I have lousy self-esteem. Maybe they’re right. Whenever someone gives me a compliment, I think they’re after something and I don’t believe them. Doesn’t everyone have…
Remember back in Junior High, when you had a “crush” on some hot guy or girl? How you could barely breathe when they were close to you? You couldn’t stop thinking of them. These “summer romances” weren’t expected to last for long. Indeed, they couldn’t,…
It seems like an epidemic: we’re all becoming older and feeling that we’re becoming more-and-more invisible. I get emails from mid-life men and women saying some version of: “I am physically aging much faster than I’d hoped. Who’s going to want me now?” Popular culture calls this…
Is it a weakness to feel depressed? What is depression anyway? Does it show up differently for men than for women? Many people talk about depression without really knowing what it is. As a clinician, it is clear to me that depression in men often looks different than…
You can divorce an abusive spouse. You can call it quits if your lover mistreats you. But what can you do if the source of your misery is your parent? I’m not talking about having a perfect parent, because there aren’t any. But what if you…
Dear Michael: We love your column in the San Diego paper. That’s why I am writing to you. My best friend just died of breast cancer. I feel such intense and upsetting emotions, I don’t know how to resume my normal life again. Help! Missing…
Dear Michael: I feel like such an idiot. I allowed myself to fall in love with this guy who really wasn’t that interested in me. I thought he was, at the beginning, but he gradually stopped calling me and wanting to get together. I let myself fall for…
Middle Age. Over the Hill. Past your Prime. Do these phrases inspire you to live a long, healthy and happy life? Me neither. I love the slogan of the organization Aging as Ourselves: “Age doesn’t define me; my attitude does”. It all sounds good, doesn’t…
You’ve probably heard some people describe their relationships as “high drama”. I Googled “drama” and found some interesting definitions: (1) a crisis, spectacle, thrill, sensation or disturbance; (2) any number of situations that have an easy solution, which would bring a fairly good outcome, but [high drama…
So many of my clients (and friends) complain about poor sleep or lack of sleep. Why do so many of us not sleep long, well and deeply? What’s going on here? The National Sleep Foundation (which receives financial support from pharmaceutical companies) estimates that 20 percent of Americans,…
