Good Mental Health. Ideas from a therapist named Dave

Narcissistic abuse is a type of emotional abuse where the abuser only cares about themselves and may use words and actions to manipulate the behavior of others and their emotional state. Most of the information online is about Narcissistic abuse in dating relationships.  Narcissists in relationships do gaslight and emotionally abuse others in their tiny kingdoms.

Narcissists focus on admiration where they are the center of things....

One of my co-workers, Hunter had been asking me to be a guest on the podcast. 

I told him that I did not have the technical set up to do an interview format, but if I get there, he would be one.

I was also gratified that he had told others about this podcast.

Tonight, I am in some shock because I learned that Hunter was killed in a car accident two nights ago leaving work.  He had worked a 12-hour shift, he fell asleep while driv...

How to stop walking on eggshells. Start practicing the following thoughts:

1)     Everyone is responsible for their own feelings.

2)    I am not responsible for the feelings of other people.

3)    I am not responsible for the anger of others.

4)    The person who says “You make me angry” has the problem.

5)    When the person is angry with me, I do not have to necessarily defend myself.  

--Stop how much you are involved in offic...

Grief is a big issue at the holidays. I think it matters because it goes up against the Andy Williams expectation of it being the most wonderful time of the year and the happiest season. Break ups, death, and tragedy respect no date or time; they happen when they happen. 

When there is grief at the holidays, the holidays feel like a hurricane. For those of you who have lived in hurricane zones, you can agree that they talk about i...

Some of the drive, stress and pain of the holiday is wanting everything just perfect.  People will spend a lot of time and money looking for the gifts and decorations that are just perfect. Others will try to make things and do everything possible that are and is just perfect.

Just perfect. That just sounded sarcastic. Didn’t it.  Tone of voice can very much change the meaning when you say it.

However, many people at the time of t...

To me, the semantics of Thanksgiving in the 21st century is more connotes more about the menu than the meaning of the word.  

Of course, with the thought of turkey and the spectacular dinner that someone is not going to have, there will be one or two stories about people being lonely on the day and family dysfunction where family members cannot get along, and there will be some news stories going down to the local mission where h...

Managing Resentments

My gut is that bringing up this topic makes you think about your resentments.  Just bringing up the topic makes me think of my resentments.  As I have been writing this, my mind went back to all kinds of memories of resentment.

The hard truth is that thinking about your resentments has limited value.   While I don’t agree with everything he says, I am mindful at this moment of Eckart Tolle’s statement in The ...

I note that in my trying to stay focused I have been very narrow in discussing the feelings of parents. I recognize that different people have different values, the matter of transgender individuals is highly polarizing. I have tried to be as practical as possible in such a podcast, and if is of significant stress that is impairing you, I would suggest that you seek out a therapist.  Good mental health can be highly difficult becau...

Dreams. Technically we all have them when we sleep but not everyone remembers them. Some people say they have no dreams.

In my work with clients, I have found that there are some common dreams due to anxiety: falling, being chased, being naked when everyone else is clothed, and teeth falling out. These are common dreams when people are depressed and anxious.

Sigmund Freud still holds some mythical curiosity as he said that dream...

I got on to Nextdoor as a neighborhood lead and reviewed what they called “flagged comments” A number of those comments were considered “disrespectful” and some of them were definite name-calling and insults that we would call personal attacks.

Many people express their anger on social media and it comes in the form of personal attacks. This past week CBN founder Pat Robertson, died at the age of 93, and many people on twitter talk...

We vary in how much we talk about it.  Domestic violence happens none the less.  I looked briefly at prevalence.   About 20 people every minute are suffering domestic violence. About one in four women will suffer it in their lifetime and one in nine men will be the victim of domestic violence in their lifetimes.  It like the other abuses is not specific to nation, culture, or socioeconomic status.

Well, if you are currently going...