2020 · 23. January 2020
All of us occasionally worry about our health. For some people, however, the worry is not occasional, but persistent and excessive. In last week's Southern Star, I asked: how is health anxiety different to other forms of anxiety and how can it be treated?
2020 · 09. January 2020
Scientific evidence shows astrology doesn’t work, but many people swear by it, relating how a fortune-teller made all kinds of accurate predictions about them. What's going on in such cases? I explore what the research – and a former astrologer – has to say.
2019 · 18. December 2019
Office parties, getting together with extended family, meeting up with old friends and acquaintances – Christmas is a social time, but what if the thought of socialising fills you with anxiety and dread? My column in last week's Southern Star explored how to beat social anxiety, or "self-consciousness on steroids", as one expert calls it.
2019 · 05. December 2019
How should you deal with people who try to make life miserable for you? My column in last week's Southern Star explored what the writer and Nobel laureate Joseph Brodsky had to say about treating such people "as though they were yellow and not red lights".
2019 · 14. November 2019
There are no shades of grey with black-and-white thinking, I argued in last week's Southern Star; everything is great or awful, hot or cold, feast or famine.
2019 · 31. October 2019
In last week's Southern Star, I warned against the notion that when you slip or encounter a setback, you’re “back to square one”. The column is now online.
2019 · 10. October 2019
People often cope with life’s challenges by saying everything happens for a reason. However, that's bad thinking and bad advice, I argued in last week's Southern Star.
2019 · 01. October 2019
My most recent Southern Star column explored what's known as impostor syndrome – a sense that you are a fake, someone not nearly as competent as others seem to think, a fraud who has achieved things by fooling others or through luck. The column is reproduced below. ‘I always had this thing where I thought, “What am I doing here? I'm about to get found out. Everybody in the stadium is going to find out I've been getting lucky for years. Everybody in the stadium is going to find out I've...
2019 · 12. September 2019
Do people believe what they want to believe? It's a bit more complicated than that, I argued in last week's Southern Star. The column is reproduced below. Sometimes, you might fall out with someone close to you and think: how can they not see they’re wrong? How can they say black is white? How can they not see what’s right in front of their eyes? It’s often said people believe what they want to believe, but that’s not the whole story. It’s more accurate to say we are prone to...
2019 · 29. August 2019
Unwanted intrusive thoughts can cause huge torment. Kinsale CBT therapist Linda Hamilton offers tips on how to rid them of their power.