Posts tagged with "Depression"
Why do some people react so strongly to criticism and mistakes? Drawing on CBT examples, my latest piece shows how challenging our assumptions can change how we respond.
Small changes in how we think and live can quietly become normal over time. My latest Southern Star column explores how that gradual drift, this 'normalisation of deviance', can affect our mental health — and how to notice it before it builds up.
A 13-year-old Irish boy swam four hours through rough seas to save his family. His instinct was not to panic or dwell on what might go wrong, but to act — and to steady his mind by focusing on happy memories. My latest Southern Star column explores how research suggests both matter more than we think.
Reducing suffering matters, but it’s only half of mental health. My latest Southern Star article looks at recent research showing that well-being grows not just by removing pain, but by adding back pleasure and engagement in daily life.
Even when life deals a painful blow – like the end of a relationship – it’s often not the event itself that crushes us, but the story we tell ourselves about what it means. My latest article explores this idea by discussing a therapy session between the founder of CBT, Dr Aaron Beck, and a depressed female client.
We all have good days, we all have bad days. It’s not realistic to expect every day to be a sunny one, but wouldn’t it be nice if we could bottle those happy moments and savour them for longer? My latest Southern Star column explores a simple way to do just that: tracking your emotions.
Savouring life’s joyful moments seems like the natural thing to do, yet many people do the opposite – they downplay, dismiss, or distance themselves from joy. In the first of two columns on this subject, I ask: why do many people dampen positive emotions?
There is a difference between being a victim of something traumatic or tragic, and developing a mindset shaped by a more general sense of victimhood. My latest Southern Star column explores what it means to talk about a victim mentality.
In my last column, I explored why some people seek criticism to confirm their negative self-views. In this follow-up piece, let’s shift gears and look at how to break free from this cycle and embrace a healthier way of relating to yourself and others.
"I probably messed up, didn’t I?", "You probably think I’m a bad friend, don’t you?", “It’s okay if you think I’m not smart enough, I know I’m not” – my latest column asks: why do some people routinely invite criticism?