Depression and Anxiety Are on the Rise

MJ

Now, some of you read this and think, "Duh." But others will be relieved to learn they aren't weird or crazy. You might be odd and old because it goes with being over whatever age you are when you fall all by yourself without any assistance from an external force. You weren't dizzy, no one pushed you, you just forgot about that last stair, or you seemingly just fell out of your shoes, so welcome to old age, that bridge you have always seen on the distant horizon. However, you have arrived and are standing in the middle of the old wood bridge that millions have traveled before you. You are not crazy. Crazy people don't think they're crazy. And there are now excellent medications for those folks. When you feel depressed and anxious because you don't know if you're going to be laid off, if you are earning, after fuel costs and bridge tolls pretty close to what you get paid, and if you can buy half of the amount of groceries for twice the price, you avoid long road trips or airplane flights, you've stopped going shopping and to lunch with the girls, or you only stop by...

Read More ›

Step-Families and Triangulation in General

In Family Systems Theory, triangulation is when any two people form a stronger bond with each other against a third person. There are so many family combinations of mom/mom or mom/dad or dad/dad or grandma/dad and so on that I couldn’t possibly address all of them. When two nouns are needed, I’m going to use mom and dad. When just one noun is required, I’ll say the person, but if it’s two, I’ll use mom, dad, and child/ren. You can apply your own labels suitable for your family system once you see the pattern. Here is a list of some of the possibilities: Child and mom form a stronger alliance than mom’s alliance with dad, which drives dad away. One spouse, after the divorce, deliberately communicates messages to the child that indicate the other parent is inferior or the first parent is so much better, loves the child more, etc. A child cultivates a relationship with the biological parent and shuns the stepparent. A stepparent shuns the child and cultivates her relationship with her new partner. Grandma and child against grandma’s child, the parent. This example covers much of what triangulation is all about. It is a family system where...

Read More ›