Unbeknownst to some of you, World of Psychology welcomes guest contributors! …

Divorce is the second most stressful life event, preceded only by the death of a spouse. And what is stress capable of? Expediting a severe bout of depression and anxiety to your limbic system (the brain’s emotional center) if you’re not careful. Acute and chronic stress, especially, undermine both emotional and physical health. In fact, a recent study published in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior suggests that divorced or widowed people have 20 percent more chronic health conditions such as heart disease, diabetes or cancer than married people.

Another study in Psychological Science claimed that a person’s happiness level drops as she approaches divorce, although there is rebounding over time if the person works at it. That’s what these 12 tips are: suggestions for preventing the devastating depression that often accompanies divorce, and techniques that you can use to keep your happiness level steady or maybe even higher!

My wife is a big fan of Bon Jovi, so when I read this article about Bon Jovi’s fact-finding efforts to help better understand homelessness in order to help it through his foundation, I couldn’t help but blog about it.

If you didn’t know, a significant portion of homeless persons have a mental disorder, such as depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, or schizophrenia. It’s hard to know for certain, but research suggests that approximately 2 out of 5 homeless people have a mental health issue.

Ellen Langer, a professor at Harvard, is also the mother of the …

I’m in Houston on my annual e-patients retreat. So what better way to help you get through your TGIF fever than to give you a look back on what we were talking about on Psych Central in years past (gee, I sound so old-timey!).

11 Years Ago on Psych Central

The Great Psychology Prescription Debate

I boiled psychologists’ push for prescription privileges down to a question of money in this post. Psychologists are being pushed down the income ladder by cheaper psychotherapy providers (like marriage and family therapists and clinical social workers), and so look upward to see what they could be doing that could be making them more money. Psychiatrists can make twice as much psychologists because they can prescribe psychiatric medications.

Re-reading this essay, I think things are a little bit more complicated than I originally suggested. Indeed, in some rural parts of our country, there is a lack of psychiatric prescribers. But I don’t think the answer is tacking on a few more years of study to psychologists’ training programs, who have no intrinsic or specialized medical training to begin with (psychological training, yes; medical training, no).

Over lunch a few weeks ago, Dr. Danny Carlat suggested the answer is an entirely new training paradigm for professionals, combining the best of both worlds of psychiatry and psychology. And why not, when it’s so clear the existing training paradigm for both professions leaves much to be desired. It sounded intriguing and full of potential, so I look forward to reading more about his ideas in this vein in the months to come.

Sometimes you have to wonder, “What were they thinking?”

Jim Edwards, writing for bnet, notes how when he took the WebMD depression test (here), …

All of us should insist on being treated fairly — to stand up for our rights without violating the rights of others. This means tactfully, justly and effectively expressing our preferences, needs, opinions and feelings.

Psychologists call that being assertive, as distinguished from being unassertive (weak, passive, compliant, self-sacrificing) or aggressive (self-centered, inconsiderate, hostile, arrogantly demanding).

Because some people want to be “nice” and “not cause trouble,” they “suffer in silence,” “turn the other cheek,” and assume nothing can be done to change their situation. The rest of us appreciate pleasant, accommodating people but whenever a nice person permits a greedy, dominant person to take advantage of him/her, the passive person is not only cheating him/herself but also reinforcing unfair, self-centered behavior in the aggressive person.

You cannot look up drug information on the Internet today without coming across at …

When Tiger Woods held a press conference last Friday to explain where he’s at in his life, I got this feeling that we were looking into someone’s personal and private life in a manner that felt a little silly. After all, what business is it of ours — the public — what this sports celebrity does in his personal life?

Then again, one could apply the same logic to virtually any celebrity and our seemingly-endless obsession with following the private lives and failings of celebrities. Entire print publications and weekly magazines are devoted to the following of celebrities’ lives, as well as popular websites like TMZ.com.

We love to follow other people’s lives — it takes our minds off of our own mundane (and often less-than-ideal) existence. It explains why these publications are so popular and well-read.

But why put yourself out there, voluntarily, while you’re still in the middle of your own recovery? Why hold a “press conference” where nobody is allowed to answer any questions? And where is the one person who should be there — your wife? What does it help or prove?

Attention deficit disorder is a serious mental health issue that affects the lives not only of children and teens, but millions of adults as well. …

Nearly one-third of people caring for terminally ill loved ones suffer from depression according to research from Yale University. About one in four family caregivers meet the clinical criteria of anxiety. And a recent study found that 41 percent of former caregivers of a spouse with Alzheimer’s disease or another form of dementia experienced mild to severe depression up to three years after their spouse had died.

Caregivers are so vulnerable to depression because they often sacrifice their own needs while tending to their loved one and because of the constant stress involved. Here, then, are 12 tips to help protect you from anxiety and depression and to guide you toward good mental health as you care for a relative.

Well, the latest research confirms the positive effects of a mid-afternoon nap. Adults in the latest — …