I love Hell’s Kitchen and Kitchen Nightmares, two Fox shows hosted by Gordon Ramsay, OBE, a British celebrity chef and very strong personality. Watching this season of Hell’s Kitchen reminded me of the stress and rigors that chefs in training regularly undergo. And something rarely mentioned on these shows — substance and alcohol abuse amongst […]

Body Dysmorphic Disorder is a fairly uncommon condition in which a person sees her/himself as having a severe flaw with her/his body and obsesses about it to the point that it interferes with normal social functioning. The perceived flaw is exaggerated and distorted from the reality of their appearance. Watch a good, informative but not […]

Is reality blogging the next big thing? I say, “No, it’s not,” and you can read about it over at ABC News.com.
Why not?
The only reason “reality blogging” hit the mainstream media (and isn’t “reality blogging” a bit of a ridiculous phrase, given that virtually all blogging is about our lives, otherwise known as “reality”?) is […]

“Hi, I’m a rising Hollywood star and need to keep the weight off, any suggestions?”
Sure, try the new fad prescription that all the Hollywood stars are using — Adderall! Yes, that fantastic treatment for ADHD also can help you keep slim and lose those unwanted pounds.
The downside to these off-label prescriptions?
None that we can […]

According to that reliable news source, Page Six, actor and comedian Jim Carrey is not writing a self-help book on depression after all:

Jim Carrey may know a lot about depression, having suffered from it for years, but he also knows a lot about how to stage a proper hoax. Though it has been widely reported […]

There’s really something interesting about human nature that makes us want to analyze a famous person’s downfall, despite knowing virtually nothing about a person’s personal life, psyche, or family background.
So the psychology pundits were out in full force today to give their two cents as to how a governor of one of the most powerful […]

No, it’s not a medical term, but with the widespread acceptance of alcohol and drug use and societal pressures to maintain a thin physique, drunkorexia may be the next big “trendy” disorder. A New York Times article titled “Starving Themselves, Cocktail in Hand” reports on this new problem.
Drunkorexia is not an official […]

Margaret Trudeau, Canada’s lively and lovely former first lady turned bipolar advocate, talks about her recovery (récupération in French) process to stay balanced.
“You need to develop a sense of forgiveness,” she says. “Forgiving myself and forgiving others for abandoning me, for hurting me, for their lack of understanding. I have to ask for forgiveness, and […]

Eating disorders are usually thought of a teen issue, but increasingly men, adult women and girls as young as seven also suffer. They don’t fit into the usual treatment programs designed for adolescent girls. In my community, there’s a recovery program for girls aged 12 – 19, and another mental health service runs a body […]

Fans of Kay Redfield Jamison rejoice: here’s the vintage half-hour video An Unquiet Mind: Personal Reflections on Manic-Depressive Illness. A captivating speaker, she’s authored many papers and books on the subjects of bipolar, manic depression and recurrent depression. She is Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and is bipolar herself.
Newly unearthed […]

For the second time in a month, Britney Spears has been hospitalized for her mental health concerns. And not exactly in a quiet or private way.
The Los Angeles Times reported this morning that Britney Spears’ was taken to the UCLA Medical Center under a “mental health evaluation hold,” a period of 72 hours when the […]

We have a long way to go for equality in health care and mental health care amongst different races and ethnicities. In 2001, the U.S. Surgeon General issued a supplement to its ground-breaking 1999 report on mental health. This supplement focused on issues of culture, race and ethnicity and, not surprisingly, found:

Minorities have less access […]