Mental Illness and the Cancer Analogy

It wasn’t that long ago that people would get mysterious wasting diseases. They’d lose vast amounts of weight, have no energy, fail to meet obligations, and eventually just die…all with no scientific explanation. Friends, family and society would judge the person harshly. They would say she had lost the will to live, was vain or was morally corrupt. Today, we …

Why we stay stuck: Part 3

We’ve been reviewing the basic literature surrounding why people “stay stuck.” There is more information than ever out there now, but we’re organizing it into several different levels. Having explored the biology that affects our ability to change, we’ll now move on to the cognitive level. The cognitive level of a person is the way a person interprets inputs, sensory …

Why we stay stuck: Part 2

The question in this series of post is why we stay stuck. Why is changing or feeling better or whatever sooooooo very difficult. As I previously wrote, there are many, many reasons why. One way to organize those reasons in into different levels, starting with the biological level. The biological level of a person, as it relates to mental health, …

Why we stay stuck: Part 1

The primary purpose of therapy is to relieve psychological distress. In therapy, we often spend time figuring out how our belief systems and thoughts came into being. However, such information may not explain why or how a person keep behaviors and feelings that are painful. Knowing you ran over a nail does not necessarily explain why your tire stays flat. …