Answered questions(14)
Diagnosis Is Not Real, It's a Theoretical Model
Hello, My son was seen by a therapist and she diagnosed him with Borderline Personality Disability. Would this be the reason he cannot stand being around lots of people? He gets tired and overwhelmed by groups of people or being in a restaurant. I am curious if this is part of Borderline Personality-yet he doesn't want to be alone. With him two's a company three's a crowd. And when he feels happy or low, man do his reactions get intense. I'm still worried about the social part of it. He just won't do groups- even if it's family, he'll come but he dreads it and complains it's almost as if he's not there. He's just someone looking in. Thanks. Steve
Read answer →Getting Past a Terrible Breakup
My finance and I had been together for 10 years and were a few months away from scheduled marriage when she announced that she had met someone else and was leaving me. It was a total bombshell. I didn’t see it coming and it just ruined me. That was about 9 months ago, and every day I still feel the same pain I felt on that first day. I can’t get over it. I just stay home and think about her all the time. I’ve still got her pictures up all over the apartment, and I now it’s not healthy but I can’t bring myself to take them down. I no longer go out socially with friends because I don’t enjoy it and they don’t understand what I’m going through. At first they did, but now, they all think I should be getting over it – but I am not all and now I just get so angry when they ask about it and about how they don’t get it. I work a dead end job because my music is my passion, but since she left, I can’t even play. I have tried so many times to get her to come back and I am always wondering what I did wrong to drive her away. I know I need to let go, but I just can’t because if I don’t have pain with her then I have nothing with her, and that just seems worse. What can I do to get out of this hole I’m in? If this is life for me, then it isn’t worth living.
Read answer →A Good Night's Sleep
For good mental health does it matter what hours you sleep in a day or just how many hours you sleep in a day. What I mean, is it better to say sleep from 10 at night to 6 in the morning than to sleep from 3 in the morning to 11 in the morning?
Read answer →Depressed Daughter Doesn't Listen to Mom
I am very worried about my 34 year old daughter. She is extremely depressed, but every time I offer help or suggest counseling, she ignores the subject. She lives two hours from me, is separated with two pre-teen children. She tells me she is very unhappy with her life, hates where she lives and cries every night. She says she is miserable and is tired of crying and being unhappy. I have suggested couseling, many times, and suggested medication. I've even told her to pack everything up and come live nearer to me so I could help. Yet, she does nothing, week after week. She'll have a breakdown and tell me these things, and then carry on going to work, etc. until the next time. I don't know how to help her. She has even told me about just leaving the area, alone, going somewhere and starting over. I know that is not the answer, it's just running away and I fear that in the future she will regret leaving her children. I think she is just overwhelmed. Is there anything I could do or should be saying to help her?
Read answer →Diagnosis Requires Extensive Information in a Face To Face Interview.
Hello, You did mention that it could be a possible mental condition or head injury??? He never experienced a head injury or concussion incident, but I am curious as to what mental condition it could be??? He refuses to find out, although he is improving a bit by trying to find a job. Thanks, Stephen.
Read answer →Dealing with an Angry Adult Son
My name is Stephen Nelson and I have a son who is moody and has a horrible, horrible temper. He denies this. I am just wondering what this could indicate He's had a pretty good life. I just dont understand why he's so moody with a temper. He's 33. I've tried everything with him so has his mother. We're at a loss....he just got out of prison for a weapon and violating his parole btw. I suspect something mental. Thanks for writing back.
Read answer →Haunted By Shame
I am feeling a lot of shame about stuff from the past. It haunts me. Sometimes I am ashamed of something I did and sometimes it is more like I am embarrassed about how I acted and feel shame about what other people think about me. I used to drink a lot so I had ample opportunities to make an ass of myself. This shame is doing me no good, it’s like heavy baggage just sucking me down and it still hurts when I think back on it. But it never fails, whenever I wake up in the night or whenever I am out driving or whenever my mind is just drifting I always end up dwelling in shame from the past. How can I let it go so that it doesn’t haunt me all the time?
Read answer →Learn emotional intelligence.
Can emotional intelligence skills be learned? If so, how can I learn them? I am an intellectually gifted man with an abysmal social life who would like to make some changes for the better.
Read answer →Angry Son
My name is Stephen Nelson and I have a son who is moody and has a horrible, horrible temper. He denies this. I am just wondering what this could indicate.. Thanks, Steve.
Read answer →Does Attraction Make a Racist?
If I find people of other ethnic groups very physically unattractive does this mean I am a racist if I don’t let this distaste affect my behaviors?
Read answer →Goal Achieved, Motivation Lost
I am a chef. My work was my whole life. It was my passion and my creative outlet and my everything. I have done very well professionally because 15 hour days were never a chore, they were a pleasure that I would have done for free. Now I am a chef co-owner of a 6 month old restaurant. It has taken me 15 years of very hard work to get here. This is my dream come true. But all of a sudden, now that I have everything I have always wanted, my passion has just evaporated. I have no creative ideas no energy and I feel like everything I make is just a second rate copy of what better chefs are doing. Needless to say, the timing of this life-crash kind of sucks for me and I don’t know if this is just a temporary stress crash or a permanent loss of inspiration. Do you have any ideas for how I can re-stoke my creativity and passion? I am desperate but lost.
Read answer →Multiple Family Problems Can't Be Solved By Asking Questions Online
Hello, I have a daughter and I just found out from my wife (we are divorced and my daughter still lives with her mother) that she has been acting bad. She is chasing after boys especially ones with a bad reputation and she has been dressing promiscuously. She is talking back to her mother or anyone with authority. Which I do not understand because she is 27. She is smoking and drinking, still going clubbing. Why is she so bad? My wife told me that she is sneaking boys to the house when her mother is gone out of town or throwing parties when her mom works late. What is worse is when I told my son of her unruly behavior he laughed and encouraged it. My wife took her phone and found all these songs about sex and drugs- which my daughter pays for and took her make up and so my daughter stole money from my wife to get all new make up. My wife is upset and wants me to do something about it. Why is so she bad?? And what can I do?
Read answer →Is Dream Interpretation Real?
Is dream interpretation a real thing? My wife has been going to therapy and she always comes back to me and tells me about the dreams she has been having and how her therapist is helping her to interpret their hidden meanings. I am trying to be supportive but I can’t help but wonder about this. I mean it sounds a little hocus pocus to me. I do not want to question something if she feels it is working for her but I do not want her to be taken advantage of either by someone who is not really able to help her. So what I would like to know is is dream interpretation in therapy a real thing and can it actually help her?
Read answer →Feeling Like You Don't Fit In
I am worried that I have Asberger’s or a personality disorder. I was homeschooled by my parents from grade 4 through my senior year. I had a few good friends who were also being homeschooled and so that was OK. Now, I am off away from home at college and I am having a lot of trouble making friends here. I feel like I just don’t have a good understanding on how to interact with my peers and anything I try to say just comes out in a very bad way. Like my roommate’s friends were over last night and they were teasing my roommate about some girl he’d hooked up with and I tried to get in on the fun and made a joke about the STD’s he probably has now – and they looked at me like I was some killjoy and pretty much left the room after that. They just think I am a freak. It just seems like everything I say comes out the wrong way and as a result I have zero friends to hang out with after a few months already in. It really sucks. I am tired of being such a social idiot. My parents say that it will just take me some time to get used to hanging out again in a group of people my own age, but I am starting to wonder if there is something more wrong with me. How can I know if I am just not a likeable person or if there is reason why I can’t get a read on how to act with the people in my dorm?
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