Over my 25 years of experience as a psychologist, I gradually came to realize that drinking may be one of the most common yet least talked about causes of marital conflict. Unfortunately, in the couples I've worked with this issue is often swept under the carpet. And when it does...

Matt, a 35-year-old sales executive, considered himself successful -- at least in his work. Divorced and the father of an 8-year-old daughter, Matt spent a lot of time on the road, so much so that he said, "I think of airports as my office." He was as "connected" as anyone...

For the past five years a task force appointed by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) has been busy working on the first revision of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) in 15 years. The reason that DSM is so important is that it is widely regarded as the gold standard...

What You Don't Know Can Hurt You

The United States Preventive Services Task Force, a government-appointed independent panel of experts, just issued a report and an advisory that all sensible men and women would do well to take heed of. This panel reviewed a large body of research...

Grieving the Loss of a Drinking Buddy

In an article recently published in the New York Times titled "A Glass All Empty," the writer Elissa Schappell poignantly described the dismay she experienced after her husband Rob decided to quit drinking. According to Elissa, Rob has never considered himself...

My father passed away on July 6th of this year, one month short of his 89th birthday. His health had been declining steadily for the past five years, and when he finally passed, his death certificate listed COPD, congestive heart failure and kidney failure. In the past couple of months,...

A Most Difficult Decision

A recent article by Alex Ward appeared in the Daily Mail that described how the parents of a 12-year-old boy diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor opted to tell their son about the tumor, but not to disclose that it was terminal. Why? Because...

My father does not want to die and I understand that. That said, I have watched as over the past three years the quality of his life has been steadily reduce to something approaching zero. At 89, he suffers from Parkinson's. His lone kidney failed eight years ago and he...

This is a question that I'm often asked: "Where is the fine line that separates normal drinking from problem drinking?"

People ask this question for a good reason: They want to know if their own drinking qualifies a "normal" or "abnormal." This thinking also reflects the way we've traditionally come...

The title of her book, Drinking: A Love Story, by Caroline Knapp, succinctly captured the essence of the late author's gradual descent into alcoholism. The end point of this tragic journey lies at the far right end of the drinking spectrum, depicted below. In order to get to that final...

On April 11, 2012, the New York Daily News published an article titled "Beer Makes Men Smarter," which got a lot of attention. Is that really true? Let's take a closer look.

The Experiment That Started The Buzz

The March 2012 online edition of the journal Consciousness and...

Happy Hour During Work Hours

"They say a man's work is never done. They say you can't mix business with pleasure. They say that good things come to those who wait." -- Anheuser Busch Super Bowl 2012 commercial

The above were the opening lines in a Super Bowl...

Kentucky has won the national championship and college students across the country are ready to move on to the next big event: Spring Break. And hand-in-hand with the ritual of spring break goes the now ubiquitous tradition of Beer Pong.

Beer Pong: College Fun or Dangerous Game?

Beer Pong is...

A Disturbing Trend Among Boomers

According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), drinking among seniors age 50 and older is on the rise. In fact, seniors make up the segment of the population for whom drinking has been increasing most. In one...

• A father who falls asleep on the couch after having several drinks three or four days a week, thereby missing out on time with his kids and wife.
• A sales executive who likes to "sip" scotch on the rocks from the time he finishes his dinner to the time he...

"I have often thought that the best way to define a man's character would be to seek out the particular mental and moral attitude in which, when it came upon him, he felt most deeply and intensely active and alive. At such moments there is a voice inside that speaks...

If you want to discover a path for yourself as you approach the so-called "golden years," ask yourself the question: Why Am I Here?. Even better, take some time to contemplate the following pair of questions:

Why Am I Here? Versus What Do I Want?

Chances are, if you are...

After we admitted my father to the hospital for the last time, and after we were told that there was nothing that could be done to stop the buildup of fluid in his lungs, the doctor told me that he had four to six weeks to live. I'd been the...

"As a cancer patient, when I had been given my last chemotherapy treatment, my oncologist told me, 'Now get on with your life.'" -- Kathleen

Kathleen states that when she received the above advice it was simultaneously heartening and disheartening. It was heartening because the doctor was telling Kathleen that...

Imagine that you are a mental health professional and you meet with a new client who describes the following symptoms: "I haven't been sleeping well. I don't have much of an appetite and I've lost a few pounds in the last month. I feel sad most of the time and...