George Burns once said: "Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city." So that would explain why the holidays are so stressful. Those dear relatives who live in San Francisco suddenly are lingering in front of your refrigerator in Cincinnati, Ohio and you have to figure...

The weather outside might be frightful but inside it's definitely worse. According to New York psychologist Jay Seitz, 25 percent of people experience some kind of holiday anxiety or depression. That is, one in four people sipping eggnog feel like that stale, bland, unpopular fruitcake that was re-gifted...

The question of whether or not you should start taking antidepressants is complex and difficult to answer. But even fuzzier is the question of when or if you should stop. Last May, NPR ran a piece called "Coming Off Antidepressants Can Be Tricky Business."

Joanne Silberner writes:

Several...

Take a minute and answer this question: Is anyone really normal today?

I mean, even those who claim they are normal may, in fact, be the most neurotic among us, swimming with a nice pair of scuba fins down the river of "Denial." Having my psychiatric file published online and...

In his insightful book, "The Addictive Personality: Understanding the Addictive Process and Compulsive Behavior," author Craig Nakken explains why, even after an addict has given up the bottle or the weed, she will never be done with recovery:

"Addiction is a process of buying into false and empty promises:...

According to Raymond DePaulo, Jr. M.D., Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, African-American populations do not have higher rates of depression in the U.S. However, the statistics may be skewed because African Americans are much less likely to report their symptoms of depression.

The stigma...

According to psychologist Michael Brickey, author of Defy Aging, and many other relationship experts, playful bantering or gentle flirting with someone outside of your marriage is harmless if proper boundaries remain intact. Those boundaries differ with each relationship, of course. What would be considered a violation...

In her classic book, Gift from the Sea, Anne Morrow Lindbergh articulates the process of gathering girlfriends. She writes,

I shall ask into my shell only those friends with whom I can be completely honest. I find I am shedding hypocrisy in human relationships. What a rest that...

Vacations are theoretical concepts that exist today only on paper. That's according to Joe Robinson, work-life balance speaker, trainer and author of "Don't Miss Your Life." His statistics are dire:

Some 25 percent of Americans and 31 percent of low-wage earners get no vacation at all anymore, according...

I don't know of anyone who doesn't have a money problem right now, in this economy. Even the wealthiest of the wealthy are fretting because the fortunes they stashed in bonds and stocks aren't performing with the same gust of the 90s, and, even if you have 5 billion dollars,...

The other day I wrote a post for Blisstree.com on how to stay productive when you are clinically depressed. I mentioned that, at my rock bottom, I had to take a break altogether from writing, as every time I sat down in front of my computer, all I...

The kids are out of school. Your neighbors are whistling on their way to work, greeting you with an enthusiasm peculiar to warm weather. And if you hear one more person ask you about your summer vacation plans, you will throw a U.S. map and atlas at them.

You don't...

"You complete me." You know that line, right ... from Jerry McGuire? It comes right before "You had me at hello" (another puker). The completing-the-other bit nauseates me a tad because we relationship-analyzers (some with the right initials after their names and some self-declared experts who can type)...

It's been a while since I covered the topic of compulsive hoarding, because the last time I did I posted photos of my nut collection and book pile, and the next thing I knew I was being contacted by Discovery Disney to be "fixed" on some hoarding special....

In her gutsy book, Think: Straight Talk for Women to Stay Smart in a Dumbed-Down World, attorney and national television legal analyst Lisa Bloom paints a dire picture:

The problem is not just about that 25 percent of young women who would rather be hot than smart;...

Perfectionism.

It's the enemy of creativity, productivity, and, well, sanity. In "The Artist's Way," author Julia Cameron writes: "Perfectionism is a refusal to let yourself move ahead. It is a loop -- an obsessive, debilitating closed system that causes you to get stuck in the details of what...

It was impossible to miss the white sign that hung over the wall of Saint Mary's high school lacrosse field yesterday. The thing was as tall as our two-story house with letters as big as construction cranes. With just one word: "Prom?" On the hill behind it stood an adorable...

Caught in a terrible conundrum of whether I should break my diet over New York Super Fudge Chunk or Chunky Monkey at Ben & Jerry's the other day, I was reading the different fliers pinned to the community bulletin board inside this 200 square feet of ice-cream heaven.

One flier...

In their exceptional, informative book "The Healthy Home: Simple Truths of Protect Your Family From Hidden Household Dangers," son-and-father team Myron Wentz and Dave Wentz tackle the topic of toxins from room to room, starting with the bedroom and ending with the garage and yard. "Every second of every...

I never considered myself an athlete. My twin sister grew up with the reputation of being the tomboy of the family, the sporty one who participated in soccer and other organized sports. I was the brain and artsy one who spent more time practicing my scales and arpeggios on our...