Excerpt from Choosing to Live

So, how shall we view suicide? Here’s what we recommend:

1. Get rid of the stigma
2. Adopt a problem-solving point of view.
3. Keep an open mind.

Excerpt from Choosing to Live

You may ask, "Well, shouldn’t suicide and suicidal behavior be stigmatized? Isn’t it sinful, after all? Besides, we surely want to do everything we can to discourage self-destructive behavior."

We want to do all we can to prevent suicide and suicidal behaviors, but it is unlikely that laying guilt trips on depressed people will be helpful. Aren’t depressed people already some of the guiltiest-feeling people around? If guilt were an effective strategy, we would expect depressed people rarely, if ever, to commit suicide. Most depressed people already feel bad about themselves. A threat of moral condemnation is unlikely to have any positive impact on someone who already believes he or she is bad.

Excerpt from Intimacy After Infidelity

Self-Intimacy is the moment-to-moment awareness of one’s feelings, thoughts, and needs as well as the willingness to acknowledge and own these to oneself and with one’s partner.

Why Self-Intimacy Is So Important

• The Decision to be unfaithful is born here.
• SI represents the best way to take care of yourself, especially with regard to expressing negative feelings.
• SI is directly connected to your instincts.

Excerpt from Love Tune-Ups

Leaving little notes for your partner can add a wonderful zip to both their day and yours. You get to feel sneaky and loving at the same time, and they get a caring surprise. A love note is a simple, delightful way to bring you instantly closer, no matter where you are.

Excerpt from Emotional Fitness for Intimacy

When tenderness is removed from a relationship, with it goes a sense of security. Here are ten tips for tenderness that will help you keep it.

The American Psychiatric Association announced some of their proposed changes for the 5th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, (DSM), to be published in 2013. The DSM is the official dictionary of mental disorders recognized by the American Psychiatric Association. Doctors use the DSM to diagnose patients, and insurance companies use it to decide on reimbursement, so it's incredibly important in the profession of psychiatry. Some of these changes are pretty significant. They include:

 

by guest blogger Carolyn Coker Ross, MD, MPH, author of The Binge Eating & Compulsive Overeating Workbook

Today, the American Psychiatric Association announced there is enough evidence to support adding Binge Eating Disorder (BED) to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual.

Why is this so important? The National Institutes of Mental Health estimates that 3.5% of women and 2% of men have BED. Binge eating disorder is more prevalent than anorexia or bulimia. Sixty percent of those with BED are female and forty percent are male, which is the largest category of eating disorders that affects men. Unlike bulimia, those with BED do not have compensatory mechanisms to offset their binging. They do not purge through self-induced vomiting, the use of laxatives, diuretics or through compulsive exercise. BED sufferers share the common co-occurrence of depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder and substance use disorders with bulimia sufferers. Those with BED are usually overweight or obese but not always.

Excerpt from Connecting Through Touch

Learning to touch with sensitivity is central to learning massage. Technique means nothing without quality of touch. What makes a "good" touch, as opposed to a "bad" one? You would probably agree that you want the person touching you to be present, calm, and centered and the touch to be sensitive and firm yet gentle and nurturing. You want to feel safe and not invaded, and most of all, you want a loving touch, especially from your partner. Now, let’s begin with an exercise in sensitivity practice.

Excerpt from The Introvert & Extrovert in Love

Look over the lists of innie and outie tendencies below. Which profile do you fit better? Which does your partner fit? Ask each other what you think about yourself and your partner. Discuss differing opinions. If you’re somewhere in the middle and can’t tell which way you lean, think about what you need most: innies need more quiet time and outies require more outside stimulation.

Kelly McGonigal, author of Yoga for Pain Relief is featured on Forbes' list of "20 Inspiring Women To Follow On Twitter".

Excerpt from Five Good Minutes® with the One You Love

Have you ever noticed how negative emotions such as anger and resentment can take up enormous space in your life? Well, move over hatred! Let's make room for more love. Take these next few minutes for an expansive love meditation.

Excerpt from Romantic Intelligence

Are you as smart in love as you are in life? Test your Romantic Intelligence.

A. Love at first sight happens:

1. All the time
2. Rarely
3. If you’re looking for it
4. Never

Excerpt from Stop Running From Love

"Distancing" is a big category. Distancers come in many shapes and sizes. They can be single or in long-term couple relationships, gay or straight, women or men, young or old. Here are a few brief glimpses of typical distancers:

Excerpt from My Mother, My Mirror

I recently looked at an afghan my mother helped me crochet in the later years of her life. Her hands were too arthritic to do more than a couple of model stitches at a time, but the pleasure she got out of teaching me seemed to outweigh whatever encumbrance in her joints she experienced. And I got pleasure from letting her teach me. She felt excited when I’d finished it (so did I, after ripping out a particular part one time too many) and was happy when family members could wrap themselves in it to keep warm. Though I’d chosen the afghan’s colors and design, and done most of the work, it was a cocreation in which yarn interwove as did my mother’s and my feelings.

Excerpt from My Mother, My Mirror

When I began to think about mother-daughter relationships, I recalled my seventh-grade lunch table. One of my schoolmates, June, would often say, after slowly unfolding the foil wrapped around her sandwich and peering inside with what seemed like dread, "Damn, my mother gave me shit on rye again." Each time, I would think, "How could she say that about her mother? She must not love her mother. I’d never say that about my mother."