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Having recently celebrated nine years of sobriety, I’ve been reflecting on my early days in this journey.  Although I went to treatment for alcoholism three times in a seven-month period it was only the third time that I went by choice.  The first time I went was at the behest

Yet another reason to surround yourself with positive, upbeat people: According to a University of Hawaii study, stress and anxiety are just as contagious as the common cold. Researcher Elaine Hatfield found that when a person is constantly engulfed in a particular emotion — whether it is positive or negative —

Previous studies have suggested that girls are better at maintaining friendships than boys, but a Duke University study found that when their friends betray them, girls struggle just as much as boys do – and in some ways, even more so. The study consisted of 267 fourth- and fifth-grade children

Researchers from Yale University are suggesting that experienced meditators’ ability to “turn off” their brains might also keep them in good health – and free from mental disorders such as schizophrenia and autism. The researchers conducted functional magnetic resonance imaging scans on the brains of both experienced and novice meditators as

The holiday season can be a stressful time for anyone. But for parents, adding children to the mix can sometimes do a lot to enhance that stress. The Washington Post parenting blog recently interviewed Stacy Notaras Murphy, an American Counseling Association member and a contributing writer to Counseling Today, for tips

A newly published report in the Journal of Pediatrics found that foster children are receiving power mixtures of antipsychotics normally used to treat mental illnesses such as schizophrenia just as frequently as most mentally disabled children. The study analyzed 637,924 Medicaid records from 2003 of minors from an unidentified state who

According to a University of Missouri professor who pioneered an evidence-based treatment called Multisystemic Therapy (MST), the treatment continues to have positive effects on former juvenile offenders more than 20 years after treatment. MST differs from individual therapy in that it involves the juvenile offender’s entire family as well as

Many of us have a mental checklist of the traits we believe our “perfect match” will have, but researchers are finding that the traits we think we’re looking for don’t necessarily translate into reality. A Northwestern University study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology suggests that the personality

The physical effects of chronic alcoholism on a person’s body have been well-documented, but a Vanderbilt University study reveals that brain function is also detrimentally impacted. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during a finger-tapping exercise, the researchers found that alcoholics’ brains can perform just as well as a sober