Author Archives: rccjaved

It’s So Basic, But It’s Not Easy to Understand I have been thinking a lot about cravings lately. What is craving, really? What’s it all about? Craving seems to amount to a fundamental sense of being incomplete. When we crave, we want something to fill us up. We want to fill a hole, by taking[…]

“Has Your Attention Become Narrowly Fixated on Your Work” Workaholism & Obsession In order to further understand one of the inner dynamics of workaholism—that perfectionism leads to obsession, and in turn, obsession leads to increasing levels of narcissism—our focus now turns to the role that obsession plays. The Thinking function has a single-focused awareness capacity that zeros in on[…]

Experimental New Approach For Treatment-Resistant Depression A recent paper in the Archives of General Psychiatry, a leading psychiatric journal, describes a study investigating deep brain stimulation (DBS) for the treatment of depression. This study involved electrical stimulation of a specific brain region via surgically implanted electrodes in 17 persons suffering from severe treatment-resistant depression. Participants were evaluated for a period[…]

Why Shame Can Both Help & Hurt Self-Control A recent blog post I wrote has been generating debate in the comments section: Does shame motivate self-control? And more specifically, can shame encourage people to lose weight? It’s quite a real debate in the field of psychology, and there’s evidence to support both sides. But a careful review of the seemingly[…]

Meditating Our Way Away From Addictions Addictions come in many different forms. We can all think of stories of people addicted to drugs and alcohol. One of my uncles struggled with alcohol. He was a very giving, loving person, but the years of drinking truly destroyed his life. His daily use of alcohol aged him and cut his life short. Before[…]

You Can Beat Anxiety Without Popping a Pill We are a society obsessed with quick fixes. It’s natural to want to feel better and less anxious but an increasing number of people are seeking escape in the form of a pill. To be clear – I believe that medicine can play a role in the[…]

Choose Between Resentment And Healing; You Can’t Do Both Recovery from relationships that have suffered chronic resentment is long, complex and fraught with setbacks, whether the couple breaks up or tries to repair the damage done to the union. Unlike anger, which is stimulated by discreet incidents or thoughts, chronic resentment is a general ego defense[…]

How Eating Well Can Increase Performance & Happiness The question of what can make a healthy commitment to something like a sport turn into an unhealthy obsession – and what can reverse this transition and turn obsession back into health and happiness – is addressed by an article I came across recently. Here the personal trainer Gillian Mounsey describes the time[…]

New Study Finds Many College Students Are Addicted to The Internet Imagine what it would be like not to have access to the Internet or your cell phone for 24 hours. To me the idea sounds wonderful; for many college students, however, such an idea sounds perverse. According to a University of Maryland study released last year,[…]

Self-destructive behaviors are actions that harm one’s physical, emotional, or mental well-being. Despite being harmful, these behaviors can often feel habitual or even comforting to those who engage in them. But why do people engage in self-destructive behaviors? And is it possible to truly love yourself while continuing these harmful patterns? Let’s explore these questions[…]