artsmuklermd

Author: artsmuklermd

Art Smukler, MD was born and raised in Philadelphia, went to college and medical school in Pennsylvania, and completed his psychiatric training at UCLA. He is a board-certified psychiatrist, specializing in the treatment of adults with a subspecialty in adolescents. As a member of the UCLA faculty, he ran an award-winning psychotherapy conference for psychiatric residents and received the coveted “Golden Ear” award. He has published in psychiatric journals, and won the award for excellence in creative writing at The Santa Barbara Writers Conference. Now a full-time author, he applies his deep understanding of the human psyche to the motivations of his fictional characters.

With new technology a person can enter a scanner, like one in an airport, and emerge with a number of definitive recommendations for which clothes will help them steal Brad from Angelina. Keep in mind, the winner gets to watch all the kids every other weekend.

So we have a plan to buy the perfect jeans, but we’re still somewhere in the sixties when we search for the perfect treatment for depression. Not a paltry challenge when you consider that almost 10% of the population suffers from sadness extreme enough to cause them insomnia, decreased concentration, inability to function or even suicidal thoughts. 21 million people in the US alone complain of being depressed.

So can buying the perfectly sized jeans reduce depression? Sometimes. Sometimes just looking better not only reduces depression, but can improve self-esteem and that can improve our personality which can make us more interesting which can then cause people to be more attracted to us which can then lead to more happiness… Ok, you get it.

BUT, what if the new perfectly molded jeans, that make your not so perfectly molded butt look terrific, just don’t reduce your depression?

That’s where all the self-help books that recommend searching within, going for it, and Even Good People Suffer, kick in. If they don’t work, don’t be afraid of seeing a therapist. Most of us are trained to help you figure out what’s really going on.

Gotta stop now, I’m off to the scanner to find the perfect see-through T to show off my six-pack, just like Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte have. OMG, I forgot! I don’t have a six-pack.

Don’t forget to subscribe to Inside the Mind of a Psychiatrist. Do it before Brad and Angelina. It’ll make you feel better.

I’m not kidding!

When was the last time you drove in your car without the radio, Sirius or a book on CD? It can be dangerous driving without background noise, because it forces one to actually listen to the voice in his own head.

Is the voice saying you’re angry or unhappy or in love? When it finally registers what it’s saying, that’s when the fun or the trouble starts. Understanding your feelings is the beginning of potentially making decisions that can change your life. Improve your marriage? Start a new business? Have that long avoided heart-to-heart with a friend?

All is possible, and change, when understood and carefully examined, can be a wonderful experience — or not. Let the silence in. It will be filled with the words that come from a place you may have been avoiding.

Don’t forget to subscribe to Inside the mind of a Psychiatrist. It may help amp up those voices so you can decipher them better.