Faith, Family, and Future Confusion
Dear Dr. Ryan, I’ve been with my boyfriend for almost one year, we both have gotten serious about each other and have discussed our future together which included marriage and kids. We are both in…
We Lost Our Zing
Dear Dr. Ryan, Hi, I’ve been married for 7 years, but I do not love my husband the same way that I used to. I mean I like him more than anyone else in the…
Depressed Relationship
Dear Dr. Ryan, I met a guy a couple months ago and we hit it off right from the word go so we began dating shortly after and it’s been nearly 10 months since. We’ve…
Why Drake's Mom Wants You To Stop Being So Distrustful
Mothers just seem to know. My mom has always had a knack for reading me. For knowing what I’m going through and knowing just what I needed to hear to make it through a difficult…
S-Town: A Podcast for Our Mental Health
S-Town, a podcast produced by Serial and This American Life takes an up close and personal look at the life of John B. McLemore. To those of us who were dedicated listeners of the first…
Overly Negative Friend is Hurting My Mental Health
Dear Dr. Ryan, I have a friend that I love dearly, but I feel like she may be hurting my mental health, and I don’t know how to talk to her about it. I have…
Depressed Messages from a Struggling Soldier
Dear Dr. Ryan, A year ago, my youngest sister’s husband was discharged from the Army for medical issues pertaining to depression. He has been diagnosed manic depressive which he receives medication for. Occasionally, he sees…
Depression Cutting In
Dear Dr. Ryan, I’ve never been happy. There have been times in my life when things were good, but there was that feeling of insecurity that something would soon go wrong, and I would become…
Friend in a Funk
Dear Dr. Ryan, In the past year I’ve seen a noticeable change in my friend Darla’s mood. Darla and I worked together at a coffee shop one summer when I was in between advertising gigs.…
Do I have a drinking problem?
A hard question. Not always an easy answer to be found. Emotionally, the answer to this question can have many implications. Does this mean I'm an alcoholic? Is there something wrong with me? How do…
TherapyShare: Progressive Muscle Relaxation
Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR) is the process of strategically tensing and relaxing your muscle groups one at a time in an effort to slowly relax the whole body. PMR has shown to be effective in…
Drone pilots can get PTSD too
Drones (or unmanned aircraft) have truly become the front lines of our current warfare. Although we could certainly discuss the mental health impact on regions of the world where there is a constant fear of…
TherapyShare: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: Demons on the boat
At its core, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) emphasizes how our efforts at avoiding pain and/or negative emotion prevent us from leading a meaningful life. One of my favorite analogies from ACT (and there's a lot!) is called Demons…
Celebrity Rehab isn't killing people...but it may not be helpful either
Mindy McCready died on February 17th, 2013 from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. Another grave statistic reveals that Ms. McCready is the 5th cast member from Dr. Drew Pinsky's Celebrity Rehab TV show to die…
Notes from a Black Male Suicide Survivor
I came across this "personal essay" on Gawker the other day in which @Moore_Darnell shared some his early life suffering related to physical abuse both inside and outside the home as well as struggles with his own…
Veterans and the legal system: Why it's not their fault
Veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are being imprisoned at surprisingly high rates that would appear to be unfitting of the valor and honor they showed during combat. Several questions arise for me: 1) Is…