I didn’t engage in behaviors like calling or texting multiple times—if anything, I did the opposite, out of fear of being perceived as needy—but the thoughts alone, their irrationality and all-consuming anxiety, caused me a lot of pain. Fear of…
Posts published in “Relationships”
“Summer lovin’ had me a blast. Summer lovin’ happened so fast”. — lyrics from “Summer Nights” from Grease. It’s a delicious fantasy, isn’t it? — falling in love while on vacation or on the summer job at the beach. Movies like Grease…
You have a demanding career that requires a lot of your time and energy. So does your spouse. Maybe one of you—or both—travels for work. Maybe you’re also parents, and you also like to golf, practice yoga, take painting classes…
While my dad was in the hospital, on a ventilator with five chest tubes attached to his body, I thought it was a good time to start working on my website and a new blog. I’d sit in his room…
Don’t wait until tomorrow to figure it out! Falling in love with someone you’ve been dating is typically a beautiful, romantic experience, but when depression, low self-esteem and other mental health issues crop up and cause you to turn to…
Passive-aggressive behavior is frustrating. It’s mind baffling. It’s anger provoking. So why do people resort to such relationship-damaging behavior? And why is it so hard to change the pattern? The pattern typically begins innocuously with a “Yes” and a “No”…
Is your love life suffering because of your mood? Is it hard to have a healthy relationship when you’re depressed? Absolutely, yes! Mixing depression and relationships is tricky. I know because I’ve been there. I’ve struggled with depression for my…
Many of us hold unrealistic fairytale expectations about marriage which result in disappointment with a spouse or with the institution of marriage itself. Both were true for me when single. Now happily married for 30 years, I still now and…
Communicating with someone who has narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) can be confusing. Facial expressions don’t always match the situation and even what is communicated through words can feel irrelevant or crazy-making. Language is one of the key tools of manipulation for…
A few years ago, I had a delusion that I was Wonder Woman incarnate and penned these words: “I am thrilled to say that my invisible Wonder Woman cape and tights are in the Jeep (along with my faerie wings, which are…