New Perspectives, Inc.

Three….Two….One….Happy New Year!!!! The joys of celebrating the New Year echo in eternity. I can remember as a kid going outside and banging on pots and pans to celebrate the passing of a year. It’s a wonderful time filled with laughter and fun. Sadly, this joyous occasion often gets marred by the news of injured or even dead revelers who decided to drink and drive. Although Thanksgiving is the deadliest night for alcohol related driving fatalities, New Years Eve comes in at a close second. In 2008, nearly 16,000 US citizens were killed in Drunk Driving accidents with almost 500,000 injuries. A person is killed every one half hour due to drunk driving and every other minute a person is injured due to an alcohol related accident. Over 40% of fatal automobile accidents are alcohol related and nearly 30% of all Americans will be in an accident involving alcohol in some way. I do not want to preach to everyone, nor do I want to destroy any plans for you for your New Year’s

Feeling blue, sad, or even depressed even though the holidays are upon us? You may be suffering from Seasonal Affective Disorder (aka SAD). According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, “Symptoms of winter SAD usually begin in October or November and subside in March or April. Some patients begin to slump as early as August, while others remain well until January. Regardless of the time of onset, most patients don’t feel fully back to normal until early May. Depressions are usually mild to moderate, but they can be severe.” SAD is often found in women in their twenties and thirties, but statistics report children, men, and teens may suffer from the symptoms as well. At first, symptoms are mild, but gradually increase in intensity. The symptoms of SAD include, but are not limited to, depression include oversleeping, daytime fatigue, carbohydrate craving and weight gain, features of depression, especially decreased sexual interest, lethargy, hopelessness, suicidal thought

When I first set up this blog for the New Perspectives, Inc. web site, I had high hopes for myself. I was ready to sit down nightly and type out information which could be useful to any reader. But......I looked back to my last entry and saw that I had typed about summertime and here it is December 2009. What happened to my plan? What happened to all my hopes and goals? Did life just get in the way? NFL hall of fame coach of the Dallas Cowboys Tom Landry once said, "Setting a goal is not the main thing. It is deciding how you will go about achieving it and staying with that plan.” Obviously, Coach Landry speaks to the idea of procrastination. Procrastination refers to the deferment of actions or tasks to a later time. Psychologists often cite such behavior as a mechanism for coping with the anxiety associated with starting and/or completing any task or decision. There are three criteria: for a behavior to be classified as procrastination, it must be counterproductive,

Well i'm a-gonna raise a fuss, i'm gonna raise a holler About workin' all summer just to try an' earn a dollar Everytime i call my baby, to try to get a date My boss says, "no dice, son, you gotta work late" Sometimes i wonder what i'm gonna do 'cause there ain't no cure for the summertime blues' (Eddie Cochran) In a previous posting, I discussed the joys of having a stress free summer vacation, but I have noticed a significant trend among patients this summer. A trend, which at best, seems to be growing in a very rapid pace over the past few summers. This trend is the emergence of what the National Institute of Mental Mental (NIMH) has termed "reverse SAD" or reverse Seasonal Affective Disorder. SAD is most commonly asociated with the dark and gloomy days of winter where afflicted people suffer symptoms of depression including, but not limited to, fatigue, lethargy, excessive sleep, hopelessness, social withdrawal, decreased in

Can you feel it? Do you notice anything different? I think Country singer Kenny Chesney sums it up best..... "Summertime is finally here That old ball park man is back in gear Out on 49, man I can see the lights School's out the nights roll in Man, just like a long lost friend You ain't seen in a while You can't help but smile." Ah yes, Summertime. I can remember (vaguely because it has been awhile) being in grade school during this time of the year and listening to friends as we discussed our plans for summer vacations. Some friends would go to the beach (yes, in Delaware we went to the beach and not the shore in New Jersey), some would go to camp, some would visit relatives, and some of the lucky few would fly to Disney or other really cool vacation spots. I could remember how we all made plans to play baseball and go to the swimming pool everyday, but it was that word vacation that gave us the biggest smile. It seemed like a magical time of youth. Su

April 20, 1999, for educators, students, parents, and most of the nation, will always be known for what became this nation's fourth deadliest school massacre. On this day, 10 years ago, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, both Columbine High School students in Jefferson County, Colorado, embarked on a massacre, killing 12 students and 1 teacher, wounding 23 others, committing suicide, and forever changing the way this country views high school security and violence. This single action by the two gunmen provoked political and social debate regarding gun violence in teens, gun control laws, the availability of guns in the US, violence in music, film, and video games aimed towards teens, and the ideas of bullying. The memories etched in American history from that day echo 10 years later. The students of Columbine High school, at the time 14-18 years old, are now in their mid to late twenties with families, careers, hopes and dreams. The memories of that horrific day burned in

Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.” In my practice, I have seen the hurt, pain and sorrow of many people. I have watched, sometimes in shear horror, man’s inhumanities to man, but I have been intrigued, and somewhat mystified, about the power of forgiveness. Humanistic Psychologists contend forgiveness is achieved when compassion replaces the desire for revenge. Compassion replaces the desire for revenge? Really? What does that mean? On the face value of it, something must happen inside of us to change, but what makes the change? People who have a higher sense of self esteem and self value seem to fair well with forgiveness. Religious or spiritual people seem to forgive more readily than nonreligious people. People

I was involved in a conservation regarding religion. Religion is, at best, a taboo subject which should only be discussed with the knowledge no one is right and no one is wrong. Anyway, the conversation dealt primarily with the idea that religious affiliation is the conduit for spirituality. Spirituality, in my terms, is the belief in a higher power or the belief in someone or some thing is out there controlling all that is going on. Well, I got a little lost in thought last night and my thoughts were confirmed this morning. The question, “to what extent will I believe in someone?” burned in my brain all last night. I departed from the idea of religion and started looking at humanity; more specifically, the people in my life who I should believe in. I try to be a true person whether it is to friends, family, or loved ones. I try to be a person who people can trust, count on, and respect. Lately, I have questioned myself, but I am coming to an understanding th