Tom Stagg, LCSW

In trying to get my head around the Supreme Court decision yesterday this keeps coming up for me. Samuel Alito knew, Neil Gorsuch knew, Brett Kavaunaugh knew, and Amy Comey knew the exact assurances Senators were looking for when they were directly asked, in private and at the hearings, about Roe and precedent. They knew they were being asked to provide assurance that long standing precedent on the issue was safe. They emphatically provided that reassurance on multiple occasions. They lied. They are christian....and they lied. They are defenders of Constitution and rule of law, yet they testified, under oath, on their bible, and they lied. Why now, should any of us, hold that we will ever need to hold truth and honesty under oath as anything other than a meaningless gesture? If the top Justices of our top Court held so little value in truth and honesty. The supreme court means nothing now.

Wake up !

Charlotte Pride’s Sponsors In Bed With Anti-Gay Politicians Big businesses like to showcase their expertly curated pro-LGBTQ bona fides — and those of us who very much want to believe in right-thinking corporate benevolence take them at their word. Wh…

The Lizard Brain: How I Came To Learn that Addiction is a Disease In a bright, white auditorium on the rolling campus of a rehab center on the East Coast, I learned that addiction is a disease. The giant room was filled with addicts and alcoholics, including my t…

Good read.

The Little Things That Can Take Over in Borderline Disorder The newest study of borderline personality shows how easily emotions go awry.

Interesting

A Return to Lithium: Psychiatry's First Miracle Drug One of psychiatry's oldest drugs, lithium may be making a comeback.

"Abandonment can feel raw and painful, just like trauma. When a client is abandoned, that painful experience can stay with them through life and be easily triggered. And when it does get triggered, it can flood the client with fear, panic, and intense shame."

Can't tell you how many times I see this happen. Medication in the vast, vast, vast majority of people provide the steam to "get over the hump" which allows them the opportunity to address their issues. When someone is in a Major Depressive episode it can be daunting to attempt to address it in therapy when the mere act of getting one foot in front of the other is sometimes insurmountable.

Opinion | Quitting my depression meds wasn't my happily-ever-after. Staying on them is. Even knowing there is a stigma against taking medication for my mental health didn't stop me from falling for it briefly.

“Uncertainty about their caretakers' regard gives them profound doubts about their self-worth and constitutes a fundamental source of narcissistic vulnerability.”