‘SMILING DEPRESSION’ – IT’S POSSIBLE TO BE DEPRESSED WHILE APPEARING HAPPY

by Olivia Remes, The Conversation Waking Times The term “smiling depression” – appearing happy to others while internally suffering depressive symptoms – has become increasingly popular. Articles on the topic have crept up in the popular literature, and the number of Google searches for the condition has increased dramatically this year. Some may question, however, whether this is actually a real, pathological condition. While smiling depression is not a technical term that psychologists use, it is certainly possible to be depressed and manage to successfully mask the symptoms. The closest technical term for this condition is “atypical depression”. In fact, a … Continue reading ‘SMILING DEPRESSION’ – IT’S POSSIBLE TO BE DEPRESSED WHILE APPEARING HAPPY

Hiking the Zen Path

Sam Mgrdichian | https://tricy.cl/2TVl4vK By Christopher Ives About a half-mile from the trailhead, walking under oaks on the west side of the Dry River in New Hampshire’s White Mountains, I realize that since I left the car I’ve been obsessing about how to defend the liberal arts in the face of narrowly vocational approaches to higher education. Long ago the Zen master Yunmen (864–949) purportedly admonished his disciples: “If you sit, just sit; if you walk, just walk—but don’t wobble.” When I hike, I try to focus on each breath, and each step, one at a time. If I notice that I’m … Continue reading Hiking the Zen Path

Hallucinogen Therapy Is Coming

How shrooms can spring people from fears and destructive habits. BY MOISES VELASQUEZ-MANOFF  ILLUSTRATION BY AMANDA BAEZA Three years later Daniel Kreitman still chokes up when he talks about what he saw, and how it changed him. Kreitman, an upholsterer by trade, had taken psilocybin, a hallucinogen derived from mushrooms, in a trial at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine for nicotine addiction. He was 52, and he’d smoked between one and two packs a day for nearly 40 years. After his first psilocybin session, his urge to smoke was gone. During his third and final session, he had the … Continue reading Hallucinogen Therapy Is Coming