Articles on psychology, therapy and life.
Here I write about psychology and therapy, about worry, feelings and how we try to understand ourselves. Begin with whatever sparks your curiosity.
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Procrastination and the discomfort that comes first
Avoiding doing something by putting it off is what we call procrastination. Sometimes, just thinking about the task is enough for the body to react. A tension, a heaviness, an unease that comes before the task itself. Before we have even begun, we have already staged the effort inside ourselves and let the imagined performance settle it. It will have to wait.
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How ADHD became ADHD
The difficulties now grouped under ADHD are old. But the names, boundaries and assumed causes have changed. What does the history of the diagnosis show?
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C-PTSD: the understanding we need now
Trauma is common. PTSD and C-PTSD are not. Yet someone living with a lasting trauma response may have their symptoms sorted under another label before anyone asks what has happened. This text does not offer a new answer key. It asks whether psychiatry’s old answer key has been given more certainty than the evidence allows.
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What is it that changes in therapy?
PTSD research knows something about which treatment interventions work, but less about what changes, when and for whom. MCT and ISTDP point towards two processes that deserve more space: our relationship with thinking and our relationship with feelings.
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A nervous system for another world: evolutionary mismatch and the wrong turns of contemporary life
A new conceptual review in Behavioral Sciences suggests that much of what we now call mental ill health can be understood as a mismatch between an ancient nervous system and a modern world it was never built for. It is a theory, not proof, but it resonates with much of what I see in the room.
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On patient record systems in Swedish healthcare. We should build our own. We cannot afford not to.
Reports of deaths in which Cosmic is identified as a factor, billion-krona projects that fail and large patient record systems with foreign owners. Yet the debate still centres on which existing system should be the hub of Swedish healthcare. I argue that the question is wrongly framed: Sweden should build its own patient record platform and use today’s developments in AI to reduce costs and dependencies. The actual costs and security need to be calculated and tested.
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What you call a poor memory may be your attention
Memory difficulties can have several causes. Illness, medication, brain injury and other medical conditions can affect memory. On the functional side, anxiety and negative or depressive thought patterns can affect attention and contribute to difficulties with memory and concentration. These are possible contributing processes, not a single explanation.
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Bodily signals and worries about health
When the body feels different, worry may arise and attention may turn towards what the signals might mean. A study of 564 Canadian university students examined how bodily symptoms, fear of their possible meaning and beliefs about the usefulness of worrying were associated with health anxiety. The study found statistical associations but cannot show what causes what.
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Metacognitive therapy (MCT): research, outcomes and limitations
What does research show about metacognitive therapy, and how do the results hold up over time? Here I read a meta-analysis and two follow-up studies of MCT, focusing on samples, measures and results.
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The Halifax study: ISTDP for treatment-resistant depression
The Halifax study tested time-limited ISTDP for depression that persisted despite previous antidepressant treatment. The results favoured ISTDP compared with treatment as usual in specialist psychiatric care.
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We suffer more often in imagination than in reality
Seneca wrote it 2,000 years ago. It is still one of the most telling descriptions of what happens when someone sits in front of me and talks about their worries.
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Would you like to read brief summaries of new studies? Go to Research →