“The sacrament of Reconciliation is a place to bring all of our chaos into contact with the healing love of the Lord Jesus,” writes Kathryn J. Hermes in her excellent book, “Surviving Depression: A Catholic Approach.” Several people–even my therapist who is a lapsed Catholic–suggested I go to confession to relieve some of my guilt.…

Both David Burns (bestselling author of “Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy” and Abraham Low (founder of Recovery, Inc.) teach techniques to analyze negative thoughts (or identify distorted thinking) so to be able to disarm and defeat them. Since Low’s language is a bit out-dated, I list below Burns’ “Ten Forms of Twisted Thinking,” (adapted…

There is such a thing as having too much self-esteem. I would like to have that problem, just as I would like to say, “I must have a high metabolism or something, because I just can’t seem to gain weight. Please pass the brownies.” Jean Twenge, Associate Professor of Psychology at San Diego State University,…

Each summer I pick a project. Last year’s was to develop my self-esteem. According to David Burns, that should only take ten days. But nine months later, I’m still not there. From June to August last year, this was the routine: load up the double stroller with any floatable object in our house (wings, inner-tubes,…

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