Dr. Payton

The statement that “this president makes us comfortable with our prejudices” is attributed to Rosalind Carter, the wife of former president Jimmy Carter and she was not referring to her husband. I feel that it is important because one way that a leader can get support for themselves is by giving us permission to not…

My family and I just experienced the loss of our dog, Lexi. About 11 years ago we agreed to bring her into our lives as she was a puppy who was chewing up our oldest daughter’s furniture after she had rescued Lexi from the shelter. Lexi became a very important part of our family, especially…

Many people have described the United States as driven by fear. That inspite of our power and influence in the world we seem to live in fear and instead of this joining all of us as we face our fears, instead our fear ends up separating us and this increases our fears. So, why are…

Previously I blogged about the stress relieving benefit of slow, even breathing. Since then it continues to come up directly or indirectly with different approaches to stress management. It is frequently referred to as “mindfulness.” This has been defined as consciousness without thought. I wonder if it may be better defined as a calm, alert…

Diagnosing bipolar depression vs unipolar depression [major depression] remains difficult. So why be concerned? Well, there is building evidence that taking antidepressants and having a mood swing to a manic or hypomanic mood is associated with a poorer prognosis that includes more depressive mood swings [rapid cycling?], not responding as well to mood stabilizing medications,…

In an earlier blog, “Risk of Suicide and of Suicide Attempts,” I described a study by Hart and Risley that followed 42 families for 3 1/2 years counting the number and nature of words directed to young children aged 7months to 2 1/2 years with the families divided into three groups identified as professional, working class and…

In the October 31, 2013 [Vol.369, No. 18] New England Journal of Medicine, Drs. Bair-Merritt, Zuckerman, Augustynand Cronholm report on the fact that there are evidence-based recommendations from the Institue of Medicine and the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force regarding detecting the presence of domestic violence [termed Intimate Partner Violence [IPV]] and reducing the impact…

Children who are being bullied are more than twice as likely to have psychosomatic [physical complaints caused by stress] complaints compared to children who are not being bullied. This was reported in a study in Pediatrics by G. Gini, Ph.D. and T. Pozzoli, Ph.D. They did a meta-analysis of 30 studies involving more than 219,000…

I have met people who inspire me by how they live their lives. I often can’t pinpoint what it is about them accept a feeling that they seem to be sharing with others. After I get to know some of these inspirational people, I wonder if part of their inpiration comes from being aware of…

I have written before about our being creatures of habit. I keep being reminded of how important this is when I am are trying to change behaviors [my own]. My brain is very good at maintaining patterns of behavior/thinking/feeling. It seems to be able to do this effeciently with little energy output and seemingly almost…