Dr. Payton

Recently I was speaking with Curtis Duffy about his career as a chef.  We talked about his realizing that even as a child he felt most at home in the kitchen.  He described his increasing awareness of how important this feeling of at home was. He realized that he could trust that this feeling would…

The simple response to that statement is because we are unique. Even identical twins are not really identical but each has unique features compared to their twin. So why is this important for our doctor’s to consider? Well our uniqueness means that we may not fit within a statistically derived range on blood tests or…

A recent article by L. Miller, PhD et al in JAMA Psyhiatry [2014;71(2):128135] reported on their previous 10 year prospective study of adult children who had a parent with major depression, showing that they had a 90% reduced risk for depression if they stated that religion or spirituality was important to them. The reduced risk…

Recently I was reading a poem by Mary Oliver and I felt moved by her words: “Sometimes I need / only to stand / wherever I am / to be blessed.”  So, does that mean that we can be blessed wherever we are standing? What does it mean to be blessed?  What does “stand” mean?…

I was listening to someone talk about how they respond ‘sympathetically” to customers and as I listened to her describing being sympathetic, I realized that she was not listening to the other person but reacting to what she was hearing. I believe that being sympathetic means that we respond personally based on our own reaction…

Recently I was watching a replay on public television of “Fifty Years of Peter, Paul and Mary” and I was very moved by their performances as I had been years ago.  As I listened with tears flowing I felt that I was being reminded of what life is about…the beauty of this earth, the beauty…

An opinion on the op-ed page of the January 22, 2014 New York Times by Stacy Torres talked about an incident in a McDonald’s retaurant in Qweens, NYC where police were called to remove a number of people who had stayed in the restaurant for hours while purchasing only a cup of coffee. There were…

I recently watched Julianne Moore’s moving and beautiful performance in “Still Alice.”  She portrayed the rapid progression of dementia symptoms in a 50 year old woman.  In the movie, she talked about how devastating it was to lose her memory and to lose her memories.  She felt that in many ways, her memories defined who…

I have helped many people who are bothered and consumed by trying to make sense of what other people say or do. It has become clear to me that feeling a need to understand others is risky because we can’t know about other people and sometimes if we can’t make sense of others it is…

Recently I was reading a number of studies about physicians listening to their patients.  On average physicians wait from 12 to 20 seconds before they interrupt their patients.  After this interruption, physicians may ask questions but often will not give their patients an opportunity to share more of their concerns, although will ask their patients…