Dr. Payton

I have previously blogged about grief and wondered if our ability to reach a level of acceptance about our loss is important as the acceptance will keep us from continuing to experience the absence of our loved one.  This continued feeling of loss can occupy our brains and keep us stuck in the past.  So,…

I have continued to wonder about why grief is often so crippling and difficult to resolve. It seems that many people get stuck focused on past memories of the loved one who has died.  I keep wondering why the memories have to be so painful.  As I thought about this I remembered that I have…

A recent JAMA[2014;311(12):1218-1224] study by Kypros Kypri, Ph.D. et al that used an internet based screening for alcohol abuse followed by random assignment to a brief intervention or no intervention. Those who screened positive for alcohol abuse [Alcohol Use Disorders Identifying Test AUDIT-C score > 4] either got only the screening or also 10 minutes…

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 Psychiatry [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…