Dr. Payton

I continue to be amazed by all the different ways that post traumatic stress disorder [PTSD] symptoms can present themselves as my patients cope with the fears related to past traumatic experiences.  I have witnessed manic and psychotic symptoms, conversations with angels inside their head, hearing music coming from outside their brain, paranoid thoughts and overwhelming feelings…

I have previously blogged about this quote from de Saint-Exupẻry’s The Little Prince.  The full quote is, “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye.”  In the book, this quote is spoken by the fox and to the Little Prince after the fox has taught…

One of my patients told me a story that exists on the internet in a number of different versions of basically the same story.  The story revolves around a family going out to eat and the waitperson takes their orders and comes to the youngest child who says, “I’d like a hotdog and a coke.”…

I heard an interview on National Public Radio that aired March 11, 2016 [StoryCore.org] with Francois Clemmons.  Clemmons had been on “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood” for many years and he was the first African American to have a recurring role on a children’s TV show.  He shared that one day after hearing Mr. Roger’s say something…

Recently a number of my patients wondered if they were being too nice to some of their friends or family members. So what is too nice?  For that matter, what is nice? In exploring this further, it seems that being too nice is often connected to doing things for others that is really their responsibility…

For some reason I listened to Phil Collins singing “You’ll Be in My Heart” from the Tarzan movie.  After I listened to it I realized that I was singing to myself “I’ll be in your heart.” It seemed like a big difference and I wondered why I was doing this.  I will often follow my…

My patients have made it clear to me how important their feeling responsible for others is in maintaining PTSD symptoms. It seems that taking responsibility for others develops as a way of coping with abuse.  It makes sense in that people who are being abused are not being protected by adults around them and therefore…

Recently one of my patients said that they were being “too empathic.”  She was referring to being understanding of others even when it was stressful for her. She did not feel it was right to not say something or not encourage the others. In exploring this further, it seems that she was making excuses for…

I have been seeing similarities between young children and dogs.  This started after I had a number of patients talk about the benefits of owning dogs and how their dogs help them to feel calm and peaceful.  Some of my patients have used their dogs as “comfort” animals [like a “service” dog] and they tell…

My daughter and I just had a discussion about whether letting go is ever achieved by withdrawing from someone and giving up trying to help someone.  My daughter was sad to think that a solution to feeling responsible for others could be eliminating them from your life.  She felt that this would then seem to…