Thank you, Lindsey, for speaking out. Society is changing. No one should continue to believe powerful men (or women) can behave badly without consequences. The courage of each of those who share their stories will pave the way to a better future.

One challenge is figuring out new rules everyone can be aware of and follow. For so long, many in power believed their behaviors were acceptable as those who knew were at best silent, and often enabling. Those beliefs led to the end of my parents’ marriage more than half a century ago. …

Army Veteran Alex Sangster, 64, was barely surviving under a bridge when COVID-19 hit South Florida.

I often wondered about the memories that kept Mr. Sangster alive during the long days and nights he spent living under that bridge.

He’d served his nation at home and abroad during the final years of Vietnam, returning to Miami at a time of strife against which his honorable history of service and sacrifice offered little protection from poverty, discrimination, and the challenges of being a young black man without a job, money, or family who could help.

Drugs increasingly hijacked a life that…

He was good with boats.

Buford James Kelly wanted his Operation Sacred Trust Care Manager to know that when he reached our agency in May for an intake that he hoped would end the life of homelessness he’d come to know after his marriage broke-up and he’d left the marital home and partnership that had been the foundation of his life.

I’ve long respected and valued my many friends with diverse political views. I’ve kept in mind that we share similar ultimate aspirations, but have different ideas about how to achieve our shared goals.

Lately, that’s not how I’m feeling.

Seeing people challenge election results that have been validated by thousands of election officials of every political persuasion and through their elected state representatives, further validated by dozens of courts, including many judges appointed by President Trump, and having not a scintilla of evidence of fraud that could have impacted the outcome is a different story.

Those who continue to spread…

At first, holding grudges may have felt like a fortress that kept you safe. Later, grudges can become a prison of your own making.

There are at least six good reasons for holding grudges.

• Being right.
• A terrific story to tell.
• Sympathy from others.
• Don’t have to invest in a “lost” relationship.
• Still waiting for an apology.
• An excuse for the otherwise inexcusable.

The costs are typically greater.

No matter who the anger, pain or sadness is directed towards, the energy of those feelings live inside you. Grudges can keep you locked in a prison of your own making.

A…

Emotions are more intense in a mental health pandemic. Before handing your pandemic anger bill to a loved one, classmate, or colleague, be sure you know what those feelings are about.

Pandemic anger is seeping its way into homes, classrooms, and offices. It’s a central character in the mental health pandemic and can be as deadly as the coronavirus itself.

Pandemic anger comes from intense emotions bottled up that get taken out on others, typically those we most love.

It was all his wife’s fault

I’m reminded of a US Navy Chaplain at a PAIRS Professional Training.

His wife spent too much, gossiped too much, complained…

Ultimately and tragically, it’s this invisible infection silently mutating within millions of homes, classrooms and offices that will have the most far-reaching, lasting consequences for many families who were spared losses from the coronavirus itself.

In a mental health pandemic, upsetting feelings are widely suppressing potentially uplifting emotions across the population. The expression of upsetting emotions results frequently in pushing others away, causing cycles of isolation, increasing despair, loneliness, and loss, and ultimately leading to implosion or explosion.

With FDA’s emergency approval of the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccines that Alexandra Sifferlin wrote about Friday, we should be at the beginning…

Many military families struggle to access help that could save lives. Your voice can make a difference.

“If you are in pain, I think I should be able to fix it. I don’t know how or can’t fix it, so I feel guilty and inadequate. I can’t stand feeling that way, so I withdraw and distance myself from you, maybe even blame you, for being in pain.”

Thanksgiving is a time to be especially vigilant about the hidden expectations we’re carrying around and making sure they don’t creep up in ways that keep us from closeness with those who need us the most. …