Why do people take cocaine and other illegal drugs? The common answer is reward or pleasure. The feel good is different, the state seems better, making it wanted, until it becomes addictive. …

There is a recent story in The Globe and Mail, Canada will soon allow medically assisted dying for mental illness. Has there been enough time to get it right? detailing the new policy of medical assistance in dying for mental illness to commence, mid-March next year. This policy, already in…

Psychiatric drugs should be understood for their experience, rather than of just their cellular and molecular mechanisms. When a drug is useful for sedation or tranquility, that experience is given by the brain, and has its mechanism, underscored by molecules. There is a parallel of experiences of those medications, with…

If the brain could answer, how would it define mental health? Or, how does the brain decide mental health? What does it mean to be okay, as given by the brain and what does it mean to not be okay? The buck stops with the brain, no matter the diversions…

A key difference between the child and adult brain is that the child’s brain is close to or at 100% automatic process at birth, but controlled processes grow with weeks, months and years. Adults have a good percentage of controlled processes, where decisions can be made and thoughts can trace…

There is a recent article in The Conversation, The whole world is facing a debt crisis — but richer countries can afford to stop it, where it stated that, “One of the main reasons for this worrying scenario is that countries across the world are essentially compelled to borrow money…

There are several labels of the brain with no relationship to how the brain invariably functions. They are often used to define subjective experiences, heaping complexity against understanding of how the brain works. There is nothing like central executive function, working memory or short-term memory, default mode network, flow state…

Scientific American has a recent article, How to Stop Unwanted Thoughts, detailing how “memory suppression is an important coping skill.” It concludes with a quote, “You can reduce the frequency of thoughts by simply stopping them and they don’t tend to come back.” Thoughts are not the problem, neither is…

Talking about mental health is almost equated with talking about psychotherapy — or organized therapy. There are loosely therapeutic actions recommended in psychotherapy, including some often overlooked simple things. There have been lots of studies in recent years on things that seem to benefit mental health, including walking in nature…