Consider the following story as it relates to this week’s topic. I swear it’s going to be a few weeks before everyone stops talking about the Vikings vs. Saints game that aired this past Sunday. I mean, the guys and I couldn’t believe our eyes! How do you miss a tackle, take out your own teammate and allow a touchdown, all in one play in the dying seconds of a game? As soon as we saw Marcus Williams’ mistake, we couldn’t stop jumping and screaming! We got so rowdy that some of the wives came into the garage to see what...

Read More

My husband and I went to our anniversary dinner last night and had a great time! We talked about the last year, our goals for the future and even about the possibility of having kids! We’re both really excited, but just as we were discussing a family, we looked up to a sea of kids sitting with their families, with their faces glued to their phones. Now, I know smartphones are a huge part of life nowadays, but it was quite surreal to see so many glowing faces interacting with their screens but not their parents. We talked about potentially...

Read More

I consider myself to be a pretty calm and relaxed individual, but throughout my life, I’ve always had difficulty dealing with anger. It’s not so much that I always lash out when I’m angry (I rarely do this), it’s more that I have trouble getting over things that anger me. For example, last month, my sister made a passing comment during a family get-together where she poked fun of my blouse. It seemed like harmless fun but it was said in front of many people who laughed. At first, I was embarrassed but then I became angry. Rather than talk...

Read More

I woke up at 3:00 AM the other morning, and while I know this is not good for getting back to sleep, I grabbed my cell phone. Of course, I ended up perusing Facebook and saw a post from a dear friend. She noted that she’d posted the previous day on the topic of #MeToo. “…Me too. And on and on and on…if all the women who have been sexually harassed or assaulted wrote "Me too" as a status, we might give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem...

Read More

Consider the following story as it relates to this week’s piece. I started college this past August and can honestly say that it gets overwhelming at times. With projects, studying and being so far from home, it’s starting to get to me. There will be times where I’ll be sitting in my dorm doing work and all of a sudden, I’ll start thinking about home, my parents and my friends. Sometimes I just break down and start crying. I visited the school’s counseling center and the psychologist working there pointed out that I might be dealing with depression brought on by...

Read More

Mental illnesses can unfortunately affect more than just the person diagnosed with the issue. Families, friends and even coworkers can often experience their fair share of emotional pain as a result of a loved one’s ailing mental health. Yet, despite its reach and prevalence, mental illness is still surrounded by a thick veil of stigma and misunderstanding that’s widespread to this day. [bctt tweet="Mental illnesses can unfortunately affect more than just the person diagnosed with the issue. " username="ricepsychology"] In 1990, the U.S. Congress recognized the efforts of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) by creating Mental Illness Awareness Week (MIAW),...

Read More