I have started to do some research on why Americans seem enthralled with guns. Hell, there's more guns in the U.S. than there are adults and children combined. And sales aren't stopping.
I have my own ideas why this is so but I'm sure there's other reasons that we may not hear mentioned on CNN and the other major news outlets.
It will be interesting to see what I find and I'm sure I'll find a lot that's interesting.
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It's seems that I am seeing more and more clients who are heavily stressed. And I realize that being stressed has always been part of the human condition. But going by the increasing numbers of people having depression and anxiety a good case could be made that people are more stressed now than in the recent past (the last 50 years).
My theory is that some part of that relates to us being in a society that is always on the go and rarely, if ever, rests. Couple that with jobs that seem to seep insidiously more into our lives over time and you have a recipe for stress, depression, and anxiety.
But America, as a whole, doesn't want to forego that recipe.
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An excellent book I've been reviewing is The Mindful Way through Depression: Freeing Yourself from Chronic Unhappiness, by Mark Williams, John Teasdale, Zindel Segal, and Jon Kabat-Zinn.
It is a well-written book that has a lot of common and psychological sense in it. I think a good summary might be, Overcoming depression is a slow process that involves tuning more into your body and what it is saying and working on ways to be more present to more of life.
Also, there is much wisdom here.
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I'm reading an excellent book on helping people who are highly ruminative, and consequently are depressed. The title of the book is Rumination-Focused Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Depression by Edward R. Watkins.
It is clearly written and has a wealth of information. It feels good to have someone who knows so much about this problem because I am dealing with it more frequently and feel like I am thrashing about and sinking.
I will keep you posted on my learning.
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I was reading some quotes on writing by Annie Dillard. I kind of liked them and I kind of didn't. They were jolting but, to a great extent, I didn't know what she was saying, even though part of me wanted to assume I knew, but I didn't.
Reading about writing is something I've done a lot of. Yet, too much of it can cause a lot of confusion, and a tad bit of misery. That is, it can start piling up--I guess if you don't start using the advice--and soon you have a brain full of stuff, like a hoarder's house.
I'm trying to clear out some things.
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