Randy Kay, author of “Ben Behind His Voices,” joins Armand to trace her five-year journey recognizing her son’s gradual-onset schizophrenia. They examine how parents normalize early warning signs, why diagnosis so often comes only at crisis, and how education, NAMI, and redefining hope made recovery possible.
Family secrets don’t just hide the truth, they divide families, freeze emotional development, and corrode trust for generations. Armand DiMele and Linda Vanella, LCSW-R, walk through four ways secrets damage families and offer practical guidance on breaking destructive triangles, with callers sharing their own experiences.
Being ignored can wound, protect, or punish depending on who is doing it and why. Armand DiMele traces the impulse from passive aggression and childhood family dynamics to the shame many women feel at puberty, drawing on observations from Linda Vanella, LCSW-R, and calls from listeners navigating neglect in their own relationships.
Protecting others often masks an inability to protect ourselves. Armand DiMele and Linda Vanella, LCSW-R, unpack the Enneagram’s three instinctual drives (self-preservation, social, and sexual) as frameworks for understanding why we over-give, and callers share vivid stories of caretaking that costs them.
Fear sits in the body and shapes behavior in ways most people never examine. Armand DiMele breaks down the spectrum from everyday apprehension to phobia, terror, and paranoia, exploring how distrust functions as a form of fear, how the mind recreates the very dangers it dreads, and why common fears like public speaking and rejection can quietly run a life.
Why do some people seek danger while others avoid any uncertainty? Armand DiMele and Linda Vanella, LCSW-R, examine how risk perception forms in infancy, shapes adult behavior, and shifts with age. They trace the brain chemistry of thrill-seeking, the trap of compulsive avoidance, and why the mind is often the biggest obstacle to living freely.
Where do emotions come from, and do they follow us from childhood into old age? Armand DiMele draws on Darwin’s evolutionary theory of emotional expression and traces how traits like depression, anxiety, and hyper-excitability shift across the lifespan, with a close look at how caregiving and manic energy can spiral out of control over time.
Serotonin may not cause depression after all. Armand DiMele and Linda Vanella, LCSW-R, dig into why the serotonin hypothesis is crumbling and why neurogenesis, the growth of new brain cells, may better explain how mood shifts with age and how exercise, learning, and enriched environments can counter decline.
Most older adults are not depressed, not dependent, and not eager to move in with their children. Dr. Bernard Starr, PhD, Psychologist, joins Armand to dismantle those myths with research, and Linda Vanella, LCSW-R, weighs in on seniors who self-isolate. Hidden alcohol abuse, the loneliness of widowhood, and a bold proposal to tap elder wisdom in education all get airtime.
What is the real opposite of dependency? Armand DiMele argues it is autonomy, not independence, then unpacks the dependent personality with Linda Vanella, LCSW-R. The episode covers how dependency forms, how it fuels serial relationships and narcissistic dynamics, and why genuine autonomy must be a conscious choice rather than a reaction to fear.
