Armand DiMele breaks down what ‘crazy’ actually means, separating neurotic repetition (doing the same thing and expecting different results) from chemical and psychological states where a person loses touch with themselves entirely. He traces how fear of danger drives paranoia, withdrawal, and self-destruction.
Prolonged grief can quietly hollow out a life for decades. Linda Vanella, LCSW-R, describes her group work helping bereaved parents move a lost child from unconscious suppression into conscious memory. Nicole Alston, LMSW, shares her own stillbirth loss, two-year withdrawal from life, and how that experience led her to found the Sky Foundation and produce a documentary on infant death in the African-American community.
The most common New Year’s resolution, spending more time with family and friends, reveals a quiet seasonal depression and a fear of disconnection. Armand DiMele examines why friendships fade over time, how divorce, aging, shame, and shifting priorities pull people apart, and what it actually takes to stay connected.
Triangulation is both a normal developmental step and a source of lasting dysfunction. Armand DiMele traces how children get pulled into taking sides between parents, how gossip and confiding in friends repeat the same pattern, and why splitting the world into all-good and all-bad leaves people stuck. Callers share their own family triangle experiences.
Why do couples end up screaming about toothpaste? Armand DiMele argues that the real fight always happened days earlier and went unnoticed. He traces how unspoken irritation builds into passive aggression, how unmet needs distort perception, and why infidelity is often just an exit from a conversation nobody knew how to have.
Vainglory is subtler than plain boasting: the vainglorious person wraps genuine insight in passing self-flattery, steering every story back to their own greatness. Armand DiMele unpacks the pattern, argues it masks deep smallness, and makes the case for genuine humility as the rarer and more admirable quality.
Armand DiMele draws a sharp line between thinking and feeling, arguing that most people use thoughts as escape hatches from uncomfortable emotions. He introduces his FIB framework (feelings, impulses, behaviors) and explains how expanding your emotional range reduces obsessions, phobias, and depression.
Loneliness is not a feeling but a perception, Armand DiMele argues, shaped by how many connections we hold and whether we feel truly heard. With Linda Vanella, LCSW-R, he maps the spectrum from highly connected people to those who isolate as self-protection, and examines how shopping, affairs, and caretaking often mask the ache of disconnection.
Secrets shape every layer of life, from the truths we hide from ourselves to the ones buried inside families for generations. Armand DiMele examines why some secrets protect and others destroy, when revealing them heals, and when it causes further harm. Callers share their own long-held burdens.
Armand DiMele and Linda Vanella, LCSW-R, trace adult romantic patterns back to Mary Ainsworth’s infant attachment research, mapping secure, anxious, avoidant, and disorganized styles onto grown-up love. Callers share fresh breakups and repeating patterns, revealing how hard it is to outgrow the attachment wounds of childhood.
