OCD is a physical brain disorder, not just a behavioral one. Armand DiMele and Stephanie D’Ambra, LCSW, examine the neural circuitry behind obsessive loops, explain why stuck thought patterns generate what Armand calls “brain burn,” and offer practical strategies for manually shifting gears to break the cycle.
What derails an otherwise simple conversation? Armand DiMele argues the culprit is usually physiology, not psychology. Drawing on the autonomic nervous system, he traces how sympathetic overload turns minor irritations into blowups, and teaches listeners to self-monitor their nervous state before engaging the people they love.
The vagus nerve, not exercise or meditation, may be the most direct route to calming stress. Armand DiMele draws on neuroscientist Stephen Porges’s polyvagal theory to argue that a genuine smile, social engagement, and facial muscle activation can switch the brain from threat mode to rest faster than a workout.
Too many patients leave the doctor’s office with a prescription they don’t need. Armand DiMele and two psychiatrists, Dr. Kent Robertshaw, MD and Dr. Alan Lanz, MD, argue that managed care, pharmaceutical incentives, and patients’ own reluctance to do the hard work of self-examination have combined to produce a culture of quick fixes over genuine healing.
Too little serotonin causes depression and PMS symptoms, but too much can kill you. Armand and Dr. Kent Robichaud, joined by Stephanie D’Ambra, LCSW, trace serotonin’s role in mood, the menstrual cycle, and the deadly drug combinations, including SSRIs, triptans, Demerol, and ecstasy, that can trigger serotonin syndrome.
Clutter is a habit; hoarding is an illness, and Armand DiMele draws a clear line between them. He traces hoarding to a fragile sense of self, fear of loss, and compulsive just-in-case thinking, then takes calls from listeners wrestling with their own accumulation and the anger and grief beneath it.
Helplessness and powerlessness are not the same thing, and the difference matters. Armand DiMele and Dr. Kent Robertshaw, MD, Psychiatrist, trace how powerlessness drives anxiety, social phobia, OCD, and addiction, while helplessness underlies depression, then offer practical steps for reclaiming a sense of agency.
Chronic stress, hostility, and depression are stronger predictors of heart disease than most people realize, accounting for a significant share of cardiac risk. Dr. Austin Hayes, a clinical psychologist working with cardiac patients at Mount Sinai, explains how personality, social isolation, and loss of control drive heart disease and how optimism and support speed recovery.
Sleep is rarely discussed in therapy, but your bedtime rituals reveal more about you than almost anything else. Armand DiMele walks through the psychology of sleep habits, shared beds, and disorders from insomnia and hypersomnia to sleepwalking and night terrors, then takes callers through their own sleep secrets.
Five years after 9/11, Armand DiMele examines how the attacks amplified whatever psychological vulnerabilities people already carried, driving surges in anxiety, sleep disorders, PTSD, extramarital affairs, addiction, and antidepressant use. Callers share firsthand accounts, including one man who found that volunteering broke his sense of helplessness.
