Keyword: mood modification

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The Neuroscience of Feeling and Numbness with Dr. Sherry Siegel July 22, 2009

Host: Armand DiMeleGuests: Sherri Siegel
Category: Emotions & Inner Life, The Mind & Neuroscience

Armand DiMele and Dr. Sherry Siegel, M.D., a neurologist, unpack alexithymia, the inability to identify or express emotions, tracing it from spinal reflexes to brain chemistry. They explore how trauma and abuse can shut down feeling as a survival mechanism, why couples clash over emotional expression, and how hormones and neurotransmitters shape what we feel.

The Mood of Depression November 20, 2008

Host: Armand DiMele
Category: Depression & Mood, Society, Culture & Current Events

When a whole society swings from irrational exuberance to despair, a collective numbness sets in. Armand DiMele maps the symptoms of this shared depression and explores how people seek relief through crisis, romance, aggression, music, and nature, drawing on caller stories to illustrate what genuinely lifts the spirit.

Mood Modification and Addiction August 16, 2006

Host: Armand DiMeleGuests: Kent Robertshaw
Category: Addiction & Compulsion, Emotions & Inner Life

Every addiction is really a mood management strategy. Armand and Dr. Kent Robertshaw, MD, Psychiatrist, walk through the core components of addiction, salience, mood modification, tolerance, and withdrawal, using gambling, shopping, cigarettes, alcohol, and internet use to show why substances and screens feel easier than people, and what actually helps someone stop.

Food as a Drug Undated

Category: Addiction & Compulsion, Emotions & Inner Life

Food is not just fuel for many people but a mood-altering drug, and Armand DiMele argues the difference is rooted in brain chemistry and early conditioning. Drawing on research into serotonin, sugar dependency, and stress eating, he shows how grief, anger, and childhood comfort rituals wire us toward specific foods.

Your Brain on Radio and Television Undated

Host: Armand DiMeleGuests: Roberta Moriarty
Category: Addiction & Compulsion, The Mind & Neuroscience

Turning on the TV after work is a chemical event, not just a habit. Armand and co-host Roberta Moriarty trace how screen watching shifts the brain from the neocortex to the limbic system, floods the body with endorphins, and makes media figures feel like family members. They also argue that the current younger generation, raised on interactive media, is escaping the passive hypnosis that shaped baby boomers.