Scott Smith LCSW

27/11/2025

This is the best Internet listicle I’ve ever seen on this topic. I imagine it’ll p**s off some therapists (and some clients), but IYKYK…

50 Therapy Red Flags

Warning signs you may not be in expert hands.

24/11/2025

Researchers Colin Shaw and Daniel Longman argue that for nearly all of human history, stress came in short bursts, mostly in the form of predators popping out of the bush to obliterate us. If you were fortunate enough to survive, that was generally the end of your peak stress levels for the foreseeable future.

Now, there are lions everywhere. The lions are traffic jams, constant notifications, smartphones, etc. Our bodies respond to all of this exactly the way they were programmed to—by panicking like you’re about to be pounced on by a beast. And since there’s no off switch, we’re just marinating in stress hormones that are firing off nearly 24/7.

A new study warns evolution mismatch stress is breaking our bodies as modern life overwhelms an ancient stress response.

24/11/2025

Our findings show that when we see someone being touched, our brains quickly interpret what that touch might feel like. This fits with the idea that the brain briefly "mirrors" what it sees in others, simulating their experience as if it were our own.

This rapid, embodied response may form the basis of empathy, a process that helps us to recognize danger and connect socially.

Some people actually feel sensations such as tingling, pressure or pain when they watch others being touched – a phenomenon known as "vicarious touch". Understanding how the brain instantly decodes observed touch may help explain why seeing an image of injury or pain can make some people physically cringe while others remain unaffected.

Our next step is to explore how these rapid brain responses differ between people who experience vicarious touch and those who do not, which could help explain individual differences in empathy.

In the long run, understanding how the brain sees and interprets touch could help explain problems with empathy, improve therapies that use touch or body awareness, and enhance immersion and social connection in digital environments such as virtual reality.

Touch is fundamental to how we perceive our own bodies and connect with others.

22/11/2025

“Concept creep.”It's the idea that the labels we use to describe mental health are expanding and being applied to an ever-wider array of human behaviours.

If everything is traumatic, is anything traumatic? The power of labels - ABC listen https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/allinthemind/if-everything-is-traumatic-is-anything-traumatic/105872096

We've come a long way in how we talk about mental health. But while diagnoses like depression and anxiety can empower people to seek help and support — they also influence how we see ourselves and how others might see us, too. Today, we investigate 'concept creep.' It's the idea that the labels we...

22/11/2025

20/11/2025

19/11/2025

A combination of confusion, contradiction and loneliness – when Sam finally meets some of his online friends in the flesh, his joy is heartbreaking – suffuses every interaction James has with these young men. It is clear that none of them are evil or anything close to it. But they are adrift in a world that is changing in ways it is easy for them to believe are not for the better, and vulnerable to predators. They may not be being groomed by more powerful men for s*xual reasons, but there are plenty of other types of exploitation, many of which make them even more of a potential threat to others’ happiness and safety than they are to their own.

Mortified documentarian James Blake meets young men who have drifted towards misogynist influencers – and finds them lonely, heartbreaking and on ‘semen retention journeys’ to control their s*x drives

17/11/2025

“Some of us don’t understand what it is inside us that means we cannot be in the outside world, or be with other people, in an ordinary way. We haven’t yet worked through whatever traumas or unconscious conflicts keep us trapped in the past. We don’t have the capacity to digest our own feelings, so we cannot bear, never mind relate to, the feelings of others. Sometimes, if we cannot tolerate whatever emotions spontaneously develop within us, we fend off these feelings with screens or drugs or s*x or gambling or other self-harm, or work or sabotaging work or abuse of loved ones, and things get far more dangerous.

“Without psychoanalytic help, many of us are stuck in our own ordinary and devastating narcissism, unable to relate to ourselves or to others in meaningful ways. If we are blind to what is going on inside, we can’t look outwards to find solace and meaning in community, in the natural world, in work and in love. Meaningful therapy doesn’t indulge narcissism; it lights the way out of it.”

Are you stuck in ordinary - but devastating - narcissism? There is a way out - Guardian Australia https://apple.news/ATM8dSWP6TrmYSBwosTnSqw

Meaningful therapy offers a path past our worst impulses. We should be fighting for it to be available for everyone

17/11/2025

17/11/2025

The results revealed distinct patterns for each type of narcissism. Grandiose narcissism was linked to a broad range of s*xual interests, including both conventional (“normophilic”) s*x and fantasies involving power and dominance. In contrast, malignant narcissism was the strongest predictor of non-normophilic fantasies and behaviors, particularly those involving power dynamics (sa**sm, submission, humiliation) and intrusion (e.g., voyeurism).

Crucially, the study found that vulnerable narcissism showed no significant association with any of the s*xual fantasies or behaviors measured.

Not all narcissists are alike when it comes to s*xuality. New research shows that while grandiose narcissism is tied to dominant fantasies, the insecure, vulnerable type is not.

16/11/2025

Researchers from the University of Toronto say that while education is crucial, it may also trigger a mistaken belief that common issues that young adults face, like tiredness and irritability, are the symptoms of ADHD.

How ADHD awareness could lead to a false self-diagnosis | The Independent

A new study has warned that without intervention, ADHD education could cause many young people to wrongly diagnose themselves