Loved ones who are impacted by traumatic illnesses can suffer from the misperception that they are overly responsible for the health and well being of a patient. Feeling supremely liable when someone is sick has a similarity to those with PTSD.

Caretaking alone can time-consuming. As we know, however, caretakers often have formal employment. Whether caretakers are men or women, there needs to be better employment accommodations for our aging country.

Is this just one more example of how the wealthy get to remain well and live longer? The well-off can afford teeth cleanings and the exorbitant costs of periodontal care, such as gum grafting. But what about the majority of the population who cannot afford such care?

The field of medicine has a long and complicated history regarding the sensitive treatment of patients who are in pain. As many people with chronic pain know, some medical clinicians have tended to blame or pathologize people in pain.

In the specific context of chronic pain, the meaning of social support has to be modified. Social support is important for health and coping with pain, but the kinds of support provided matters a great deal.

Last week I had the pleasure of being at the American Psychological Association (APA) Meeting in Washington, D.C.  In addition to being surrounded by nearly 14,000 psychologists and having access to cutting edge presentations by some of the best clinicians and researchers in the field, something else amazing was going on. It was Shark Week.

No, this is not some clever and not so subtle metaphor about the APA. I am referring to the Discovery Channel’s annual week of programming about the lives of sharks and the humans who try to get to know them. After long days of meetings, I found myself captivated in the evenings watching sharks in all of their beautiful and terrifying glory. I saw real and simulated shark attacks (fake blood in the water looks really fake), learned how it is that sharks can do the damage that they do (serrated teeth and thrashing—it’s not just the bite), and gleaned insight regarding what to do to avoid a shark attack (stay out of the water).

Shark Week boasts 30 million viewers.  Apparently, I am not the only one who got caught by shark mania.  Why?