Articles & Updates

Glenn Miller, M.D. is a weekly contributor to the Santa Barbara News-Press. His column, Healthy Mind – Healthy Future, can be found every Saturday on page A2. The topics for the column are often initiated by personal questions from the readership audience.

Body Dysmorphic Disorder

“You are not a helpless victim of your own thoughts, but rather a master of your own mind." - Louise L. Hay A reader of my weekly column recently wrote requesting I explore the issue of body dysmorphic disorder noting, “We have a family member suffering from this and it is destroying the person's life and greatly impacting...

Narcolepsy

"Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night" -- Edgar Allen Poe Narcolepsy is a chronic lifelong sleep disorder, and is a disorder of the nervous system, not a mental illness. Anxiety does not cause narcolepsy. While its cause is not well understood, it does tend to run in families, and the...

Oppositional Defiant Disorder

"We all walk on egg shells…I’m afraid to even talk about the weather for fear my comment about a how pretty it is outside will turn in to another disaster." – Unknown As those of us who are parents, teachers, or have spent any extensive time around children all know even the most well-behaved kids can be difficult and challenging at times. ...

Bullying

“You don't have to be the loser kid in high school to be bullied. Bullying and being picked on comes in so many different forms.” – Lady Gaga With our children heading back to school I thought it prudent to once again share a discussion on the topic of bullying first brought to the Healthy Mind – Healthy Future reader last...

Trichotillomania (Hair Pulling)

“But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.” – Bible, Matthew x. 30 According to The Webster Dictionary trichotillomania (pronounced: trik-oh-till-oh-may-nee-ah) is an abnormal desire to pull out one's own hair whether it be the scalp, eyebrows, eyelashes or other part of the body. It...