Conditions understood.
ADHD, anxiety, depression, PTSD, bipolar, addiction. Plain explanations, not textbook copy.
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Jump straight to the one you want, instead of scrolling. 25 conditions, each linking to everything we have written on it.
The Difference Between Depression and Just Being Sad
Not every bad day is depression and not every hard week means you need medication.
May 21, 2025
Alcohol Use Disorder diagnostic criteria
Most guys who have alcohol use disorder don’t think they have it, because they think alcoholism means falling-down-drunk and missing work, and they’re not doing that. They’re functional,…
May 19, 2025
Sleep, Stress, and Your Brain
Sleep deprivation isn't something you can think your way out of. Chronic stress and five hour nights make everything else on your psych chart worse.
May 18, 2025
Complicated Grief / Prolonged Grief Disorder
Prolonged grief disorder made it into the DSM-5-TR (the most current version of the psychiatric diagnostic manual) in 2022, and the diagnosis is useful…
May 17, 2025
Burnout (ICD-11)
Burnout picked up an actual ICD-11 (the international diagnostic codebook used outside the U.S.) designation in 2019, and the conversation since then has…
May 14, 2025
You mad, bro?
A lot of guys think anger is the problem because anger is the part everybody sees...
May 11, 2025
PMDD (for the partners who live with it)
This one's for the husbands, because most of the guys who come in with a wife who has PMDD (premenstrual dysphoric disorder, the severe, predictable mood…
May 11, 2025
Persistent Depressive Disorder (Dysthymia)
Persistent depressive disorder, what used to be called dysthymia, is the diagnosis for guys who've been depressed for so long they don't remember what…
May 9, 2025
Bipolar I vs Bipolar II vs Cyclothymia
These three diagnoses get confused constantly, including by clinicians, and the difference matters because the treatments diverge in important ways.
May 6, 2025
Loneliness as diagnosable risk factor
Loneliness isn't a DSM diagnosis and nobody's going to pretend it is, but it functions like one in terms of risk, and the data on it for middle-aged men…
May 3, 2025
Narcissist diagnosis misused: clinical reality
The word narcissist has been so thoroughly hijacked by TikTok and pop psychology that you can't use it in a clinical conversation anymore without first…
May 1, 2025
Sleep apnea + depression in middle-aged men
If you’re a guy in your forties or fifties who feels depressed, exhausted, foggy, and irritable, and the SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor, the most common antidepressant class,…
Apr 28, 2025