Dr. Kim Lannon discusses and injury she's dealing with as she faces her 8th Boston Marathon, and balancing between self-diagnosis and advocating for yourself when dealing with the health professionals in your life. It's important to understand, and have a say in your diagnosis and treatment, but listening too much to "Dr. Google" often leads to anxiety and trouble. This episode talks about your role in your own physical health, what it should be, and what roles are counterproductive.

Dr. Kim Lannon walks down several paths in this episode, starting with the psychological underpinnings of curses and touching on the balance between focusing on the internal factors and external factors in your life, learning that what is said is not often exactly what is heard, and revisiting Will Smith and Chris Rock.

Dr. Kim Lannon works through the Oscars fiasco between Will Smith and Chris Rock as a way to describe what happens when you are dealing with emotional dysregulation. Then she applies some of the same principles to family situations and family emotional issues that lead to similar incidents that always seem to be part of many families' histories and lore.

Dr. Kim Lannon talks about Narcissism, how it presents and how to deal with it, and then the discussion turns to the similarities and differences between the narcissist and someone dealing with Borderline Personality Disorder.

Dr. Kim Lannon talks about not being able to say "no". We all have relationships where we experience problems saying no. Sometimes those are the only kind of relationships we have. Sometimes we have trouble at work saying no. Sometimes those are our most significant relationships. But those relationships are always problematic and always, it seems, the problem is rooted both with you and with the other person in the relationship. Dr. Lannon talks about the causes and the potential cures in situations and relationships where you can't say no!

Many of us struggle with trying to control things that are out of our control, like the way other people treat us and talk to us. We try to change them when their behaviors towards us have much more to do with their deep-rooted issues about themselves than anything to do with us. The real problem is the power that we hand them over the way we feel about ourselves, and it's a good thing that that is the problem because that is something we do indeed have control over. We just need to learn how to use it. 

Personality challenges, such as Borderline Personality Disorder and yes, Narcissism, have a clinical diagnosis of course but they aren't zero-sum conditions. It's not that you have them or you don't. You, and everyone you deal with, has some of these traits to some degree. Dealing with them in others and even within yourself takes a toll. How much of that damage accumulates, lingers, and affects your day-to-day mental health is usually determined by your awareness of these conditions and the strengths from which you respond. Dr. Kim Lannon spends this episode helping with your awareness of the roles these disorders play in your life. 

Dr. Kim Lannon continues her discussion from last week's episode about codependency, this week talking about how it can relate to the treatment of our physical and mental health concerns. Often the differential of power between us and our medical professionals can pressure us to suspend our self-advocacy at the exact time when we need to protect our self-interests the most. This is especially true when we are seeking help for our children. Dr. Lannon talks about balancing the help with these matters that we need to seek out, with the importance of doing what is right for us and our children.  

Dr. Kim Lannon had a rough morning, and we talk about that before she dives into codependency. It's not a problem that is limited to addiction. Codependency is likely a part of everyone's emotional stew, but our awareness of it, and skills to deal with it, can help us keep it from becoming a major, and sometimes a crippling emotional problem.

Dr. Kim Lannon, in a wide-ranging episode, talks about struggles with attention deficits and the part that diets play in dealing with them. Awareness and understanding what you have control over, and how to exert that control, are often keys to living a healthier, happier life.