Lately, I’ve been wondering what to do about my face. I took a new job last year, one that relocated me from a clinic in Uptown, Chicago to a community health center in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I’ve noticed that women at my current job wear much more makeup than women…

In 2010 I quit a job in a dramatic way, having reached the threshold of how much bullshit I could accept from the tedious, entry-level positions that a bachelor’s degree in psychology afforded. It was one of many case management positions I held in New York that sent me to…

Like a rodent in the sand, I am deaf to her approaching appetite. The fork of tongue rouses me at three; blurry-eyed and breathless, I am indefensible. Can you milk me, Greg? Can you milk me?Martinlawrencemartinlawrencemartinlawrence. Corral doors open and this demon takes to the race. How about arranging all…

“White rice and water,” my doctor clarified, after I asked what, exactly, he meant by elimination diet, “nothing else. For three days.” My reason for seeing Dr. Schwartz that day was the same as it had been the past three visits: constipation and abdominal bloating that left me feeling (and…

“I am embarrassed to be here.” “I really didn’t want to come today.” “I’m worried you’ll tell me I’m crazy.” “I should have done this years ago.” These are some of the most common things patients tell me at the beginning of their first psychiatric visit with me, because, let’s…

Have you heard the one about the shy college student who stayed on campus for the holidays and was befriended by the beautiful girl down the hall? How each day they spent together, with each playful slap and private joke exchanged, he fell deeper in love with her? Can you…

My father’s incarceration didn’t provide the redemption I expected—or the relief I still crave — I wasn’t surprised when I got the call that my father had been arrested on drug charges—honestly, I couldn’t believe it took as long as it did. Instead, I felt let down, disappointed that the experience of him getting caught wasn’t as redemptive as I had imagined it would be. …