The payoff for us is that we don't have to wait 20 years for pharmaceutical companies to come up with the appropriate meds. We can get to work on this right now.

Ah, the "recovery connection." If overstimulating our fear-stress circuits poses a major risk to our mental health, then working to manage our stress becomes a high priority. Being dealt a bad genetic hand needn't disable us, so long as we're smart enough to play our cards right.

This is my cue in my talk to mention a few things that work well for me. "Mindfulness" will get special mention in my presentation - the ability to stay microscopically attuned to subtle shifts in our thinking and moods and emotions and behaviors and energy levels and to make the necessary adjustments before the situation spirals out of control. Sometimes the solution is as simple as "stopping to smell the roses."

Virtually all of modern talking therapy is based on mindfulness, which dates back from the time of the Buddha 2,600 years ago. Throw in yoga and other ancient wisdom and who needs medical science?

Correction: Modern science is actually validating the ancients and other common knowledge. Not only that, modern science is unequivocally showing that we can literally remodel our own brains using mindfulness and yoga and other techniques. Our fear-stress brain circuits need not incapacitate us, and I'm willing to get up and prove precisely that point before a live audience.

That's something I think everyone needs to know. Don't you?

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I will be speaking at the DBSA conference in Orlando, being held Aug 10-12. I look forward to seeing you there, and to meeting as many of you as I can.

For registration and program details, please check out the DBSA website.