Author: Overcoming Adversity | Buteau’s Odyssey

Women have higher rates of anxiety than men (McLean et al., 2009), but there may be more to this picture than innate biological differences. In my work as a clinical psychologist, I have come to observe that for many women with chronic baseline anxiety, what is being masked is anger. It can take several months of therapy as I give them permission to explore their real feelings, opinions, judgments, and desires before finding that the anxiety dissipates, and underneath is rage. Rage that their partners and families ask too much of them. Rage that their workplaces ask more from them…

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I recently had the privilege of serving as a committee member of a doctoral dissertation at Grand Canyon University. The candidate was Crystal Tutein, a disaster recovery official with the American Red Cross who lives in St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Her research examined senior disaster relief officials who survived Hurricanes Irma and Maria while simultaneously leading recovery efforts for their community. It was one of the most compelling research studies I’ve reviewed in my career. Not just because of the dramatic stories of the individuals. But because Tutein’s research surfaced something the literature had rarely explored before.…

Why “alignment” not “balance”?This theme moves beyond awareness to encourage practical steps for better mental health for ourselves, others, and society. The focus is on taking action to prevent people from becoming unwell and reducing stigmaFor years, the concept of work-life balance has been the gold standard; the aspiration we’re all supposed to be chasing.Here’s where it gets a little tricky – balance assumes work and life are two equal weights sitting on opposite ends of a scale. Lean too far either way, and suddenly everything feels like it’s falling apart. It’s an image that casts work and life as…

You wake up exhausted. You glance at the clock and realize the meeting you were supposed to be at started 15 minutes ago. Instantly, shame floods in. You imagine what your coworkers will think when you arrive late yet again, having missed something important. For many people living with narcolepsy, this is not an occasional inconvenience. It is daily life. Narcolepsy is a chronic neurological disorder that disrupts the brain’s regulation of sleep and wakefulness. While popular culture often portrays narcolepsy as someone suddenly collapsing asleep mid-sentence, the reality is usually far more subtle—and significantly misunderstood. People with narcolepsy may…

The early-season dust has settled, but the trade market is already heating up as front offices across the league begin to separate the contenders from the sellers.Here are the latest whispers and trade rumors currently shaping the 2026 MLB Trade Deadline.May 10Giants exploring trades for multiple high-priced veteransThe San Francisco Giants could be headed toward a fire sale after a sluggish 16-24 start that has them sitting fourth in the National League West. The Giants are exploring ways to move several major contracts as they look toward the future, according to USA Today.That includes the remaining money owed to Jung…

Graduation season is often framed as a moment of celebration. Students have persisted through years of academic work, personal sacrifice, financial pressure, and for many, the lingering effects of the pandemic. As commencement approaches each year, I find myself excited for graduating students while also curious about how they will enter a workforce that feels increasingly uncertain and rapidly changing. In conversations with graduating seniors, I hear a mixture of pride, anxiety, and excitement about completing college alongside concern about stepping into a professional world that feels unfamiliar and unpredictable. For the graduating classes of 2026, that uncertainty feels significant.…

The phone still rings for a while. Then it rings a little less. Then you notice you are checking it differently than before. Then one morning, you realize the version of yourself everyone called, consulted, deferred to, and needed is no longer on the other end of the line. And nobody prepared you for that. Not even close. This is not a post about retirement, a word the people it concerns would bristle at. What happens to people who spent decades being indispensable when that indispensability ends? The surgeon who was medicine. The lawyer who was the case. The executive…

In previous posts, I wrote about the phenomena of re-victimization reenactments based on my recent book, Putting the Past in the Past. But there is another type of reenactment—when a former victim of childhood abuse or neglect ends up treating others, specifically their own children and/or their partners, the way they were treated growing up. In this post, I will explain why and how this occurs. Not everyone who experienced abuse or neglect as a child repeats what was done to them, but unfortunately many do. Studies suggest that about one-third of those who were physically or sexually abused or…

“Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson The prevailing view of romantic love treats passion as its defining force—far more central than patience, which is often dismissed as emotionally lukewarm or lacking desire. But is this hierarchy justified? Two Opposing Emotional Systems “Patience is not passive; on the contrary, it is concentrated strength.” — Edward G. Bulwer‑Lytton Passion is commonly defined as an intense emotional state—such as sexual desire, love, or anger—whereas patience refers to the capacity to remain calm in the face of delay or difficulty. At first glance, these qualities appear fundamentally…