The Phrase of Doom
There is a phrase often used, and it has become all too accepted a phrase. I’m focusing on my experience with members of the Arab American community, who have lost the ways of our grandparents, who built wholesome families and shared their lives together. When men and women are looking to get married, they often ...
Marry a Partner, Not an Age Gap
Marriage is an institution that I deeply respect and cherish. Across cultures, there are so many variances to what a marriage ceremony looks like, and how spouses act toward one another, but there are so many common themes. On the macro level, marriage is a partnership, and depending on culture and tradition, specific or less ...
Concerns Regarding Michigan Marijuana Ballot Proposal
There is an important ballot proposal in Michigan this November, and it’s about legalizing the recreational use of marijuana. I have been asked by several people to opine on how they should vote on this proposal. As a psychiatrist who treats adolescents and young adults, I have my fair share of experience with recreational marijuana ...
From Decided, to Undecided, to Voting for Abdul El-Sayed
Politics is difficult for me to navigate, because I don’t like being beholden to a political template, political rhetoric, and I like to believe that human beings are multidimensional in that they do not fit nicely into categories. It’s ironic, because I am a psychiatrist, and we diagnose patients based on diagnostic criteria and categories. ...
Acculturation
A well-known model of acculturation comes from John Berry, a psychologist and theorist, famous for the four-fold model of acculturation strategies. He theorizes that immigrants and immigrant communities generally follow one of four strategies in adapting to their new community. They either assimilate, separate, integrate, or marginalize. Briefly, assimilation is when the immigrant or the ...
The Argeeli Romance
I was sitting in a café with a friend of mine. We both ordered our argeeli (another name for the hookah or shisha). These are water pipes, and are used to smoke flavored or straight tobacco. I ordered mine mint flavored, dried, with a glass of Perrier and he ordered a grape mint argeeli and a glass ...
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