Welcome to your inlaw’s emotional silverware drawer—where everyone’s a fork, but somehow all the tines are tangled together: What is an enmeshed family?

If you’ve ever felt like your in-laws operate like an exclusive club where membership requires full disclosure of your innermost thoughts and the ability to cancel all personal plans at a moment’s notice, congratulations! You’ve married into an enmeshed family system.

Coined by family therapy legend Salvador Minuchin, enmeshment describes a family dynamic where boundaries are non-existent, autonomy is considered treason, and personal decisions require committee approval. Love is abundant, but so is guilt—so much guilt.

If love were a stock market, we’d all be terrible investors.

We dive in at an all-time high, convinced we’ve struck gold, only to watch the market crash into a series of disappointments, mismatched socks, and arguments about which direction the toilet paper edge dishwasher should face.

And yet, despite the inevitable declines, we keep reinvesting in love like a bunch of optimistic fools.

A new study published in the Journal of Personality & Social Psychology confirms what anyone who’s been in a relationship longer than a Netflix trial already suspects: relationship satisfaction starts strong but fades over time.

This downward spiral is even steeper in relationships that eventually go up in flames.

And if you think jumping into a new romance will solve the problem—well, buckle up, because you’re just strapping yourself into another ride on the same emotional rollercoaster.

Once again, scientists have peered into the abyss of romantic entanglements and emerged clutching a surprising discovery: playfulness—the fine art of not taking oneself too seriously—might just be the glue that keeps couples together.

And not just together, but secure, happy, and slightly less likely to engage in 3 a.m. phone snooping missions.

A new study in Scientific Reports investigated how different flavors of adult playfulness relate to romantic attachment styles and good old-fashioned jealousy.

The researchers found that certain types of playfulness lead to more Secure Attachment styles, while others correlate with various flavors of jealousy.

Surprisingly, these trends held steady whether couples were mixed-gender or same-gender, suggesting that playfulness (much like jealousy) is a universal human quirk.

Now, we’ve long known that playfulness is a desired trait in romantic partners. If you don’t believe me, go scroll through a few dating app bios—right between loves to travel and seeks gym partner, you’ll find must have a good sense of humor.

Modern dating is no longer just about finding someone who shares your taste in pizza toppings or agrees that Die Hard is a Christmas movie.

No, gentle reader, it has evolved into a high-stakes game of psychological assessment, where your dating profile might as well include a diagnostic checklist.

As mental health awareness grows, individuals are placing greater emphasis on potential partners' emotional stability, therapeutic history, and overall psychological well-being. The question is, are we dating, or conducting intake sessions?

The flâneur is a figure of leisure, of deep observation, of someone who strolls through life—not aimlessly, but without the anxiety of destination.

Rooted in 19th-century Paris, the flâneur was the observer of the city, taking in its rhythms, its moments of beauty, its contradictions.

The flâneur did not seek to master or control their surroundings but to immerse themselves in the experience of being alive.

What if we loved in the same way?

Most people enter marriage with the unconscious hope that their love will be a safe harbor, a shelter from life’s storms.

And yet, life—being what it is—throws challenges at every couple: financial strain, parenting struggles, personal growth at different speeds, external temptations, illness, and the slow evolution of individual identities over time.

Many marriages are fragile—they crack under pressure.

Some are merely resilient—they endure difficulties but remain unchanged.

But an antifragile marriage? That’s something else entirely.

It’s a marriage that grows stronger because of adversity. Like a muscle that strengthens through resistance, an antifragile relationship thrives on stress, using hardship as fuel for transformation.

Evidence-based couples therapy for military personnel, veterans, and first responders addresses a profoundly unique set of challenges.

These relationships often endure intense external pressures, from prolonged separations to the lasting impact of trauma.

Therapists specializing in this niche are trained to navigate the intersection of occupational demands, cultural expectations, and relational needs, creating a pathway to resilience and connection for couples in high-stress careers.

If you’ve ever felt a twinge in your side, Googled your symptoms, and spiraled into a rabbit hole of rare diseases, congratulations—you’ve had a brush with cyberchondria.

This modern phenomenon combines the age-old anxieties of hypochondria with the limitless (and occasionally terrifying) power of the internet.

But where does this behavior come from? And how has our understanding of health anxiety evolved, both culturally and clinically?

Let’s explore the history, psychology, and quirks of cyberchondria, from its connection to hypochondria to its place in today’s mental health landscape, all while keeping it warm, witty, and slightly self-deprecating. (After all, we’ve all been there.)

If love is a battlefield, money is the strategic map.

Long-term marriages often juggle shifting roles, economic changes, and surprise curveballs (hello, 2008 recession!) that challenge how couples share financial responsibilities.

A fascinating new study published in Research in Social Stratification and Mobility peels back the curtain on financial dynamics in marriages, revealing that money matters are more egalitarian—and complex—than we might think.

Now that the holiday season has ended, and the credit cards bills start to arrive, let’s talk a little about shopping.

For some, it’s a delightful weekend pastime, a way to unwind and add a little sparkle to life.

For others, it’s a slippery slope into financial chaos and late-night existential crises over yet another online order of novelty socks.

If you’ve ever found yourself drowning in packages and wondering, Why am I like this?, science might have an answer: your executive functioning may be to blame.

A recent study published in Applied Neuropsychology: Adult found that compulsive shopping—aka shopping addiction—is closely tied to impaired executive functioning.

Simply put, those who can’t resist the siren call of “Add to Cart” might struggle with their brain’s ability to pump the brakes.

Let’s dive into what this means, why it happens, and how you can (maybe) stop buying another inflatable unicorn pool float you definitely don’t need.

What Is Compulsive Shopping?

Ever woken up from a nightmare so vivid that it felt like it dragged you through the emotional wringer?

You’re not alone.

While some of us snooze through the night like peaceful logs, others seem destined for nightly battles in the dream world.

So, what gives?

According to researchers, it boils down to two key psychological traits: thin mental boundaries and something intriguingly called nightmare proneness.

A recent study published in Dreaming delves into the mysterious mechanics behind frequent nightmares, and the findings are as fascinating as they are relatable.

The Nightmare Club: Who’s in It?

In every romantic comedy, there’s a montage of the couple doing cute things together—picnics, shared hobbies, synchronized bike rides through Central Park.

What you don’t see is the crucial subplot: Who’s losing themselves in this relationship and who’s thriving?

American culture has a love-hate relationship with individual identity in marriage. On one hand, we idolize independence (cue Beyoncé’s “Me, Myself, and I”); on the other, we cling to the idea that two people in love should merge into one gloriously entangled “we.”

But what happens when “we” devours “me”?

And how do we keep our sense of self while building a meaningful partnership?

As a couples therapist, I can tell you that neglecting individual identity within a relationship is like building a house on sand: it may hold up for a while, but sooner or later, massive cracks emerge.

Let’s dig into this topic, explore what the social science says.