I have decided to dedicate a post on Thursday to therapy, and offer you the many tips I have learned on the couch. They will be a good reminder for me, as well, of something small I can concentrate on. Many of them are published in my book, “The Pocket Therapist: An Emotional Survival Kit.“

My therapist keeps a large bowl of tootsie rolls on the table between my couch and her chair. I usually treat myself to two or three on the way out, because sometimes our sessions feel like I’ve just climbed Mt. Everest, or at least burned off 600 calories.

“You must really like tootsie rolls,” I said to her the other day upon leaving.

“No, I don’t,” she responded, “that’s why I buy them. Now if I bought Reese’s cups, I’d be in trouble.”

I always knew she was smart, my therapist, but that logic put her up there with Albert Einstein and Thomas Edison.

For me, buying tootsie rolls means avoiding people, places, and things that will trigger my competitiveness and manic streak … especially workaholics and overachievers. Because I will try to keep up with them, even as I’m out of breath.

Then I crash. My family has to pick up the pieces, which puts me in the doghouse. And too many nights in the doghouse leads to depression and anxiety.

For that reason, I don’t open an important file that is sent to me every Monday morning containing my blog traffic numbers, which of my posts were most popular, which sites are linking to me, and which key terms generate the most traffic. I’m sure it’s all interesting stuff, but I can’t go there … it’s a big Reece’s cup.