It takes me down. It takes me right down and I have no idea what the trigger was. What's the reason for this bleak mood? Maybe there isn't any. I've fallen and I can't get up. Even sugar won't be my friend these days. It's stopped helping, leaving me locked in an...
Lindy West's Ladies Be Moody: The Sad Sack Women of Anti-Depressant Commercials makes a few excellent points, but this is my favorite: depression does not only manifest as low-energy sadness that saps you of your will to get out of bed. That's one way it can...
Previous post on weight & health: Someone asked me about being pregnant Jen Larsen gives a stunningly honest account of her weight loss through surgery in Stranger Here: How Weight-Loss Surgery Transformed My Body and Messed with My Head. With a publication...
Me, age 2 Previous post on weight and health: Thin or happy? It might really be a choice Yesterday I was feeling bad because I outgrew another pair of pants and was down to one skirt that was appropriate for the workplace that I could wear comfortably (now I've...
From my favorite bakery ever: Central Continental Bakery in Mt. Prospect, Illinois USA. I have very specific tastes when it comes to cake and this bakery is the only one I've ever found that makes my personal ideal of what white buttercream frosting should taste...
(Can you find the dog in this photo?) Previous post on this topic: Gaining 25 pounds in 3 months I want to be part of the fat acceptance movement, but I'm having doubts. The 25 pounds I put on since October have added to and subtracted from my happiness. I love...
Sitting in my weekly EFT tapping circle, I tapped as I listened to topics like family dynamics, self-nurture and the feeling of not being good enough. As I tapped, my feelings of not being good enough and being too fat, grew. "I really hate myself," I thought, as I...
A one-on-one session with Lili Betancourt has melted the frozen suppressed anger that’s had me down (see yesterday's blog photo). Locked into emotions I couldn’t release on my own, unable to focus or function, I made an emergency appointment for her powerful blend of...
The Black Dog by Regina Rodríguez-Martin I took this photo with my Macbook Pro. It's me with a black dog and another black dog ("black dog" is a metphor for depression). I felt very alone when I took this even though I wasn't quite alone.
The owner of the dog lay in bed until after 10:00 a.m. with the dog's body curled up next to hers in the blankets. After a brief phone call, she began to weep loudly. The dog, still in his relaxed position, pricked up his ears. At the first shriek, the dog's head...
At my workplace we use Microsoft Outlook. Recently we upgraded to a version that can attach your photo to your emails as a kind of visual signature. All staff have been encouraged to voluntarily submit a head shot that will be uploaded to the system in the next...
Want to see if you have face blindness or prosopagnosia? Go here and take a test. It won't definitively tell you, but might give you an idea. I need lots of extra time to memorize just one face (like weeks or months). Until I finally get a face down, I rely heavily on...
Dear Jennifer, It was nice to meet you the other day. Again, welcome to your new job. I like working here a lot. I’ve been here four years and hope to be here for about 15 more. Please keep in mind that I have a condition called prosopagnosia which means I don’t...
I get the opposite of what many people get. Seasonal Affective Disorder hits during the colder months when there's less light, but those aren't my worst months. My worst months often happen in the summer. Some of my most serious depressions have started in June, July...
I recently gave a speech in my Toastmasters club that had the same title as this post. I based it on a post I published eight years ago on this blog. I reprint the text of that June 20, 2004 post here because it's an important message (the text is slightly edited and...