Thank you so much to those of you who contacted me individually after seeing my post yesterday (I also posted on Facebook and Twitter). It really means a LOT to me when someone tells me that they're sorry I'm going through a depression. It makes me feel like someone's...
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...
I envy those whose pain is socially appropriate. If someone's walking into walls, red-eyed and unable to concentrate, we excuse that if we know her dad just died or she's going through a divorce. We also give people some slack if we know they're having a bad day with...
Easter Sunday usually depresses me, but last year, for the first time in my life, it didn't. Why? Our dog Ozzie seemed to make the difference. Between doing some volunteer work and taking care of our new dog, I made it to the end of Easter 2012 with no feelings of...
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...
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...
What causes a depressive episode? Not staying on the meds consistently enough? Actual external events? Random fluctuations of body chemistry? For those of us with chronic depression it can feel like the trigger is nothing that's within our control and that leads us to...
Thanks to Jess Young for directing me to an article published on TheRumpus.net called "In Praise of Depression." I might be able to get behind the idea of praising depression, but I didn't quite follow all of Katherine Sharpe's argument, although I liked her...
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...
Thursday, October 6th is National Depression Screening Day in the U.S. Millions of Americans suffer from depression and don't even know it. We assume we're in a bad mood because of our crappy jobs or lack thereof, or any of a hundred reasons. We assume everyone would...
Dr. Nassir Ghaemi, who runs the Mood Disorders Program at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts USA, has published a book that links strong leadership ability, especially in times of crisis, with mental illness. Equally remarkable is the hypothesis of A...
Here is how I'm different: I'm smiling more, laughing more and talking more. I sleep well and my daytime energy is great. I worry less, even while my personal life has recently increased in stress. At times this new peace has been unsettling because I'm not used to...
I am grateful to feel grateful at all. This has been a very hard year even though Bob and I weren't even dealing with a financial crisis or losing a home or anything like that. But obviously major surgery causes its own kind of stress. My depression depleted my...