Catherine Shanahan's Deep Nutrition asserts that what our mothers ate even before they were pregnant with us affects how our bodies grow and our capacity for health. Likewise, the model for relationships that our caretakers provided when we were children affects how...
And on days when I’m not feeling as content as my last post indicates, I mourn the end of my marriage. My marriage only lasted five years, but it was good and now it’s over. I cry and tap and cry and let the grief pass through.
Guess what, everybody? There's an upside to having bipolar disorder and depression! Dr. Nassir Ghaemi runs the Mood Disorders Program at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts USA. His book, A First-Rate Madness: Uncovering the Links Between Leadership and...
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...
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...
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...
In a talk he gave at Cornell University in 1993, Chicano actor Edward James Olmos said that seeing movie while it's in the theater is like casting a vote. Ever since, I've tried to get myself to the theater when I feel a movie is very important, in spite of the motion...
I appreciated the moment of silence the country observed this morning as 26 chimes of a bell honored those who were killed last week on the school grounds of Sandy Hook Elementary School. I heard some used the number 27 to include Nancy Lanza, the mother of the...
I shouldn't like FX's second season of American Horror Story. I'm sensitive to negative portrayals of people with mental illness and can't stand when emotional and personality disorders are associated with violence and horror. But this is a hard show for me to...
One stunning side effect of my recent achievements in self-nurturing and loving myself is that my digestion has improved. I've struggled with self-loathing behaviors and low self esteem my whole life, but my digestion only started having real problems a few years ago....
Mental health days are a great idea. That's what some poeple call those days when you're just feeling burned out and overwhelmed and you call in sick to work because you need to take care of your spirit and morale. It's a perfectly legitimate use of a sick days,...
Disclaimer: since I've become properly obese, I re-read these old posts and see my body dysmorphia and obsession with food and weight. It's sad to me now. Previous post on fatness. I've worked hard for decades on my negative thinking and self-punishing behaviors. With...
I wish my problem were sleep walking or talking in my sleep. Instead, in the past few months, I've developed the behavior of waking up in the middle of the night screaming. Yes, I wake up at the top of a piercing shriek, with my mouth wide open and a light sweat...
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...