Mental health resources, suicide hotlines? If you need help now, call a 24-hour crisis center at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or 1-800-SUICIDE (1-800-784-2433) for free, private help or dial 911. These are unnerving times. I know that the past few months have transformed my thinking about what is normal. Things I take for granted are now not available. … [Read more...] about What Are We Searching For in This Pandemic?
What depression has cost me
If I’m OK, Why am I Gaining Weight?
I do not have COVID 19, but I do have MDD. My relationship with depression is much more defined than it was a year ago. Just before I went into the hospital, I was so stressed that I was having trouble eating. My weight dropped appreciably, and I had to force myself to eat anything at all. Jump forward to today, and I am eating everything in sight. I read an article … [Read more...] about If I’m OK, Why am I Gaining Weight?
Depression and I Are on a First-Name Basis
It’s a disease after all. It can’t exactly be the enemy, because it is a part of me. Trying to understand how to frame my relationship with depression has been complicated. Not only is it a disease, but it is also a mental health issue. That makes it nowhere near as straight forward as cancer. Or today, Covid19. Yet there are … [Read more...] about Depression and I Are on a First-Name Basis
People Thought I Was Dead
That is a very sobering thought. Six weeks after getting out of the hospital, I finally contacted my mentor. He had been checking the obituaries. And while I had stayed in touch with another person for over two years, I fell off the grid last summer and stopped responding to her emails. I had the nerve, finally, to reach out today. Here’s what she wrote: I am … [Read more...] about People Thought I Was Dead
With Depression in Full Bloom, I was a Mess Last Year.
I guess in many ways I still am. I am learning how to live with depression after avoiding facing it for over 43+ years. I had a whole system in place to protect myself from the truth. I lived through at least four major episodes before winding up in the hospital a year ago. That marked the turning point in my relationship with depression. Now I am on a first-name … [Read more...] about With Depression in Full Bloom, I was a Mess Last Year.
