A wonderful resource for carving out time for prayer and solitude is Jane Redmont’s book, “When in Doubt, Sing: Prayer in Daily Life.” I plan on interviewing Jane down the line because she struggles with depression herself and writes about how to pray when depressed, something I always struggle with. In her book, she offers […]
Today I have the pleasure of interviewing Michael Jawer, coauthor of “The Spiritual Anatomy of Emotion,” which you can read about at www.emotiongateway.com. He is an emotion researcher and expert on “sick building syndrome” and lives in Vienna, Virginia. I found his book incredibly intriguing and comprehensive. He dabbles in every topic you have ever wondered about in […]
Last week New York Times journalist Benedict Carey penned a powerful interview with Marsha M. Linehan, the developer of Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT). For the first time, the American psychologist opened up about her own mental struggle that began in her adolescence and continued through her early adult life. “So many people have begged me […]
Peter Brown, clinical professor of psychiatry at Brown University and a prominent mental health hero of mine, published an excellent piece in Sunday’s issue of The New York Times. As he has done in the past, he successfully debunks the debunkers. I think he’s improving at his game as the assaults against antidepressants grow more […]
Survivors of suicide often feel completely alone in their sadness, which is quite understandable. Unlike losing a husband or child or parent to heart disease or cancer, loved ones of person who have committed suicide can’t express their grief publicly. As often as suicide happens – approximately 30,000 times a year in our country alone—the […]
One of Beliefnet’s most popular galleries is “10 Inspiring Quotes for a Depressed Heart.” I’ve included several of them here. * “Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself. Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections but instantly set about remedying them — every day begin the task anew.” […]
Today I have the honor of interviewing Vivian Eisenecher, author of “Recovering Me, Discovering Joy,” and a sought after speaker, mentor and writer since 1996. Her other published works include articles for “Chicken Soup for the Soul” and Woman’s World. Her inspirational story has been enthusiastically received by churches, companies and corporations, national organizations and […]
I’ve talked about Joshua Wolf Shenk before because his book, “Lincoln’s Melancholy,” was deeply inspiring to me back in Fall of 2005. I remember the exact moment in which I heard excerpts of it. I was sitting in my son’s preschool parking lot, crying, feeling so hopeless … so I called my mentor, Mike Leach, […]
It is an honor for me to publish the following piece by Ronald Pies, M.D., professor of psychiatry at SUNY Upstate Medical University and Tufts University School of Medicine, because I find him to be one of the most fascinating psychiatrists in the Northern Hemisphere (I’m thinking the Southern is full of kooks). He always […]
Cicero said that “gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.” The English preacher John Henry Jowett wrote that “every virtue divorced from thankfulness is maimed and limps along the spiritual road.” And according to Aseop Fables, “gratitude is the sign of noble souls.” A dear professor of […]
“Sometimes you gotta go through hell to get to heaven.” That’s what Rocky said. Countless writers and philosophers agree with him. Kahlil Gibran writes this about pain in his classic, “The Prophet”: Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding. Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that its […]
On Veteran’s Day, I thought it was appropriate to site some statistics about veterans and mental health: Almost one in three veterans returning from Afghanistan and Iraq confront mental health problems. On an average day in this country, suicide claims another 18 veterans. Approximately 30 percent of veterans treated in the veterans health system […]
I call the 61 days between Halloween and New Year’s “the eating season,” because the temptation to snack on all kinds of crap is intrusive this time of year, with boxes of Belgian chocolate coming in with every client who has paid his bill, cocktail parties with egg-nog and Yule logs, enough pumpkin pie to […]
The other day I wrote a post on how to stay productive when you are clinically depressed. I mentioned that, at my rock bottom, I had to take a break altogether from writing, as every time I sat down in front of my computer, all I could do was cry. Moreover, because my concentration was […]
I found the following excerpt in Jack Kornfield’s new beautiful book, “A Lamp in the Darkness: Illuminating the Path Through Difficult Times.” One of the world’s greatest examples of how to survive difficult times is Nelson Mandela, the first president of modern South Africa. After twenty-seven years of imprisonment on Robben Island, he remained unbowed […]
“We would never learn to be brave and patient if there were only joy in the world,” wrote Helen Keller. How I wish she were wrong. Disappointments leave us with the unpleasant task of squashing, crushing, and pinching lemons to extract any and all juice. Here, then, are a few of my techniques to turn […]
When you are a recovering drunk, you don’t have a ton of options at parties. I used to be an avid Diet Coke drinker. But last summer my sister scared the well you know out of me when she started talking about what aspartame can do to your system. I am chemically sensitive as it […]
I think we’ve all been dissed by a friend at least once in our lifetime, right? Recently I’ve had two people remove me as a friend on Facebook. Like that feels good. Was it my annoying status updates? The singing video that I uploaded (“A Few of My Favorite Things” … check it out )? […]
I am republishing this piece from my archives today because a coworker just lost his son in a car accident last night. Please keep him in your prayers. Two boys went to bed with fevers last night. One is dead. The other is my David. I have to wonder if the guardian angels are vacationing […]
Thomas Craughwell has compiled a beautiful gallery of seven patron saints for healing and comfort. You can get to it by clicking here. I’ve included the first three. St. Anne: Patron Saint of Infertility According to a second-century apocryphal work called The Protoevangelium of James, Anne lived with her husband Joachim for many years […]
