The Ebola crisis. Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. ISIS. It doesn’t take much these days to arrive at a panicked state. Not if you stay abreast of news headlines. Nine years ago, when I had my first mental health breakdown, I realized that my psyche was way too fragile to absorb detailed updates about the turmoil...

In his classic bestseller, “Man’s Search for Meaning,” psychiatrist and holocaust-survivor Viktor Frankl explains that among the first things that he had to do once he arrived at Auschwitz was to surrender his clothes. This is humbling in itself, of course. But this was extraordinarily painful for Frankl, because in the jacket of his coat...

“Each depression,” some wise person told me, “has it’s own gift.” I didn’t understand at that moment. But now I do. My first breakdown shattered my pride so that I could write from the heart. My second depression shattered my bitterness, so that I could learn to connect with others who feel pain like I...

You’d never suspect this by listening to pharmaceutical ads, but only one-third of people with major depression get better after trying an antidepressant. The others go on to try different drugs, or combinations of medicine and psychotherapy, and usually seven in 10 achieve remission. The other third? They are labeled with the three most dreaded...

Every year, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation holds a Fail Fest, where they celebrate a valuable lesson they learned while investing moneys into a loser organization that has absolutely bombed . According to this brilliant team, failure is chock full of wisdom—one of the most effective way to absorb key insights—so it’s best to...