I haven’t read many paragraphs that articulate depression as accurately as this one, in Martha Rhodes’s riveting memoir, 3000 Pulses Later: At that moment, my pain felt equal to—if not even more than—what I imagined any physical illness could pose. The constant anxiety, sadness, fear, and despair strangled me. I felt inexorably alone and as...
I used to call the night we turn back the clocks for Daylight Savings Time my “Armegeddon” because it felt as though the darkness of winter descended on that very day—the depressing feeling when you pick up your kids from sports practice in the afternoon or leave your office and it’s already dark. I realize...
When I was six months pregnant, I attended a birthing preparation class with my husband and about twelve other expectant parents. During the fifth session, the instructor asked the mothers whether or not they were going to use medication to get through the pain of childbirth labor. “Everyone who wants to try for a natural...
According to research by Harvard Medical School and other studies, one-third of people with major depression do not achieve remission after trying multiple combinations of antidepressants and other psychotropic medications. Many persons with treatment-resistant depression cannot afford alternative therapies like transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), vagus nerve stimulation (VNS), ketamine infusion,...
Ever since I started an online community and foundation for treatment-resistant depression—depression and anxiety that doesn’t respond to psychotropic medications—I’ve been inundated with mail from desperate people who have tried 30 and 40 different kinds of antidepressants and feel no relief. I repeatedly hear from family members of folks who have tried everything and are...