“Do you WANT to get better?” a family member asked me a few weeks after I graduated from the psych ward in 2005. I was furious and hurt. Because it was just one of many insensitive comments that seem to imply that I was causing my illness. So when a woman in the online depression...

One autumn morning in 2005, I dropped my kids off at preschool and immediately broke down in tears. Pushing an empty double stroller down a few houses to avoid the other preschool moms, I dialed up the number of my writing (and life) mentor and dear friend, Mike Leach. I stayed there, on the sidewalk,...

The more medications and supplements I try in an effort to minimize my symptoms of depression and anxiety, the more I realize that every editable item you place in your mouth has a risk associated with it. Even the natural ones that are supposedly made from cats’ claws, wild yams, or some organic plant. Moreover,...

My junior year of college, I bought a used computer for $100. It was cheap because the thing was as huge as it was heavy. The challenge was to walk with this cumbersome piece of technology across campus to my dorm. I was finally to the steps of Holy Cross Hall when I tripped and...

I am helping my friend, I’ll call her Pam, end an emotional affair. I mean, it’s not the kind of emotional affair where she tells the guy that she loves him. They don’t have secret meetings, or talk every day, or have “code language.” To an outsider, the relationship wouldn’t seem inappropriate in the slightest....