I’ve been repeating to myself lately something my therapist said in our session last month: “You can’t unlearn your progress.” Meaning, I can take a few steps backwards in my recovery from depression and anxiety, but that doesn’t erase all the lessons, skills, and wisdom acquired in my past. Those words are consoling to me...
I thought I’d repost this piece from my archives, since it is a message I always need to be reminded of. Because battles don’t go away. You just get stronger in how you deal with them. Winston Churchill once wrote, “The heights of great men reached and kept, Were not attained by sudden flight, But...
In his book, Understanding Depression: What We Know And What You Can Do About It, J. Raymond DePaulo Jr., M.D. asserts that for the 20 percent of his patients who are more difficult to treat, or “treatment-resistant,” he sets an 80 percent improvement, 80 percent of the time goal. And he usually accomplishes that. Now,...
I’m reading, and rereading this archive post this week. Today would have been a good day for me to wear the t-shirt that says, “I can only please one person a day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow doesn’t look good either.” As I progress in my recovery, I am a choosier shopper when it...
I knew there was little chance of getting a personal interview with Peter D. Kramer, clinical professor of psychiatry at Brown University, and author of “Listening to Prozac” and “Against Depression,” among other books. So for my interview series, I thought I’d reprint this incisive and extremely informative article that ran in the New York...