In 1996, psychologist Roy Baumeister, Ph.D. conducted a cruel experiment. With some of his former Case Western Reserve University colleagues, he studied the effect of tempting participants with scrumptious treats in order to see how much willpower human beings actually have. He kept the 67 participants in a room that smelled like freshly baked chocolate...
Like most mental health writers, I have compared depression to other illnesses like diabetes in the past, and stressed the biochemical aspect of mood disorders in my efforts at reducing stigma. Somehow talking about the gene G72/G30 located on chromosome 13q (that may predispose individuals to depression and bipolar disorder) makes it more legitimate, as...
I was excited to be included in this important Wall Street Journal story about bipolar disorder from skilled reporter Melinda Beck. Thanks, too, to all the members of Project Beyond Blue who contributed to the story and to my doctor, Milena Hruby Smith. Distinguishing between regular depression and bipolar disorder is one of the toughest...
I didn’t earn the nickname “Tourettes” for my great small-talk skills. If there is a way to accidentally offend someone, I will find it. Here are some of my favorites: When I took my daughter Katherine, whom my husband and I named after my grandmother and my great grandmother, two very strong women in our...
A friend of mine approached me the other day in tears. The nine year old of a close friend of hers tried to kill himself. “He’s nine!!??!!” she said. “How do you explain that?” It’s true that we are all born with genes that predispose us to all sorts of things—in my case bipolar disorder...
