One June afternoon in between sessions of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), I sat on my bed in the psychiatric unit of Johns Hopkins Hospital and compiled a list of ten names, friends and family who loved me unconditionally. Since I’m constantly fretting about saying the wrong thing to people and ruffling feathers, I decided that I […]
One of my favorite songs as a young girl was “Be Not Afraid.” I remember singing the lyrics in the shower and whenever I was anxious. They gave me great comfort, especially the chorus: Be not afraid I go before you always Come follow me And I will give you rest. The last two lines […]
There is what I call the traditional, Dwayne-Johnson-ish kind of strength – the “I got this,” “pain can’t stop me,” “just keep going” kind of resolve. I tapped into my reserve of this kind of strength in Spain. I constantly redirected negative intrusive thoughts, telling myself that they were just stories in my head. I […]
Although American poet T. S. Eliot didn’t have an advanced psychology degree, I think he nailed the reasons why so many people get depressed and anxious in the spring in his classic poem, “The Waste Land.” He writes, “April is the cruelest month, breeding lilacs out of the dead land, mixing memory and desire, stirring […]
About once a week I hear the same question from a reader, “What keeps you going?” The short answer is lots of things. I use a variety of tools to persevere through my struggle with depression because what works on one day doesn’t the next. I have to break some hours into 15-minute intervals and […]
If I had only one wish in life it wouldn’t be unlimited funds or a bottomless pot of coffee, not a condo in Maui or free college degrees for my kids. I wouldn’t even want to add years to my life. My wish would be this: to become more emotionally resilient — to be able […]
Hi, I’m Therese, I’m a recovering alcoholic, former smoker, and past anorexic; a depressive and bipolar; and a graduate of two inpatient psychiatric programs. I’m also intelligent, driven, compassionate, sensitive, creative, playful, and loving. Although the world has erected a solid wall between the above two statements, I’m on a mission to tear it down—not […]
Of all my symptoms of depression, stuck thoughts are by far the most painful and debilitating for me. The harder I try to move the needle from the broken record in my brain, the louder the song becomes. Ruminations are like a gaggle of politicians campaigning in your head. Try as you might to detach […]
I find the last two weeks of February the most challenging time of year in terms of weather and mood. Although inching closer to spring, we’re still hit by freezing temperatures and threats of school closings. Everyone has turned a pasty white, and snow flurries lose their wonder. They mean more schedule adjustments and time […]
Shortly after the death of Robin Williams I wrote a post called What I Wish People Knew About Depression. It was a small effort to chip away at the stigma associated with depression and to raise awareness of the complexities inherent to mood disorders. I have expounded on those statements here and rearranged them to read […]
Several people have written to me lately to say they are in a debilitating depression and are running out of hope. I thought I’d share a message of hope with them and with everyone who is currently battling the beast. Dear Depressed Person, I know that you can’t feel anything. You might not even be […]
I had the opportunity to be interviewed by Terry Gilberg, host of Think! America national radio show last week about strategies to combat holiday depression. I mostly focused on the first point of my seven strategies below, to allow yourself to feel all the emotions of the holidays, not excluding sadness. For highly-sensitive folks and […]
I am big on gratitude. Let me say that upfront. Study after study on gratitude shows how simple exercises of appreciation build emotional resilience, improve our relationships, and promote our well-being. Gratitude researchers like Martin Seligman, PhD, director of the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia; Robert Emmons, PhD, director of the Emmons Lab on gratitude research at the University of California in Davis; […]
I started a new job last week as Senior Editor at HealthCentral, a website that offers inspiration and information to those who live with different chronic conditions. I will be covering Mental Health & Wellness, Brain & Nerve Health, and Skin Health. In addition to editing pieces from various contributors I will be writing about trends in […]
Admittedly, I have always been a skeptic of art therapy until recently. I didn’t understand why psychiatric units included occupational therapy into the mix, where suicidal people painted birdhouses. However, having recently joined up with a group of women to paint free form, I now understand that this creative form of expression can access emotions […]
Study after study demonstrate that our thoughts and emotions affect our body. Our mood very definitely drives our physical state of being. One story in Jon Kabat-Zinn’s book Full Catastrophe Living illustrates this point better than any research study. Although she was functioning quite well, “Mrs. S” had a narrowing of one of the valves […]
A recent study published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry has found that psychotherapy sessions done via video conference may relieve symptoms as well as sessions executed across the couch from a mental health professional. Researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina and the Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center in Charleston assigned 241 […]
Tracking your mood, medicines, and symptoms is a critical piece of managing depression, anxiety, or bipolar disorder. You can go out and buy a paper journal every three months like I do, but there’s a much more efficient way. A fantastic selection of mood apps designed for the smartphone exist on the market today. Their […]
Women are twice as likely to suffer from depression as men of the same age, with about one in four women experiencing symptoms at some point during her lifetime. Although different factors must be considered — such as societal expectations of women at home and at work and the stress involved — the fact that […]
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, an estimated 15.7 million adults aged 18 or older in the United States had at least one major depressive episode in 2014. That’s 6.7 percent of all US adults. And yet we have a far way to go in reducing the stigma associated with the illness. For […]
