I have a friend who lives by this cardinal rule: She will never ever work with a friend. So when jobs surface in her company, or if she hears of an opening in her field, she only shares the information with non-friends. It’s just too messy, she explained to me the other day. Having experienced...

If you sprinkle a hefty dose of Catholic (or Jewish) guilt unto a fragile biochemistry headed toward a severe mood disorder, you usually arrive at some kind of a religious nut. Not that there’s anything wrong with that! For I am one. I have said many places that growing up Catholic, for me, was both...

Abraham Lincoln is a powerful mental health hero for me. Whenever I doubt that I can do anything meaningful in this life with a defective brain (and entire nervous system, actually, as well as the hormonal one), I simply pull out Joshua Wolf Shenk’s classic, “Lincoln’s Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His...

Have I ever said how much I wish I didn’t need therapy? I look forward to my annual pap more the therapy. Not because I don’t like my therapist – actually, I think she’s brilliant. But because it is so gut wrenchingly difficult to give words to some of your feelings and thought you wish...

The other day I covered 10 things you should not say to a loved one if you don’t want your name to come up in her therapy sessions. It covered a lot of ground, so I get why some folks would say, “Then what the hell CAN I say?” I’ve been thinking about that, and...