In her final installment of the “Going Off” series, New York Times columnist Diana Spechler listed 10 things she’d tell her former (medicated) self. I must confess. I was prepared to hate the list, as I disagreed with much of what she wrote about in the previous columns, like choosing between medication and creativity. As...
We are all born with genes that predispose us to all kinds of things–in my case, most of the psychiatric illnesses listed in the DSM-5 (Diagnostic Statistical Manual, Fifth Edition). And while we have some control over the way our genes express themselves or “turn on” – a new science called epigenetics—we are more or...
If you’ve been reading my blog for a month or more, you know that I have found nutrition to be a powerful force in my recovery from depression. Since 2008, I haven’t responded to medications or have had only a minimal, partial response, so I have been on a mission–for myself and for the millions...
One of my favorite Seinfeld episodes is the one where Elaine snoops inside her medical chart and reads “patient is difficult.” The doctor takes a look at her rash and says, “Well, this doesn’t look serious,” and writes something in the chart. “What are you writing?” she asks. He sneers and walks out the door....
This blog post is painful for me to write because I have been an avid swimmer since the age of 5, when I took the water wings off and made it to the other side of the pool on my own. As I wrote in my post 10 Things I Do to Beat Depression Every...
