Monthly Archives: October 2016

American fashion designer Kenneth Cole recently posted a billboard prominently over Manhattan’s West Side Highway that reads, “Over 40M Americans suffer from mental illness. Some can access care … All can access guns.” The hashtags #GunReform and #AreYouPuttingUsOn were also … Continue reading →

I haven’t read many paragraphs that articulate depression as accurately as this one, in Martha Rhodes’s riveting memoir, 3000 Pulses Later: At that moment, my pain felt equal to — if not even more than — what I imagined any … Continue reading →

“How do you know what your limits should be?” The woman in my depression community wanted to know whether she should scale back to part-time work or continue to slog through her full-time job. I hear this question a lot … Continue reading →

None of us ever set out to live a life with chronic pain and illness, but it happens. There comes that moment when you are sitting in yet another doctor’s office going over your symptoms for the third time that … Continue reading →

Halloween is a time when we have fun with the feeling of being afraid, so I thought I’d write about our fears, phobias, anxieties — things that shorten our breath, quicken our heartbeats, and sometimes outright disable us. Some of us shut … Continue reading →

For many people, the beginning of autumn triggers anxiety with its shorter days, reduced sunlight, changes in schedules, and allergies. Fortunately there are many foods and spices during this season that can help us to stay emotionally resilient and boost … Continue reading →

For anyone with an inclination to use food as comfort — which basically includes us all — the two months between Halloween and the New Year provide one temptation after another. For me, it starts the hour the trick-or-treaters have … Continue reading →

Ten years ago, when I was first diagnosed with bipolar disorder, I was working with a psychiatrist who wanted me to alert him at the first hint of a creative thought. Whether it was an article idea or, God forbid, … Continue reading →