I Don’t Feel Safe

For the first time in my life, I don’t feel safe. There have been times before when I was in danger. I’ve been in two car accidents. I’ve been in blizzards and hurricanes. But this is different. Those dangers were external. They weren’t a part of me. This feeling is internal and feels deeply personal….

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In an Interview with NPR, John Fetterman Advances the Mental Health Conversation

Pennsylvania senator, John Fetterman, recently spent six weeks in the hospital battling depression. He is finally feeling better and now he’s talking about his experience. He did an interview with NPR about his depression and recovery, John Fetterman speaks about depression after returning to the Senate : NPR. I’m sorry that Fetterman had to go…

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Covid and Depression Part 2

Yesterday, I wrote about how depression puts people at higher risk for severe covid. Today I want to talk about another problem with covid. Apparently, covid can cause depression. “[O]ver half of a U.S. COVID-19 survivor sample reported symptoms of depression months after recovery, those with more severe COVID symptoms being more likely to have depression.” They…

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Depression and Housekeeping

It’s often embarrassing to have depression. And I’m not talking about the internalized stigma around mental illness. A lot of things that would be embarrassing without depression are much more likely to occur with depression. Depression affects sleep and appetite and saps your energy. As a result, it’s just harder to take care of yourself….

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Trusting Myself

It’s almost impossible for me to trust myself during, and just after, a depressive episode. I wrote this piece about confidence, Confidence | Nutmegger Daily – Quality writing on many topics, a little bit ago. Not trusting myself seems like a similar phenomenon to lacking confidence, but I think it’s different in some important ways….

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Confidence

There’s a symptom of my depression that I never hear anyone talk about. Depression has completely destroyed my confidence. And it’s not just during a depressive episode. I lack confidence even when I’m feeling good. This is a fairly recent development, in the last ten years or so. It dates to just before I was…

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Intrusive Thoughts

One of my least favorite symptoms of depression is the intrusive thoughts. (For the record, I don’t actually have any favorite symptoms.) Intrusive thoughts probably happen to everyone from time to time. I can’t be sure because of the problem of other minds and such, but psychologists claim it happens to everyone sometimes. There’s a…

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