Recover Life from Depression

Becoming an Active Partner in Depression Treatment

Most stories about getting life back from depression describe how each person had to become an active partner in treatment in order to recover. I know it’s not easy to think about being active when you’re deeply depressed, but there’s a lot of support for the idea. Dozens of research studies indicate that if you can take a leading role, your chances of improving are better. There are at least three ways an active role can help you. Read more »

Therapists and Depressed Men

Written by John Folk-Williams

Except for my first experience in therapy, I spent years working with psychiatrists (back in the days when they did more than write prescriptions), depressed the whole time, perhaps getting a temporary lift, but quickly losing whatever short-term benefit the sessions may have provided. According to many therapists, as I explain below, this is a common experience for men. Usually the problem is traced back to the difficulty many men have in expressing feeling. They’re […] Read more »

How Lasting is the Impact of Emotional Abuse in Childhood?

Written by John Folk-Williams

I’ve worked for a long time on rebuilding self-esteem, though I’ve never been sure whether the lack of it contributed to depression or the depression killed off the self-esteem. It hardly matters. When I was a kid, that confident, robust me, sure of who he was, feeling like a whole person, apparently never made it off the drawing boards. Whatever happened back in childhood filled the psychic space that was trying to be me with […] Read more »