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Recover Life from Depression

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Patterns of Recovery from Depression and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

by John Folk-Williams 9 Comments

patterns of recovery

I started learning about patterns of recovery when my mother survived two heart attacks but died twice before her death. That’s the way she saw it. Her heart stopped both times, but she fought her way back. The second heart-stopping attack occurred during an operation for a different problem. She was 94. I only learned […]

Filed Under: Depression Treatments, Recovery Tagged With: depression, pattern, PTSD, trauma, treatment, trust

Depression Is a Free Fall in Slow Motion

by John Folk-Williams 14 Comments

Once my kids pulled me with them up to a water slide. I don’t like sliding through winding tubes and hadn’t done it before. But I couldn’t back out of it once I was standing in a dense line at the top of a 50-foot high platform. Nowhere to go but down. So off I […]

Filed Under: Depression Symptoms, Isolation Tagged With: depression, survival, trust

On the Other Side of Fear

by John Folk-Williams 22 Comments

Barbed wire strand

Fear has a way of setting boundaries that can’t be crossed. If you do cross them, you know you’ll pay a price – a pain or terror you can’t endure. The boundary is protection. Inside it, you’re safe. I think of the anxiety I feel when moving through depression as the warning sign. You’re getting […]

Filed Under: Psychotherapy, Self-Help Tagged With: boundaries, cognitive behavioral therapy, depression, fear, memory, OCD

Caught in Panic

by John Folk-Williams 18 Comments

sculptured face in stone

I think of creativity as an opposite of depression. As the driver in my life that connects and communicates, it represents everything I cannot do in the midst of the illness. Yet there was a time when it led to panic. Creativity is usually discussed in connection with the arts, and the idea gets overblown […]

Filed Under: Anxiety, Creativity Tagged With: depression, panic, pattern

Recovery from Depression: the Power of Expectation

by John Folk-Williams 21 Comments

Recovery from depression depends in part on what you believe is possible for the future. If you are to recover at all, you have to take action at some point. It could be a series of small steps about your daily routine – eating breakfast, walking out the door to get fresh air and natural […]

Filed Under: Healing, Recovery Tagged With: belief, depression, expectation

Mindful Attention Is a Healing Force

by John Folk-Williams 7 Comments

Learning the skills of mindful attention can put you on a slow but steady track of healing. Medication and cognitive therapy try to put you on the fast track, but the effects don’t always last. Though it may take a while to instill mindfulness in everyday life, once established it’s with you for the long […]

Filed Under: Healing, Mindfulness Tagged With: attention, awareness, meditation, mind

Can the Mind Heal Depression?

by John Folk-Williams 18 Comments

Abstract diamond shape

How can we draw on the power of our own minds to heal depression? As I’ve tried to answer this question, I’ve had to rethink my beliefs about recovery. This is the first in a series of posts to describe what I’ve been learning. Like everything else I’ve been writing about here, this search starts […]

Filed Under: Healing Tagged With: change, connecting, mind, stress, symptoms

Compassion for a Burned Man

by John Folk-Williams 1 Comment

Smoke, fire, compassion

I wasn’t expecting anything out of the ordinary that evening, but I wound up in the hospital with a burned hand and, at least in retrospect, a little insight about compassion. It started after work one day when I had just sat down at the kitchen table with a glass of water to stare at […]

Filed Under: Healing, Self-Esteem Tagged With: care-giving, compassion, family, love, self-compassion

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Living Depressed

Depression affects emotions, mental abilities, self-concept, behavior, relationships and the entire body. These core posts describe the full range of symptoms affecting daily life. Read More.

Choices in Healing

Hoping for recovery gives you a motive but not a method for getting there. This section has posts about therapies and healing methods you can work with either on your own or with professional guidance. Read more.

Living Well

If you've learned how to manage your depression, you'll want a fulfilling life rather than one dominated by fear that the illness might return. In this section, you'll find posts about how to work toward that goal. Read More

Relationships in Crisis

One of the hardest challenges of living with depression is holding onto your closest relationships. This section features posts on how to help a relationship survive. Read More.

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