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You are here: Home / Archives for Self-Esteem

Self-Esteem

Stories to Explain My Life with Depression

by John Folk-Williams 11 Comments

stories of depression

Stories can be an immediate and moving way to learn about someone because they evoke the feelings and experience that factual details never can. When told with honesty and sincerity, a story helps establish a bond of trust because the teller has been willing to open such personal insight to the listener. For me, certain […]

Filed Under: Purpose, Self-Esteem Tagged With: belief, depression, hope, life, meaning

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

Therapists and Depressed Men

by John Folk-Williams 12 Comments

Therapists and Depressed Men

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 […]

Filed Under: Men and Depression, Psychotherapy, Self-Esteem Tagged With: fear, feelings, men, shame, stigma, women

How Lasting is the Impact of Emotional Abuse in Childhood?

by John Folk-Williams 26 Comments

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 […]

Filed Under: Children and Depression, Depression Causes, Self-Esteem Tagged With: childhood, depression, family, psychological abuse, trauma

Doubt is Depression’s Last Stand

by John Folk-Williams 18 Comments

It was one thing to get depression out of my life. It was another to get it out of my memory. Doubt about recovery from depression could linger on and keep playing tricks with the past. Vivid memories of old words and actions while depressed continued to torture and twist through me. They became my […]

Filed Under: Anxiety, Self-Esteem Tagged With: belief, change, depression, fantasy, feelings, hope, life, memory

Inner Beliefs and Outer Action

by John Folk-Williams 7 Comments

Young man acting on stage

A few months ago, I found a picture of myself from college years that gave no hint of the turmoil of inner beliefs I held at the time. There I was, a lean young guy, sporting a cigarette for a role I was acting. The strange thing about this is that at the time I […]

Filed Under: Self-Esteem, Self-Help Tagged With: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, belief, change, values, work

Self-Acceptance and Depression

by John Folk-Williams 11 Comments

Water Girl by a Stream

Depression grinds down many qualities of well-being, among them self-acceptance. Until recently, I hadn’t spent much time being comfortable with who I was. Self-rejection had been much more familiar. There have been many times when I felt fine with my life, but later I’d realize I had been overlooking everything too painful to face. When […]

Filed Under: Self-Esteem Tagged With: awareness, depression, self

Conversations with Myself: Accepting the Past

by John Folk-Williams 11 Comments

Introspection

Accepting the past is hard work. Avoidance of any part of the past that makes me uncomfortable used to be my go-to strategy, even though it never worked for long. I guess it’s the opposite of the tendency to obsess about everything I ever did wrong. (For example, reliving that humiliating interview 43 years ago, […]

Filed Under: Healing, Self-Esteem Tagged With: acceptance, avoidance, memory, self, work

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A Mind for Life: From Depression to Living Well

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The inner work of getting your life back from depression. This ebook is now available in most common ebook formats at major retailers.

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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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