Julie Hersh wrote two versions of Struck by Living about her struggle with suicidal depression. She ended the first one with her hike to the top of a New Mexico mountain in a symbolic celebration of her recovery. A happy, triumphant ending. She bound the manuscript and sent it to dozens of her friends. Then […]
suicide
Helen: A Great Film on Depression
Helen is the most accurate and moving portrayal of depression and its impact that you’re ever likely to see in a dramatic film. It may have slipped by you when released a few years ago since there was limited distribution. If you haven’t done so, see it now. If you’ve been struggling with depression, you’ll […]
Surviving Work, Surviving Depression
A few months ago, Therese Borchard of Beyond Blue was describing in one of her insightful videos the nature of her belief in Catholicism. She had been accused of being a “cafeteria Catholic,” picking and choosing which of the Church’s teachings she would accept. She emphasized that she read the Church Catechism as a bipolar […]
Depression Against Life
Anon for Now recently commented on the sense of renewal in life that served as a deterrent to suicide. This struck me as capturing the most baffling aspect of the temptation to end life. For what does the evidence of life on earth point to but the endlessly inventive will to survive? There is no […]
Depression and Suicide – Back from the Edge
Christos Georghiou – Fotolia.com_ WARNING – THIS POST HAS POSSIBLE TRIGGERS. After a tough week with a lot of down time lost to pain of various sorts – as much mental as physical – I’ve been trying to draw on lessons friends have been sharing with me. They have been describing a deeper sense of […]
Lincoln’s Adaptation to Depression
In January 1841, Abraham Lincoln, then a state legislator in Illinois, wrote to his law partner about securing a post for a physician who was then treating him for a nervous disorder called hypochondriasis, or hypo for short, a condition we would call major depression. “I have, within the last few days, been making a […]
