I have an immediate family member who is sicker than I am. This is not a mental illness competition; I’m simply stating a fact. My depression has profoundly marked my life but I’ve never needed hospitalization or been unable to get out of bed and go to work. If an onlooker studied me closely on

I watched a documentary last night called ’32 Pills: My Sister’s Suicide”.  It was rough going: I got about 30 minutes in before walking away. No one close to me has committed suicide, and I don’t dare venture into what that particular brand of hell must be like.  But the central action of the film

Last summer, days after my birthday, our family received a call in the middle of the night from my dad’s girlfriend, Pat. He’d died in her bed. Before the call to my mother-his ex-wife, I got a text sent from my dad’s phone written by Pat. It said: “Please Call It’s An Emergency”. I was

I am-in general-a pretty happy person. I take after my mother-who used to announce every morning over her coffee: “I have a sunny disposition”. This as she took a long drag on the first cigarette of the day. I was like her. And life for me in the 50s and 60s was pretty hunky-dory until

I saw this film on Sunday and it’s special.  Watch the trailer below. I was especially struck by one line from a letter van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo. The letter was breezy overall but then this: “Everyday feels like a week. For some reason everyday feels like a week”. Oh, how I know

Researchers believe that prescribed medications play a key role in the treatment of mental illness. They can reduce symptoms and prevent relapses of a psychiatric disorder. I don’t remember when Prozac hit the market because I was a child in 1987. But from what I’ve read, it was a hallelujah moment; a turning point; a