When April’s shades of gray morph into May’s euphoric color wheel, depressives like me feel butterflies. Like falling into infatuation or at least sensing its possibility, I glide around Philadelphia. Cherry blossom “snow flurries” feel like childhood’s return: can we for a moment believe that benevolent forces govern the world? Two weeks more to go — it will be as lovely as you make it.

Any others out there who feel ambivalent *at best* about the holidays? The several months of heightened expectations; forced family time for some, being alone for some, and flashes of pain for all. People who throw the word “magic” around to describe the holidays exist in volume–they are also the…

Every night, with a small handful of exceptions, I’ve watched a movie in lockdown. I discovered the Criterion Channel and my first, truest…

I want us to share our stories. I’m offering up mine in the hope that you’ll feel moved to share yours. I’m not a clinician and I don’t have the answers. But in the 20 plus years I’ve been dealing with the “black dog ” of depression, I have some…

What Does Radical Self Love Mean? Today I listened to a message about ego. The Reverend Phil asked a congregation worshipping virtually — many likely disheveled and still in pajamas — ”what is the source of your righteousness”? Is it the clothes you wear? The restaurants where you (used) to…

Before the COVID-19 outbreak affected every segment of the population, in what feels like another lifetime, Americans lived a life of collective malaise. And whether you realized it or not, our way of life was subverting your true, genuine happiness. Our suicide rates wouldn’t stop rising — a number that…

Often people diagnosed with a mood disorder live in its shadow.

Naked Clicks My body has been used to sell products. I don’t mean ‘my’ in the collective female sense, though that is also true. All women have the right to feel personally exploited by a culture of fascination with our sexuality and form. In my case, the interplay between commerce…

In New York and elsewhere in the States, we’re starting to close down. A hush falls. A new place emerges. Memories come back of emergencies large and less so: 9/11, the 2003 blackout, Super Storm Sandy. The standard rules of engagement are off. We enter into more creative and intimate…