When Your Brain Chemistry Screws Up All Your Relationships (Even at Work)
The third in a series about money and depression (but mostly depression).
Blogging From State-Funded Rehab
Kirk Klocke is a medical journalist and also an addict. He has a blog where he writes candidly about his depression (“where I am in life — $100,000 in debt, no money, no place to stay, no significant other, and well-earned family mistrust”). He’s currently in a state-funded treatment center and is blogging about it via the mail and the help of a friend (Scientific American’s addiction writer Cassie Rodenberg). It’s bleak: “We arrived at Keystone Treatment Center, which looks like the kind of nursing home you end up in if you don’t save anything for retirement and no one in your life cares about you.”
Depression and Money, Some Real Talk
Martha Kaplan and I are both depressed. This is the first in a series of conversations about depression and money.
Depression is Still a Thing in Springtime
Heather Armstrong has written extensively about her own depression on her blog Dooce, and on a recent post asked her readers to share their stories about mental illness. There are 219 comments. All of them are thoughtful. Not the most uplifting read of your life, but a good thing to read if you're hating yourself and wondering why. There's a reason, it's chemical, a lot of us have it, there are ways to feel better. (Sometimes a new dress, more effectively, a therapist.) More here, from us.
It Feels So Good to Make Something
Jessica Grose talked to comedian Maria Bamford about her comedy special, which you can buy online for $4.99 (isn’t it so cool that just over a year ago Louis C.K. tried this an experiment, and now it’s become almost the norm for comedians?) In the special she tells jokes about her mental illness to an audience of two: her parents.
I keep thinking about this line from the intervew: “I wish I were more prolific. It feels so good to make something and I don’t know why I would avoid it like I avoid any sort of exercise (which also has the same effect).” It does feel good to make something. It feels good to exercise. It feels good to get up early. I don’t know why a person would avoid those things either. (Except I do.)
How to Lose Four Months to a Depression/Spending Death Spiral
I desperately wanted to feel better, even if it was just for an hour at a time. I bought concert tickets. I bought movie tickets. I spontaneously went to New York for a weekend to see a play. I went out to dinner at nice sit-down places, and bars with my friends.
Anthony Must Have Wondered the Same Thing
Anthony Halperin killed himself two years ago. His brother Alex wrote about it for Salon. It’s a good thing to read. (“’How could this kid be depressed when everything was working out?’” Anna asked. Anthony must have wondered the same thing.”) Please don’t hurt yourself.
