I have a friend in Europe who can barely keep a job. She’s brilliant, well-educated, charming, and loaded with experience in all aspects of her profession. The problem is her emotional state, which, even with therapy and medication, is always one meltdown away from another pink slip. Another friend who went to school with me Read more
The country’s first community based Depression Recovery Centre is set to open in Wellington early next year, established by a not-for-profit charity. It will offer a therapeutic day programme for people with moderate to severe mental health issues, and hopes to serve 300 people per year, at purpose built premises in Cuba Street. The centre, Read more
Younger fathers may be at greater risk of experiencing major depression and the “baby blues”, a study has found. A letter has been published in the New Zealand Medical Journal on Friday about paternal depression among fathers in the Christchurch Health and Development Study by researchers Louise Rippin, Geraldine McLeod, Jacki Henderson and Joseph Boden. Read more
We support the recent new provision in law (2019) for cannabis-based medicine to be available on prescription. We also support the general move towards decriminalising cannabis users, and instead concentrating on a non-punitive health-based approach of helping those being harmed by cannabis use and addiction. We note that police are generally no longer prosecuting recreational Read more
Lieryn Barnett sometimes is so depressed, all she wants to do is sleep, she said. Other times, she’s so full of energy, she’ll be up in the middle of the night, singing or playing guitar. Or her mind will race at the same time her body won’t have the energy to do anything. All are Read more
When the Dean of the Washington National Cathedral and I were conspiring about when I might speak, I think he mentioned Feb. 3 as a possibility. A sermon by me on that date would have been considerably less interesting because I was, at that point, hospitalized for depression. Or maybe it would have been more Read more
During Holy Week 2016, an obituary written by a woman in Duluth, Minnesota caught national media attention. Eleni Pinnow wrote the obituary for her young adult sister Aletha. She began, “Aletha Meyer Pinnow, 31, of Duluth (formerly of Oswego and Chicago, Illinois) died from depression and suicide on February 20, 2016.” There it was, front Read more
Around 2012, something started going wrong in the lives of teens. In just the five years between 2010 and 2015, the number of U.S. teens who felt useless and joyless – classic symptoms of depression – surged 33 percent in large national surveys. Teen suicide attempts increased 23 percent. Even more troubling, the number of 13- to Read more
When I was 16 years old, a member of my family made a serious attempt at suicide; so serious no-one could work out how they’d survived. I remember sitting on the floor in the lounge, going through the motions of doing my homework, wondering how anyone could do that. Being a self-absorbed teenager, I also wondered Read more
As regular readers may remember, I have been suffering with depression since the summer. My last blog on the topic, I’m told, came across more “worryingly bleak” than “winningly chipper in the face of adversity”. That wasn’t really the intention at all. But hey, I’m mentally ill – so what do I know? As I Read more