Beyond Blue

Brain hiccups. We all get a case of them now and then. For some they are fleeting and all a person has to do is to take a deep breath, visualize their departure, and poof! They’re gone. Not so easy for the rest of us. If I counted up the moments I spent trying to…

From my therapy notebook: I now know who to blame for my feelings of panic and anxiety … Amy. It’s all her fault. That’s what I call my amygdala, the delinquent cluster of neurons in the limbic system considered by most neurobiologists as the fear center of the human body, like the “welcome center” of…

I know that the fastest way to despair is by comparing one’s insides with another’s outsides, and that Max Ehrmann, the author of the classic poem “Desiderata,” was absolutely correct when he said that if you compare yourself with others you become either vain or bitter, or, as Helen Keller put it: “Instead of comparing…

From my therapy notebook: The path to mental health is an uneven process: for every two steps forward, you move one and a half back. But if you know this before you start walking, you’ll be less tempted to throw up your arms at the first relapse and say “to hell with it!” My psychiatrist…

Here is a video I made a awhile back on getting through the rough spots. Join me at A Blog of Hope.

At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh or fleshless; Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is, But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity, Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards, Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the…

Motherhood provides a host of useful lessons on how to live with mental illness, and vice versa. Here are just a few things the two have in common (in my opinion, of course): 1. Five years into both of them, plastic surgery is your only way of looking young again. 2. There’s only one boss,…

Sorry in advance if this post offends. Just though I’d write out why I think Catholicism is, hands down, the best religion for the mentally ill. Here are a few cool devotions and traditions within the Catholic faith that work well with those brains that are, well, creatively designed. 1. There is a saint for…

Paul’s letter to the Ephesians (5:8-14) reads: Brothers and Sisters: You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light, for light produces every kind of goodness and righteousness and truth. Try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the fruitless works of…

The epilogue of Terri Cheney’s bestselling book “Manic” is great reading for any manic depressive. I’m sitting in my favorite café, writing a line, crossing it out. Writing a line, crossing it out. My soft-boiled egg will be cold by the time I get around to cracking its shell. My latte will have lost its…

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