Beyond Blue

I’ve never been so excited to freeze my buns off. Ever since the temperatures dropped into the single digits (with wind chill) a few days ago, I’ve been dancing around the house in my Irish wool sweater singing, “We’re not going to burn up! Yeah! Yeah! Maybe not in my lifetime!” Ah, the joy of…

Scripture is full of “chill out,” “hang tight,” “I got ya covered,” and “we’re cool” verses. Among them: Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens:…

By the way, Pat Robertson says he now believes in global warming.

My heart bleeds for reader Kate after reading her despondent comments on this post. You say that no one could understand your despair. I have no doubt you feel completely alone in your battle. But I’m pretty sure a few readers have known similar pain. I, for one, recognized your plea to God: “Why did…

I wish psychiatrists sent depressives home with instructions on when to go to the hospital similar to the ones obstetricians give to pregnant women once they reach 37 weeks of gestation: when your contractions last for a minute each and are five minutes apart, start the ignition! “How did you know it was time to…

Here is what J. Raymond DePaulo Jr., M.D. says about hospitalization in his book, “Understanding Depression“: “The need for hospitalization arises if a person is endangered because he or she is suicidal, or so paranoid or so irritable that he or she is threatening or exhibiting violent behavior. Similarly urgent measures are called for if…

Thanks to reader Rich for his question about how much to disclose about mental health in a job interview. If he’s going for a position in a psychiatric unit, he asked, is it okay to tell them about the mental help he has received in the past? That’s a toughie. As I confessed in my…

Maybe the general public (and especially the U.S. government) isn’t as wigged out by mental illness as I thought. Surely a letter to the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County stating that I had been hospitalized within the year for a psychiatric condition and was currently taking two antidepressants and a mood stabilizer for my…

Two boys went to bed with fevers last night. One is dead. The other is my David. I have to wonder if the guardian angels are vacationing in Florida this month, because too many little guys have fallen asleep for good in this zip code. In Katherine’s preschool class, a little boy lost his three-month-old…

Whenever I hear of a story like I did today about the seven-year-old dying in his sleep, I always go back to Harold Kushner’s classic “When Bad Things Happen To Good People.” Now, remind me again, good Rabbi, why does crap befall decent folk? The compassionate author, who grieved the loss of his son Aaron,…

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