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Beyond Blue

Among my favorite essays on loving someone with a mental illness are those penned by Anna Bishop, my blogging buddy James’s wife. She’s written five outstanding posts on what it’s like to be a passenger on the rollercoaster of a marriage with a person diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Here are the links to her first…

My absolute favorite essay on depression is a piece Kay Redfield Jamison wrote for NPR’s “This I Believe” collection of testimonies. It’s about learning to love our jagged edges. I believe that curiosity, wonder and passion are defining qualities of imaginative minds and great teachers; that restlessness and discontent are vital things; and that intense…

God, I offer myself to Thee– to build with me and to do with me as Thou wilt. Relieve me of the bondage of self, that I may better do Thy will. Take away my difficulties, that victory over them may bear witness to those I would help of Thy Power, Thy Love, and Thy…

John McManamy writes an exceptionally informative article on the types of Bipolar Disorder as defined by the DSM-IV (the shrink handbook). You can get to his article and others by clicking here. I have pasted it below. There is far more to bipolar than meets the eye. Let’s start with the boring stuff: The DSM-IV…

Fortunately there are abundant resources on the Internet to help guide a person who hears a loved one talk about suicide, or who is suicidal himself. I found the following material at Mayo Clinic’s page on suicide. Visit their site by clicking here, or print this out so that you have it handy the next…

I like this passage from Thomas Merton about Lent. It makes me think that Merton would approve of my Lenten resolution, to give up self-loathing. He writes: The purpose of Lent is not only expiation, to satisfy the divine justice, but above all a preparation to rejoice in His love. And this preparation consists in…

I remember reading the following Washington Post article in December of 2005, when I was trying to figure out what in the heck was going on with me. It helped me to understand the nuances that exist within the family of bipolar disorder, and I was empowered by learning about the struggles of Andrew Solomon,…

I have become increasingly aware that one of the stumbling blocks to my recovery from depression is my inability to make decisions, and my disdain for closing options. And yet closing doors is good for your sanity. Even in writing this post, I have saved the word file in five stages, so that if the…

I wanted to share this quote from St. Teresa of Avila because many of you loved the prayer by Thomas Merton that said the desire to love God is enough. In this passage, another of my favorite saints basically says the same thing. I was living an extremely burdensome life, because every time I prayed,…

I knew there was little chance of getting a personal interview with Peter D. Kramer, clinical professor of psychiatry at Brown University, and author of “Listening to Prozac” and “Against Depression,” among other books. So for my interview series, I thought I’d reprint this incisive and extremely informative article that ran in the New York…
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