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What does depression (and anxiety) look like?
Most commercials for antidepressants show people in despair, lying on a couch crying or dressed in baggy clothing with unkempt hair. Is that what depression looks like? Yes. Sometimes. But often, depression can look like a person who has their shit together. A career woman who gets things done. A soccer mom with perfect hair and perfect kids. A lawyer. A doctor. A musician. An artist. A movie star. A writer. Me. Anxiety medication ads often depict a person having a panic attack, complete with hyperventilating, rapid heartbeat and sweating. So that’s what anxiety looks like, right? Sure. Sometimes. It also can look like standoffishness. Indifference. Disengagement. Irritability. Forgetfulness. Me.
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One Night in a Coffeehouse
“One Night in a Coffeehouse” Free-Verse, March 20, 2017 He sings in the near-empty coffeehouse About alcohol addiction and love. He thinks no one in the lackluster crowd is listening. Two employees try their best to acknowledge him, While a college student studies his books, And a lady whose whole life is a musical hums her own tune. Annoyed by the six laughing ladies in their bible study group, He changes his line-up to include All songs he knows that take the Lord’s name in vain. The ladies talk over the too-loud guitar music, Determined to finish their lesson, While he plays louder and louder to drown out the noise. The…
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When a celebrity dies
I’ve been thinking about this for a while. Why are we (the collective “we”) so moved by and intertwined with celebrity deaths? Celebs are mortal just like the rest of us, so it is inevitable that they will die someday, but when they do, they have more mourners than the rest of us. This is especially so when they die tragically or die young, which often coincide. When someone dies at age 98 in their bed surrounded by family, we say it’s a good death because they lived a long life. Many people die much younger than that. Tragically young. What’s the cutoff age? Is it 40? 50? 60? What…
