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When your mind betrays you: depression rears its ugly head again
I haven’t been silent about my (past) battles with depression, anxiety, and insomnia. All those issues hit me as a teen and came back in my 20s, 30s, and now 40s. I was fortunate not to experience postpartum depression after my two pregnancies, but I’ve known women who have. Mental illness is rarely a “one-and-done” situation. It’s often a lifelong battle. There’s less of a stigma about mental health than ever before, but it can still be isolating feeling trapped in your own mind—a mind that’s betrayed you when you thought you were okay again. Triggers I think everyone has different triggers that can jump-start a depressive episode. Sometimes, there’s…
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Just get over it
It’s funny. I find myself saying “Get over it” to my kids sometimes when they’re whining about one thing or another—usually something insignificant in the grand scheme of life like someone eating the last brownie. If only the phrase worked for more significant things. Getting over it would benefit me in so many ways. One year ago today I was unemployed for the first time in my adult life. I was scared, depressed, and hurt over the whole situation. I tried to put on a brave face for my family, but I know they could see through it. About two weeks after that first day of unemployment, I accepted an…
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Living with Ulcerative Colitis
Today, May 19, is World IBD Day. For the first 20 years of my life, I lived blissfully unaware of the inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), ulcerative colitis (UC). Sure, I’d heard of stomach upset, suffered through childhood digestive woes and stomach viruses, but I didn’t know there was anything more than the ever-fleeting “nervous stomach” term I’d been assigned as a kid. Those first days of school tummy jitters, the clamminess before big tests or speaking in front of the class, the waves of nausea after making an ass of myself in front of my crush, etc. I took an acid-reducing medicine while in 11th grade and the occasional half-tablet…
