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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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How much truth is in my fiction?
Writing what I knew as a teenager I loved reading when I was a kid, and I began writing as a teenager. The results of my early efforts were 7 handwritten “finished” novels, several poems (many of which are terrible), numerous essays, one random index card with a great idea, a notebook of not-so-great ideas, and a handful of false starts for a story that will never work. My finished stories were fabrications with a bit of what I wanted mixed in. For example, I gave all my main female characters a love interest because I wanted a boyfriend so badly as a teen. Along with the fiction was a…
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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…
