School or Daycare Avoidance/Refusal Part Two
My son Lawrence started kindergarten this school year. He was in a wonderful preschool the past two years, where he thrived. Of course we were concerned that he would have a little trouble adjusting to starting kindergarten, but while we got the “trouble adjusting” part right, we got the…
School Avoidance/School Refusal
Last week my son wanted to play hooky from kindergarten. As I was getting him ready for school, he said, “Mommy, my stomach hurts,” trying to look as pathetic as possible. I had a feeling that the problem wasn’t his stomach, but might have been connected with the fact…
Jump-start your day with exercise (Yes, even if you’re depressed)
It’s 5:30am and it’s still dark. For some reason I’m actually awake. Granted, my usual waking time is only half an hour later, but to me, voluntarily getting up early is an idea that just doesn’t compute. However, I am deliberately giving up sleep for a good reason. I’m…
Treatment Resistant Depression
I had my quarterly appointment with my psychiatrist the other day. As planned, I told him that I would like to switch to a new antidepressant. I felt that Wellbutrin, which I had been taking since 2000, was exacerbating my overall anxiety level. I showed him my nails, which…
Are generic antidpressants less effective?
I’ve been taking Wellbutrin (generic name Bupropion) for about seven years, minus the time I was pregnant with my son. I would say that overall it’s been very successful, except for during one period. All of a sudden, even though I was faithfully taking my medicine, it was as…
Why Sunday Nights Stink When You’re Depressed
Why is Sunday night the cruelest night of the whole week to a person with depression? You would think that all nights would be bad with depression, which is basically true. But I think, without a doubt, Sunday nights are the worst. I remember that when I was depressed,…
Kurt Vonnegut’s Battle with Depression
Kurt Vonnegut Jr., the American literary icon whose writing is often described as dark and satirical, died Wednesday at the age of 84. Vonnegut, whose mother committed suicide, suffered from depression and himself attempted suicide in 1984. What struck me as I read the obituaries was that almost without…
Is Your Teenager Depressed?
Teenagers are mysterious creatures. Even though we’ve all been teenagers, somehow that experience doesn’t amount to a hill of beans when we’re trying to understand our own. Most of the time this inability to understand teenagers is simply a reason to smack your forehead with your hand and mutter…
A link between introversion and depression?
“Hi, nice to meet you. I’m an introvert.” Last night I went to a course on event planning held by UC Berkeley extension. Although it didn’t dawn on me at the time, it was apparently the perfect opportunity to network. Even the course presenter encouraged us to network during…
Depression and Oversensitivity
Once again this past week I’ve been tearing my hair out over something that happened on my forum for people with depression. You might think the most frequent problem on the depression forum would be suicidal members. I have to say that I kind of expected that to be a big…