Living with Depression: Confronting the Stigma

       I love to read! I get up at 4:30 every morning just so I have time to read before work. As someone with depression I find reading stories about other depressives and those with mental illness to be helpful and inspiring. But it can be difficult to find good books discussing biographical details about a person’s mental illness. My purpose in this blog is to tell you about five books everyone with mental illness needs to read. These books are inspiring, comforting, helpful, and encouraging. So, without further ado, here are the five books you need to read right now if you have mental illness.  1.  A First Rate Madness: Uncovering the Links Between Leadership and Mental Illness Written by Nassir Ghaemi, this book looks at the lives of four leaders who suffered with mental illness: Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., John F. Kennedy, and William Tecumseh Sherman. Ghaemi discusses each of these famous leaders’ mental illness, how their illness presen...

 I was parked outside a patient's home. My mind was spiraling. I had never had a panic attack this bad. My heart was racing, and so was my mind. There was absolutely no reason for my mind to be having the thoughts I was having. I had it in my head that two people who I thought considered me a friend were conspiring against me. There was a meeting earlier that morning in which the three of us were present. My two friends were talking to each other but appeared to be ignoring me. They went to lunch together without inviting me. I was sure I was losing my friends. No normal brain would have gone down the path my brain was going.  I was paralyzed and realized I needed help. I had not seen a therapist in three years, so I had to do a little research to find someone. I called around to three or four therapists. As a new patient there was a 6-7 week wait period before I could get in. I finally managed to find a therapist who was available the next day, and according to the offic...

       When others find out I have major depressive disorder, they must look at my life and wonder what reason I have for being depressed. Well, I think that is why they call it mental illness; it comes from totally irrational thinking. If it made sense it would not be an "illness."           I am your typical, middle-class American. I am a man in my late 30s, married for 10 years (at the time of this writing) to an amazing woman. I have three beautiful daughters, and a yellow lab. We live in a medium sized house, which I am proud to call my home. All I am missing is the white picket fence.          I worked as a hospice chaplain for eight years, counseling terminally ill individuals and their families. I graduated law school in 2017 and landed a nice job working for a small law firm as an associate attorney. So what do I have to be depressed about?         Well, when I think ...