Burnout vs. Depression

Last week, I wrote about a border case between physical and mental health, insomnia. That got me thinking about other border cases. Border cases can be hard to diagnose, which makes getting treatment difficult. As I’ve talked about before, I had trouble getting diagnosed with depression. That’s because, from where I was, I couldn’t see…

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Depression and Housekeeping

It’s often embarrassing to have depression. And I’m not talking about the internalized stigma around mental illness. A lot of things that would be embarrassing without depression are much more likely to occur with depression. Depression affects sleep and appetite and saps your energy. As a result, it’s just harder to take care of yourself….

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Trusting Myself

It’s almost impossible for me to trust myself during, and just after, a depressive episode. I wrote this piece about confidence, Confidence | Nutmegger Daily – Quality writing on many topics, a little bit ago. Not trusting myself seems like a similar phenomenon to lacking confidence, but I think it’s different in some important ways….

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Scapegoating Mental Illness

Over the weekend, a bipartisan framework for “gun safety” legislation was announced. It contains four things that probably won’t make any substantive difference but are better than nothing: Encouraging states to adopt “Red Flag” laws, closing the “boyfriend loophole”, enhancing the review process for buyers under 21, and clarifying what it means to be a…

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Confidence

There’s a symptom of my depression that I never hear anyone talk about. Depression has completely destroyed my confidence. And it’s not just during a depressive episode. I lack confidence even when I’m feeling good. This is a fairly recent development, in the last ten years or so. It dates to just before I was…

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