Unlock Your Health Potential
Introduction I’ve seen someone close to me go through depression before, the kind I understand, the name I recognize, and the kind I can figure out. What happened in one particular episode was different. There came a time when he stopped trusting what he could see and hear clearly, when his sense of what was … Read more
Introduction At a routine check-up, my doctor asked me about my mood before he looked at my blood pressure readings. I remember thinking it was a strange sequence of questions, almost irrelevant. I was there because of my heart, not because of my mood. Say the vague answers that most people give in this situation, … Read more
Introduction When my mother was first diagnosed with depression in her mid-forties, the word our family used was “breakdown.” No one called it a mental health problem. No one called it major depressive disorder. And no one talked about what it could mean for the rest of us with their DNA, their home, and the … Read more
The Weight I Couldn’t Explain Until I Understood What Was Actually Happening Yes, depression can genuinely cause weight gain, through a combination of stress hormones, disrupted appetite signals, reduced movement, and emotional eating, not through a single simple cause or a lack of willpower. Understanding the actual mechanisms involved matters far more than another diet, … Read more
Introduction There was a time in my life — about three years ago — when I began to forget the things I had no right to forget. I had missed a call I had written on a sticky note. I couldn’t find a single word in the middle of the phrase I always use. I … Read more
Introduction For several months, I slept a full eight hours most nights, sometimes even longer, and woke up feeling like I hadn’t slept at all. It confused me a lot. I wasn’t looking at my phone after staying up late. I wasn’t drinking a lot of caffeine. By all obvious indicators, he was “sleeping well” … Read more
Introduction For months I searched for a specific reason. A single event, a particular failure, something tangible enough to point to and say, “That’s why it all happened.” “I never found it, and for a long time I thought it meant I was missing something obvious about myself.” I looked at the last year almost … Read more
Introduction I remember the morning I was sitting in my car outside the office and couldn’t open the door. He was fully dressed. I had my bag. My coffee was in the cup holder. I had about 11 minutes left until I sat down at my desk. And I sat there for 40 hours, staring … Read more
Introduction My wife once asked me quietly and carefully if I still loved her as I used to. It was not an accusation. It was a real question, asked by someone who had seen that this love that was once easy now seemed laborious, and who had no way of knowing why. I remember the … Read more
Introduction For a long time, I believed that depression was just an extreme version of sadness, which remained completely within the realm of emotions and willpower. One therapist I spoke to finally gently but firmly corrected this assumption in our first session, and changed the way I thought about all my experiences. I remember asking … Read more