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I have a Black Dog, His Name is Depression
Matthew Johnstone’s book and narrated video are still one of the best illustrations of depression that I’ve seen and have helped me conceptualize my own depression in the years since I first saw it. The video is less than five minutes and teaches a lot about what symptoms of depression can look like in everyday…
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Fundamentally, My Story is One of Hope
While working on setting up my website, I struck up a conversation with someone at the café as I wrote. I shared with him the name of my website – ‘Diary of A Depressive’. He questioned the name, wondering if it shouldn’t have a more positive title. Shouldn’t it be something that sounded more hopeful?…
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The Practice of Cutting Fresh Herbs
My depression makes the past and the future dangerous places for my mind to dwell. The past is filled with things that I cannot change that I will ruminate on endlessly if I don’t check myself. The future is filled with things outside my control and “what-if” spirals that can rapidly increase my anxiety if…
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Self-Care is survival
Self-care is about survival for me. One of the transformational things I learned in treatment is the practice of self-care and learning ways to incorporate that into my daily life. As a depressive, there is a darkness within me that is always working to destroy me – which is why it is so important that…
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Ode To Chives
The chives have started coming up – and all at once I am reminded of two important things: that I have survived the winter, and that spring is indeed coming. Chives are one of my favorite ingredients. And, as I like to remind anyone who will listen, they are the first and last crop of…
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AJR’s “Way Less Sad”
Here’s a link to the song, give it a listen before reading. When I heard this AJR song on the radio when it first came out, I loved it. Not just for the catchy pop tune that instantly got stuck in my head, but for the way it painted my reality in a way I…