Depression

Measuring Anxiety and Depression Through Color and Stages

by Bill Brenner June 20, 2021 Coping tools

When you can measure what you’re going through, you can take steps to manage it. How to use the Anxiety Rainbow and the 5 Stages of Depression.

Channeling Freddie Mercury’s Work Ethic

by Bill Brenner June 4, 2020 Dealing with life

With a global health crisis raging and gut-wrenching street violence thrown in, we need our heroes to drive us forward.

Should You Worry About Another Great Depression?

by Bill Brenner April 29, 2020 Dealing with life

We can try to see the past in our current situation and predict the outcome. Or we can take life one day at a time and hold on to our sanity.

The Military Has Given Me a New Coping Tool

by Bill Brenner April 13, 2020 Coping tools

Can a military decision-making process help those struggling with mental illness?

A Useful Bout of Depression

by Bill Brenner March 30, 2020 Depression

When depression is a coping tool for the environment you find yourself in.

Depression and Anxiety in the Age of Trump

by Bill Brenner November 18, 2016 Political discourse

This post isn’t to endorse or condemn either of this year’s presidential candidates. It IS acknowledgement that people are shaken by the election of Donald Trump as president. For many, the uncertainty and fear translates into depression and anxiety. If Hillary Clinton had won, there’d be a lot of Trump supporters suffering in similar fashion. So I would have been writing this post anyway. The big question is how to move forward if the election has…  [Read More]

The Dark Side of Mindfulness

by Bill Brenner January 25, 2016 Coping tools

Mindfulness has been important for my OCD and anxiety management. When used in the right amounts, the tools are immensely helpful. But mindfulness has a dark side, too. Mood music: Dawn Foster points out the dangers in a post she wrote for The Guardian that asks “is mindfulness making us ill?” In the article, we hear from a 37-year-old woman named Claire, who started suffering from panic attacks and depression when she started taking a mindfulness course. The mindfulness training dregded…  [Read More]

When Your Kid Asks About Anti-Depressants

by Bill Brenner October 28, 2015 Children's issues

My 12-year-old has a few things in common with his dad. Both of us have mental disorders (his is ADHD, mine is OCD with wintertime undercurrents of ADHD). Both of us take medication to help manage our ills. But until last weekend, he had never asked the big question: “What do these pills do, anyway?” Mood music: To answer the question, I dusted off an analogy I had used some years ago to explain it…  [Read More]

The Sea Will Save You

by Bill Brenner August 11, 2015 Coping tools

During vacation last week, Erin and I visited Arrowhead, the home of author Herman Melville. I bought an illustrated copy of his most famous work, Moby-Dick and got a whole new appreciation for the opening paragraphs, which I hadn’t read since college. It’s where the character Ishmael says: Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin…  [Read More]

My Kill Switch

by Bill Brenner July 14, 2015 Mental health

For someone accustomed to rising at 4 a.m. on a typical day, getting up at 7 a.m. is a lot like sleeping in. Lately, though, I’ve outdone myself in spades. Some days, I can’t seem to get out of bed before 9 or 10.  I’ve been napping a lot, too. Not just cat naps, but three-hour stretches of being out cold. Mood music: This is what I call my kill switch. During tough times, my body…  [Read More]

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