I’ve suffered from depression from time to time. Recently the catalyst has been my divorce. It’s an odd thing, depression, one day we’re feeling happy and content, the next day, due to changes in our chemistry, we’re feeling so much dread we’d consider killing ourselves to get relief. For me, that impulse towards self-destruction is more about the shame of being depressed again. I’m getting over that shame. And writing about my “issues” has been a sort of therapy for me. Here, I’m collecting the depression and addiction posts, to provide a thread for you to follow. I hope it leaves you more calm, cool, and connected. Peace.
My first book on depression and my own recovery story is now available through Amazon. Here Comes the Darkness: Surviving and Thriving After a Diagnosis of Mental Illness.
My response to a friend’s suicide
- Important Read: Fighting Back Against Depression: How to be a Friend
- Voyeurism, Sadness, and Traveling Alone: a Tincture of Depression
Emotions Are Messy (depression, anger, divorce, falling apart)
- Low Power Mode: Managing Depression and Energy
- We All Need Someone We Can Lean On
- DRINKING: Dancing with the Ghost of My Dead Father?
- Gone Dark Again, and Again: Reanimating After a Quiet Period
- A Covid-19 Panic Attack, Breakdown and My Fear of Depression
- How to Love Someone Who Is Struggling: Relationship Building Skills
- Countdown to Ecstasy: I Know You Want Me To Be Happy
- This Feels Like Letting Go: A Moody February with Storms and Sunshine
- That Long-Term Relationship You Are Seeking… It’s With Yourself
- The Inner Life of Your Kid: Navigating Our Own Rainy Fridays
- Finding Joy as a Single Parent During the Holidays: Our Celebration
- The First Holiday Season As a Single Dad: Stepping Into the Void
- A Fractured Family Christmas: One Single-parent’s Anti-Depression Plan
- The Hero’s Journey of Depression: The Max Powers Story
- I’ve Lost My Fire: How to Regain a Passionate Life
- The Inner Life of Your Kid: Navigating Our Own Rainy Fridays
- The Irreconcilably Irritating Present And How to Find Peace in It
- “When Are You Going to Get Over Your Divorce?” Is the Wrong Question
- She Was Lovely and She Liked To Drink: A Third Glass Love Story
- Managing Depression In Romantic Relationships: Getting Real w/ Myself
- Divorce, Depression, and My Ex-wife: Humans of Divorce
- Crossing the Chasm into Fantastic Realism: Salvation and Celebration
- More Self-Care, Less Rush Rush Stress and Anxiety
- You Are Loved: A Meditation on Self-love and Self-awareness
- Even the High Is Exhausting: A Mindful Pause
- If You’re Happy and You Know It: Our Spiritual Connection w/ Each Other
- When Hopelessness Enters the Equation
- Depression: Yeah, Me and My Broken Leg
- A Moment of Silence, Followed By… (checking-in on holiday depression)
- Self-Care and Fitness: How You Treat Yourself Says More than You Think
- Standing Strong Together: Boundaries and Relationships in the #METOO Era
- What the Bear in Your Bed Might Be Telling You: Managing Anxiety
- Going Meta: Divorce, Depression, and Befriending Sadness
- Do You Know the DNA of Your Perfect Day?
- Am I a Suicide Statistic?
- Voyeurism, Sadness, and Traveling Alone: a Tincture of Depression
- Displacement: A Single-Parenting Love Story
- Little Ghosts Still Flutter My Heart: a Depression Story
- How My Bipolar Depression Showed Up in High School
- Voyeurism, Sadness, and Traveling Alone: a Tincture of Depression
- Little Ghosts Still Flutter My Heart: a Depression Story
- Grief is Underneath: A Divorce Fable
- Followed by the Black Dog (of depression)
- When I Stopped Believing – And Started Growing Up
- There’s Something Missing
- Facing Health Issues Alone; Sometimes You Just Want Someone to Hold Your Hand
- Sometimes, What Is Broken Is Meant to be Left Behind
- Growing Up in a Warzone: Childhood Trauma and Adult PTSD
- Getting High: The Flip Side of Depression
- Depression in a Relationship: Keep Climbing the Hill
- What’s Underneath the Pain?
- Sitting In Silence with the Grief
- Facing My Personal Dragon: Depression
- Refinding Yourself After a Breakup
- Avoidance Never Works
- What My Breakup and Recovery Have Felt Like
- My Side of the Mountain – Understanding Depression
- Please Don’t Underestimate My Fragility or My Ferocity
- The Little Oblivion I Will Often Seek
- Minimizing Collateral Damage of Depression and Divorce
- Thinking About Doing It: Depression and Creativity
- Divorce Recovery Journaling: The Life You Write Is the Life You Live
- What Am I Doing Here? Ah, Another Divorce Blog
- We Almost Lost the Ship
- Thunderstorms, Migraines, and the Man I’ll Never Be
- At the End of Sex and My Marriage
- The Fracture of Divorce: My Dad’s Hand On My Head, Forever
- The Bittersweet Ballet of Single Dad Mornings
- Father, My Father: Forgiving My Dad and Myself on Father’s Day
- What “Responsible Separation” Means
- Avoiding Holiday Depression: Notes from a Single Dad
- Asking Men to Open Up and Be Vulnerable: Are You Ready?
- Listening to the Little Man Inside, Healing Our Hearts
- Lean Into Anger: Healing My Father’s Fury
Divorce Triggered My Depression
- Experience, Strength, and Hope After a Divorce with Kids
- The Loss of Kid-time Has Been the Biggest Source of Pain in My Life
- How Men Carry the Emotional Load of Parenting Differently Than Women
- Finding Joy as a Single Parent During the Holidays: Our Celebration
- The First Holiday Season As a Single Dad: Stepping Into the Void
- A Fractured Family Christmas: One Single-parent’s Anti-Depression Plan
- The Loss of Kid-time Has Been the Biggest Source of Pain in My Life
- The Breakfast King: All the Family Mornings Lost After Divorce
- The Narrative After Divorce: What Your Kids Will Never Know
- A Dad’s Path After Divorce Is Hard and Lonely
- An Absence of Time with My Kids: The Gap Years
- Finding Joy as a Single Parent During the Holidays: Our Celebration
- The First Holiday Season As a Single Dad: Stepping Into the Void
- A Fractured Family Christmas: One Single-parent’s Anti-Depression Plan
- What I Need To Tell You: Take Heart After Divorce. It Gets Better.
- Co-Parenting Problems and Healing Strategies
- Back to the Beginning: Co-Parenting with Serenity
- The Death of the Connected Co-Parent
- Losing Everything Again, And Finding Happiness Anyway
- Empty Nest Syndrome: How Typical Divorce Affects Fathers Differently
- Letting Go of Broken Things: A Marriage Comes Apart
- All of the White Horses Have Already Been Taken
- Father’s Day As a Single Dad: How Divorce Changed Everything
- Total System Failure: Rebooting My Life, Again
- The Divorce Part You’ll Never Understand: Living Within the Compromise
- Why Fathers Give Up After Divorce
- A Quick-Start Guide for the Divorcing Dad: The Off Times
- Displacement: A Single-Parenting Love Story
- In Divorce: No We Can’t Be Friends
- Losing Dads in Divorce
- Back to School Time as a Divorced Dad
- Rising Again from a Depressed Silence: Dating a Divorced Dad
- Finding Balance In the Inequitable Life After Divorce
- Loss of the Proximity Effect as a Divorced Dad
- Rebuilding Myself Into the Person I Was Before We Married
- Dear Daughter, We’ll Catch Up on Thursday
- Hey Dad, Fancy Meeting You Here 20-years After Your Death
- The Song at the End of My Marriage – Radiohead’s “All I Need”
- Burning Down the House of Love and Hope
- Holding Your Dream Together As Your Marriage Comes Apart
- Coming Full Circle: A Dad’s Experience of the Divorce Recovery Cycle
- Down Is the New Up: Divorced with Children
- How Long Will it Hurt? Divorce Recovery, the Road Back to Happiness
- Divorce Recovery Journaling: The Life You Write Is the Life You Live
- What Am I Doing Here? Ah, Another Divorce Blog
Depression and Romantic Relationships
- Own Your Pain, Leave the Rest Alone: Relationship Building Skills
- I Know My Depression Frightens You: It’s Okay, We’re In This Together
- Uppers and Downers: Caffeine, Alcohol, and Micro-dosing
- How a Loving Relationship Changes Everything: The Vulnerability Prayer
- From Dating to Love: Either Show Up 100% of the Time, Or You’re Gone
- How Men Carry the Emotional Load of Parenting Differently Than Women
- Relationship Building Skills & Wisdom: BRAVING & The Four Agreements
Carving Out a Moment with a Poem
A little side note on drinking
- Drinking Fuzzy Navels and Spending Time Together Doing Nothing
- The Third Glass is an Anti-Aphrodisiac for Me
- The Trouble with Alcohol: She Likes To Drink, I Don’t
Moments of Hope
Always Love,
John McElhenney – life coach austin texas
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image: sad, creative commons usage
The new book is now available.