Depression – Keith R Wilson

Freedom

If you have ever been to a sawmill like the one I used to run, you have seen one of the most fearsome objects you are ever likely to meet: a saw blade at least three feet in diameter with teeth as big as a tiger’s whirring loudly just a couple feet from the operator.Continue reading “Freedom”

See, Do, Teach

If you think that going to therapy means you can go to a shrink’s office, unload all your problems, and walk away a new man, you’ll be disappointed. You might feel better for a minute, but if you go home and do the same things you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always got. TherapyContinue reading “See, Do, Teach”

How to Get Out of Quicksand

I was walking along the beach one day, having a nice vacation, when I stepped into quicksand. It wasn’t a deep pit like you see in the movies, the kind that can swallow a horse and rider, but it was quicksand, just the same. I soon was in up to my knees, just like inContinue reading “How to Get Out of Quicksand”

The Shrink’s Links: Bright Ideas for Treating the Winter Blues

Bringing you the best of mental health every week. Christmas time is a busy time of the year for malls, elves, and postal workers, but, despite the myth, it is not a busy time for us shrinks. Actually, it’s April. Nonetheless, there is something about this time of year that makes it hard, especially inContinue reading “The Shrink’s Links: Bright Ideas for Treating the Winter Blues”

The Shrink’s Links: Nadia Bolz Weber

Bringing you the best of mental health every week. Nadia Bolz Weber is a foul-mouthed, tattooed, former comic, turned preacher. Read about why she calls her depression Francis. Click here to go to the site.

The Shrink’s Links: Hallelujah

Bringing you the best of mental health every week. A twenty year old, suffering from severe anxiety and depression, gets up and signs Hallelujah. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZDeJ14EZRk

When Madness Takes Cover

So, you’ve stopped drinking, or drugging, or gambling, or sleeping around. Your depression seems to have lifted. You haven’t been violent. Your anxiety no longer makes all the decisions. You’re up in the morning and dressed when you need to be. The madness seems to have gone away. Has it, really? Madness takes cover sometimesContinue reading “When Madness Takes Cover”

Scarcity Mentality: Why you aren’t happy when you’ve got it so good

Food has never been cheaper. Houses never warmer in the winter or cooler in the summer. People not only live longer, but they stay healthier longer. Information about almost anything is at your fingertips. Crime and violence, by any objective measure, is at an all-time low. There’s opportunity to travel in less than 24 hoursContinue reading “Scarcity Mentality: Why you aren’t happy when you’ve got it so good”

Acknowledgment: April is the Cruelest Month

Contrary to popular belief, suicide rates do not peak at Christmas time. Here in Western New York, as elsewhere, they peak in April. So does all kinds of psychiatric hospitalization, depression and relapses of addiction. Why is this so, when hopes of Spring abound? Maybe the contrast between the inner weather and the outer weatherContinue reading “Acknowledgment: April is the Cruelest Month”

What is Madness?

Someone asked why the name of this blog is Madness 101. Shouldn’t I call it Mental Illness 101? Isn’t mental illness the proper, politically correct term? It is, but it’s not really mental illness that I’m writing about. I’m writing about the related subject of madness. Illness is something that happens to you beyond yourContinue reading “What is Madness?”