depression

{Read Part 1: Falling} {Read Part 2: Clouds Lifting} {Read Part 3: Changing Paths} *   *   * Part 4: But For Grace In the fall of 2009, just a few months after Trouble was born, we made the decision to move back to Florida.   It had become clear that my 85-year-old mother-in-law, Marie, was no longer able to live on her own, so we made plans to pick her up in Chicago and bring her to Florida to live with us. I wasn’t eager to leave our nice little life in Seattle and the transition back to Punta Gorda was more than a little painful. The combination of ... read more

{Read Part 1: Falling} {Read Part 2: Clouds Lifting} *   *   * Part 3: Changing Paths Three days after Hurricane Charley we boarded up our mangled house and drove to St. Louis so I could begin law school. After a year-and-a-half of single-mindedly focusing on getting myself there, I was so excited to start I could hardly stand it.  So  I was stunned to realize, just a few months into it, that I hated law school.  With a passion. I despised everything about it:  the intensity, the subject matter, the cut-throatedness of the people around me, the fact that every book cost $150, the Socratic method of teaching….all ... read more

{Read Part 1: Falling} *   *   * Part 2: Clouds Lifting The thing about hitting rock bottom is that you don’t actually know you are there until things finally start to get better.  At the time, it was a very scary place to be.  After spending two years living under the dark cloud of depression all my hope was gone.  I knew nothing except sadness and misery and I felt so utterly alone. Most of my friends, even those who were supportive at first, had given up on me.  Those who hadn’t given up simply didn’t know how to help, so they just let me be. People can ... read more