Robin Williams died of depression
I was in the middle of writing this week’s blog post on the advantages and disadvantages of having a theory about human behavior when I received a breaking news story on my iPhone: Robin Williams was dead. “Oh, no,” I screamed in my mind. “That can’t be. I loved him.” A few minutes later additional news came in: A representative for Williams told Entertainment Weekly, "Robin Williams passed away this morning. He has been battling severe depression of late.” And then: According to a press release issued by the Marin County Coroner’s office, the Sheriff’s office suspects the death to [...]
Can Childhood Trauma Shorten Your Life?
I recently read an article that could save your life. Over the past 18 years, Dr. Vincent Felitti and his professional partner, Dr. Robert Anda, have been researching the effects of adverse childhood experience (ACE) on long-term physical health. Childhood trauma leads to serious illnesses as adults Here are some of their conclusions: “People with ACE scores of four or higher [meaning, there were four or more adverse childhood experiences] were twice as likely to be diagnosed with cancer, twice as likely to have heart disease, four times as likely to suffer from emphysema or chronic bronchitis, and twelve times [...]
Don’t ever give up hope
For most of my life I didn’t want to be me. In fact, I was so unhappy being me that I wanted to be someone else. When I was in my twenties I wanted to be Fred Astaire, because I liked the light and joyful sense of life he projected when dancing on screen. Later in life I didn’t care who else I was as long as it wasn’t me. During my twenties and thirties I contemplated suicide, evidence of how utterly miserable I was at that time. Unless you have personally experienced depression it is hard to imagine how [...]
