Depression: An Interview with Author Sharon Cathcart
I’m sitting here in my virtual living room with author Sharon Cathcart, to talk about psychological depression—which I’ve had my own experiences with, as you may know if you’ve been following this blog for any length of time. Sharon has been a journalist, a newspaper editor, and an award-winning poet. Now, she’s authored a novel, [...]
Depression and the Software Developer: The Last Straw (Conclusion)
Here’s the last part of this series of posts, “Depression and the Software Developer.” This last story I started on Monday, part 4 of “Depression and the Software Developer”. [Note: You can read the story from the beginning in order to catch up.] No client or employer will ever admit to you that he doesn’t [...]
Depression and the Software Developer: The Last Straw
Here’s a story I’ve been keeping on the back burner for almost a year now. I haven’t published it until now, because it still hit too close to home. But this week, I’ve scheduled an interview with Sharon Cathcart, author of In the Eye of the Beholder, which I am currently reading, and a memoir [...]
When Nothing Goes the Way It Ought
This past week, I asked on Facebook, “When NOTHING seems to be going as it should, how do you avoid getting all negative?” My Facebook friends gave me a number of possible answers, but nothing really hit home, this past Saturday morning in synagogue when we read a selection from First Samuel chapter 1. Suddenly, [...]
Why Are We So Unhappy Having All These Things?
One of my daughters today was approaching tears, when I almost blew up at her. I didn’t actually yell at her, I hope, but I felt my temperature and voice rising in unison. She was upset, because we didn’t have an extra pool pass, so that she could go to the community pool party today, [...]
Stories to Evoke Fear; Stories to Inspire Love
This is part 2 of my story of being subjected to the “texting while driving” video making the rounds, the kind of unintended effects videos like this can have, and why the alternative is so much more satisfying. To sum up from yesterday, a friend of mine posted on Facebook the “texting while driving” video, [...]
WARNING: Be Inspired Rather than Subjected to the “Texting while Driving” Video
I was going to write about something else today, but now I’ve forgotten what it is. Instead, I’m going to talk about a personally traumatic experience. Because I was one of the people today subjected to the “texting while driving” video that’s been making the rounds. I say “subjected to,” because I had not heard [...]
A Prayer for the Depressed
Today, for Wishcasting Wednesday, Jamie Ridler asks, “What do you wish to make room for?” Like most people, I have so much stuff, both physically and figuratively, it’s hard to make room for anything. But what I really want to make room for today is the following blog post, which I’ve wanted to write. But [...]
Hope through Feelings of Hopelessness
I’ve been updating my software-development résumé, trying some different things in hopes of finding a reasonably productive SD gig. Along the way, I think I may rub a few people wrong, but I think it’s for the best. Because it’s the only way I know to ultimately accomplish my goals. There’s something about the truly [...]
Depression and the Software Developer (part 3)
(This is a continuation from part 2 of “Depression and the Software Developer”.) [Note: This is a recounting of an experience from several years ago. Read the story from the beginning in order to catch up.] According to psychologist Joe Griffin, the cycle of depression starts when innate needs are not being met. Among these [...]