Health Expert Christopher Lukas shares health management news and commentary at HealthCentral.com. HealthCentral.com is one of the top health destinations on the Web, with more than 35 condition-specific, wellness and general health Web properties. http://www.healthcentral.com/profiles/c/121/index http://www.healthcentral.com/profiles/c/121/rss self application/xml en-us 15 120 19 http://www.healthcentral.com/images/hc_logo_sm.gif http://www.healthcentral.com/profiles/c/121/index http://www.healthcentral.com/depression/c/121/45563/good-days Sun, 26 Oct 2008 14:52:00 -0400 Christopher Lukas They do come, don't they?   With the return of Autumn, the use of therapy and medication, there are those mornings when even the depression of last night doesn't last. The days when I can see that my interior thoughts are wrong: I'm not guilty of all those terrible things; I'm not an inferior person; I'm not a fraud; I'm not even as bad a husband as I thought I was. That doesn't mean that everything is fine. Oh no, I wouldn't be a... http://www.healthcentral.com/depression/c/121/45563/good-days http://www.healthcentral.com/depression/c/121/45562/ill-elderly Sun, 26 Oct 2008 14:51:00 -0400 Christopher Lukas When I first wrote about suicide - 30 years ago - I was a terribly depressed person, trying to understand the deaths in my own family. While suicide continued to be the means of release for some members of my family, and while I still deplored, feared, and preached against its use as a way out of depression, I have had some reconsideration of one of the aspects of suicide against which I railed for so long.The terminally ill face a different... http://www.healthcentral.com/depression/c/121/45562/ill-elderly http://www.healthcentral.com/depression/c/121/40624/anniversary Sun, 19 Oct 2008 10:39:00 -0400 Christopher Lukas   I am writing this on September 11th. As the date approached, I wondered if I would react to the bombing of the World Trade Center towers with increased depression, or would I take this as just another day in the life of a somewhat depressed individual.It's been a fairly rough year, all things considered. Chemotherapy for my perpetually returning non-Hodgkins lymphoma, followed by double pneumonia, and then the sudden, unexpected (and... http://www.healthcentral.com/depression/c/121/40624/anniversary http://www.healthcentral.com/depression/c/121/40623/murphy-law Sat, 18 Oct 2008 10:38:00 -0400 Christopher Lukas If anything bad could happen, it will happen.   So goes "Murphy's Law." Looked at one way, the "law" is a perverse view of the universe. One that says that given equal chances, a bad outcome will be what happens. Looked at another way, it's a fairly scientific view: if you wait long enough or play the game (or live long enough), bad things rather than good things will happen.As a depressive, though, it's a rule of life. And that's too... http://www.healthcentral.com/depression/c/121/40623/murphy-law http://www.healthcentral.com/depression/c/121/36203/living-depressed Mon, 18 Aug 2008 17:45:00 -0400 Christopher Lukas A few weeks ago I talked about what it's like to live with a depressed person. I want to add to those thoughts. The occasion for adding to them is a question posed by someone on this web site who wanted to know how to tell others that she wasn't being difficult on purpose; that her behavior is the result of an illness, not unlike many illnesses a person can get, only this one happens to be mental - causing behavioral anomalies, not... http://www.healthcentral.com/depression/c/121/36203/living-depressed http://www.healthcentral.com/depression/c/121/35968/support-group Mon, 11 Aug 2008 14:47:00 -0400 Christopher Lukas The other night, around 6 p.m., I went to a depression and bipolar support group. Despite having had dysthymia for many years, I had never attended this kind of group.For one thing, I believed that psychotherapy and medication was all I needed to keep on an even keel. For another, I am one of those people who feels I don't want to share "my story" with a lot of strangers, and I'm not sure I want a lot of strangers sharing their story with me.... http://www.healthcentral.com/depression/c/121/35968/support-group http://www.healthcentral.com/depression/c/121/34434/medicine Thu, 07 Aug 2008 11:14:00 -0400 Christopher Lukas   It is not uncommon for people to tell me that using antidepressants is against their better judgment. "I'm not that depressed." "They don't do any good." "I'll lose my sex drive!" "I don't want to become dependent." "I've tried one; it didn't work." "I've read that they're really harmful. I take herbal medicine instead." Let me take each of these arguments one at a time: 1. "I'm not that depressed." Anti-depressant medicines are... http://www.healthcentral.com/depression/c/121/34434/medicine http://www.healthcentral.com/depression/c/121/35729/living-depressed Thu, 31 Jul 2008 17:44:00 -0400 Christopher Lukas   It's time again to talk about an unpleasant subject. Unpleasant for me, and probably unpleasant for those of you who are depressed and have a spouse or lover or companion or partner who is not depressed. I was married for 46 years. My wife died only a few months ago. For many of those years, I had dysthymia, and thought that my problems were the most important in the world. I couldn't understand that I was causing some grief in the... http://www.healthcentral.com/depression/c/121/35729/living-depressed http://www.healthcentral.com/depression/c/121/34026/ve-depression Wed, 23 Jul 2008 09:49:00 -0400 Christopher Lukas Over the years, I've learned a few things about depression that would have surprised me when I first started having symptoms. More importantly, I've learned a few things about myself. If I'm angry at someone, but afraid to state my anger, I can get depressed. It used to take days or weeks before I figured out the cause. If someone's angry at me, I can get depressed. If I'm not depressed, but the stock market goes down, I get depressed. And it... http://www.healthcentral.com/depression/c/121/34026/ve-depression http://www.healthcentral.com/depression/c/121/34029/happy Wed, 16 Jul 2008 09:52:00 -0400 Christopher Lukas Recently, I got a wonderful review from a journal called Publisher's Weekly. The book in question is BLUE GENES, a memoir that comes out this Fall.   I read the review (bookstores read the journal to decide what to buy for their clientele) and said, "That's marvelous, but who are they talking about? Not me, surely."In other words, I downplayed the review. Why?   Well, I didn't want to get my hopes up that the book might sell well.... http://www.healthcentral.com/depression/c/121/34029/happy