John Folk-Williams

I’ve written earlier here about the risk of talking to friends when you need support - or just someone to listen. It’s risky because you may find that even good friends might turn away when it comes to depression. Worse than that, they might tell you ...

In the last post, I described ways of talking about depression to my wife and close friends that have helped me get through to them. But there’s another side to the story, as I’m sure you know from your own experience. You often face members of your ...

Aside from what it’s done to me, recurring depression has inflicted the greatest hurt on my wife and children. Most people dealing with depression say the same thing - that their closest relationships are hit hard, and often don’t survive a long cris...

In a comment to my last post, Merely Me posed a key question about emotional abuse: How can you tell whether the behavior is abuse or genuine love "since an abuser can have periods when they act lovingly …apologetic …charming …buys you things to ...

I’ve written here about periods in my life when I was emotionally abusive to my family. It’s painful to look back on those times, harder still to bring it out publicly. But it’s one of the things I’ve had to do as part of recovery from depression. Wo...

It took me a long time to realize how extensive the influence of depression was in my life. That was partly because of a set of aggressive behaviors that I never associated with the illness. Researchers have singled out exactly these symptoms as typi...

I’ve been married for well over 30 years and spent most of that time in one phase or another of depression. My wife experienced a lot of pain because of my behavior, and we came close to splitting up more than once. From reading dozens of stories onl...