We need to acknowledge the nobility and effort of making it through the day. “We talk about how suicide is ‘selfish,’” a friend said to me a few weeks ago. “But that means that people who are suicidal but struggling to live are doing something incredibly selfless, every day. Why don’t we talk about that?” On […]
Feeling sexy in a body my culture deems unsexy, while also believing that body should dutifully service someone else’s pleasure doesn’t make me want to slip on a silk teddy and give it the old college try. In a small examination room at my doctor’s office, I sit on the narrow table wearing a papery […]
It took me a while to understand that those times when I need to go back on medication are not indicative of failure. I’m watching a British murder mystery and I’m crying. I love British murder mysteries—they’re pretty much the only TV shows I watch—but the entire time I’ve been watching this show on this day, I’ve […]
My silence only perpetuated the stigma. In 2001, my life from the outside looked pretty great. I was 21, my marriage seemed happy, my husband was in graduate school, and though money was tight, we had a nice apartment and two healthy kids, a 3-year-old son and baby daughter. But it took everything I had […]
And if I were to get pregnant, I’d do it again. You’ve seen the ads on Facebook. “If you used Zoloft during pregnancy and your baby was born with a birth defect, you may be entitled to compensation.” Pfizer is accused of hocking the drug to pregnant women despite known risks, including “holes in the heart, […]
Fluffy self-help memes and open talk about anxiety may be irritating to some people, but the truth is, I don’t give a shit. Shame leads to silence, and silence can kill. When I was 5 years old, I was terrified of admitting that I couldn’t finish the gelatinous beef stew we summer program kids had […]
This medication may not work. But to denounce the very idea of it is to deny women’s basic nature as sexual beings. This week I have been barraged by well-meaning people who are telling the world just how much they believe that the new medication for women’s primary sexual dysfunction, hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD), […]
This originally appeared on Laurie Cunningham’s blog. Republished here with permission. After two tough pregnancies and struggling with depression, I’m finally feeling happy. So why can’t I stop waiting for the other shoe to drop? I’ll have to type fast, because Tess is asleep and I don’t know how long it will last. She’s a […]
