Last week, writer Sherman Alexie wrote a deeply personal Facebook post recounting his current struggle with depression and announcing that he was cancelling part of his book tour.
The tour is a promotion of Alexie’s latest book, "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me," a memoir about his late mother. The tour, said Alexie, has been an experience of “rebreaking my heart night after night. I have, to use recovery vocabulary, been retraumatizing myself.”
In the wake of Alexie’s honesty, we want to ask listeners with mental illness about how they’ve dealt with serious bouts of depression. Has the stigma surrounding mental health problems lessened? Do you feel you can be as honest as Alexie with your family, friends and employers?
You can find mental health resources here.
Guest:
Danielle Keenan-Miller, Ph.D., assistant adjunct professor and director of the UCLA Psychology Clinic; she is a licensed clinical psychologist