Belated Thanksgiving

Recently, a friend of a friend committed suicide. I wish I could say this was a rare occurrence, but I'm aware of a few suicides over the last couple of years. These have not been people I've known personally, but I think everyone can recognize the effect this would have on their survivors. And the question that hangs in the air is always the same: What could drive someone to take their own life?

A few years ago I was diagnosed with moderate to severe depression. After a couple of rounds of talks with a therapist, and some trial-and-error work with various drugs, I'm able to manage it. Not that I don't still get depressed on occasion. Everyone does. I'm just able now to think through it and bring myself around the way most people do.

There are two distinct occasions where I was low enough to take such drastic measures. I won't go into details, but suffice to say, if it weren't for these two people, I might not be writing this now. The first occasion was a long time ago, when depression was still something that no one talked about. The second finally led to my diagnosis.

So that's what I'm thankful for this year: that Herman Geller and Tammy Howard were there.