by Sean Grube
As many of you may know, my lovely partner, Kristen Abell, is a persistent advocate for mental health in the student affairs field. She’s extensively documented her own battles with depression. I’ve been asked to talk about what it’s like to be a partner (hopefully a supportive one) to someone that lives with depression.
by Stacy Oliver
Blinking slowly, I regained consciousness on the floor of the bathroom in my Residence Director apartment. I remembered walking in there minutes before and leaning against the counter, hoping to ease the pain that was gripping my ribs like a belt cinching tighter and tighter as my breath became shallower.
It didn’t make sense. These were the symptoms my doctor diagnosed as gallbladder attacks, culminating in my having my gallbladder removed. Was there such a thing as phantom gallbladder attacks? It seemed unlikely, but there also wasn’t any other plausible explanation as far as I was concerned. Continue reading
by Kristen Abell
I started writing about my struggles with depression on my personal blog in 2007, but it was several more years before I outed myself to the student affairs community. I can still remember the churning in my stomach and the cold sweat I broke into after hitting “publish” on my post. I can remember the overwhelmingly positive response I got from those who commented, shared, or emailed me privately to thank me for the post. I also remember the silence from people I had hoped and thought would respond – in a way, that spoke louder than the comments from those that supported me.