Tag Archives: depression

Chapter 4: Had to manage my expectations… And what do you do when you are given life-changing news? Spiral? Lean on your support system? Self-isolate? Crash? Go in and out of depression? Well, I can safely say that I did all of the above. At different times, my needs called …

We don’t have words for everything. We never will. Such is the nature of language; such is the nature of change. All around us, things evolve, develop new characteristics. Things become extinct, disappear from memory. Someone from as recent as a century ago would find it difficult to follow a …

“[…] A thrill of hope! The weary world rejoices. Long lay the world in sin and error pining, till He appeared and the soul felt its worth…” Excerpt from the carol O Holy Night. 2024 has been a very tough year! The word ‘pining’ captures our mood after the battering of …

Former TV6 reporter and producer Charlene Stuart shares her story on living with depression: I grew up in Guyana and the earliest memories of my childhood were that my family was rich! The standard I used was this: my now deceased Dad bought us every single piece of wearable merch …

Last Sunday, Queen’s Hall was the venue for Dawad Philip’s Sunday with the Warlord, a play about the calypsonian Lord Blakie (Carlton Joseph). Blakie was perhaps best known for his two Road March wins, “Steelband Clash” (1954) and “Maria” (1962), and the play is a sort of narrative about his …

“No arts; no letters; no society: and which is worse of all, continual fear, and the danger of violent death, are the life of men, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.” Hobbes, 1651. As I approached Christmas this year, I felt the world had become darker. I was thinking about …

For the last three years, we have been mired in grief. Each month seems more challenging than the one before. All sense of normalcy appears to have departed, making it easy to lose sight of joy, hope, and happiness. We have endured two years of lockdowns, masking and handwashing only …

“[…] I have no difficulty with the working journalists reporting the news as they find it, whether positive or negative… My concern is with the columnists and the  established letter-writers. “I am suggesting that you devote at least one of your contributions per month to a positive message—something that will …

Growing up as a child of the ‘50s, you learned that ‘laugh and cry does live in the same house’. This piece of folk wisdom meant that after joy will come sorrow.  The reverse is also true: ‘weeping may endure for the night, but joy comes in the morning’. The …

In the period between Christmas 2020 and 2021, because of Covid-19, we have lost a staggering 2,456 persons. We have empty chairs and beds in many homes, which serve as a haunting reminder.  How do we eat a Christmas Day meal without the presence and joy of a loved one? …

“[…] I had a problem when she said, ‘No matter how privileged or happy your circumstances are, most humans suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.’ “No degree of latitude from journalistic licence should be allowed about that statement. It is incorrect—not just because I am a psychiatrist saying so…” The following …

For those accustomed to an interior life—that is, living without need for external stimulation—the enforced isolation of a lockdown has been little more than an inconvenience. However by now, everyone has had to confront the grim surge of Covid cases; and anxiety and fear have mounted. The darks days will …