Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
I'm just poking my head back in with a few madly self-promotional
announcements:

First, WITD is mentioned in this week's "Working Wounded" column, which runs
on ABCNews.com and the Wall St. Journal online as well as in a bunch of
newspapers large and small (including the SF Chronicle, hooray!).

Second, we've just launched a bulletin board on Hazelden's own website, and
Beth and I will be checking in regularly to talk about depression and work,
answer questions, and wax opinionated on related issues. You can find out
more at our own website:  http://www.workinginthedark.com/share.html

And third -- less an announcement than a request -- if you've read WITD and
enjoyed it, please do us the honor of giving us a positive review on Amazon.
We got a really great one last week that just made us glow with happiness.
In my opinion, good reviews are even better than medication.
  

    
Excellent!
  

    
Great going, Fawn.
  

    
Two months since the last post. I hope someone wanders in here again.
I just got hip to all the great topics here on inkwell and am slowly
going thru them. So far this has been the most interesting and relevant
one for me personally. I gotta get this book.

My work and finances have been the primary source of my depression for
most of my life.I began taking antidepressants about six years ago. 
Now that I'm disabled physically I'm even deeper  into depression and
have been fine-tuning the medications.  I was mostly freelancing before
the physical illness struck. Now I am doing almost nothing in terms of
freelancing and little about finding a job. I do collect royalties,
and I got six months of SSI while acutely ill; I'm now trying to make
that permanent.

Do you know, and/or do you deal in your book with the issue of how
difficult, or easy, is it to claim disability and collect SSI or SSDI
payments because of depression?
  

    
I'm sorry, Marcy, we didn't touch on those topics at all. However, we spent
quite a bit of space on how to tell if your depression qualifies as a
disability under the ADA, so you might find that helpful in making your
argument to the SSI/SSDI folks.
  

    
Thanks. I'm trying to get permanent SSi based on my lung disease, but
should i get denied I will reapply based on depression; my therapist
suggested it! I'll check out your book .
  

    
Thank you! I hope it's useful.
  

    
I've actually found that working is one of the best antidotes for my
depression. It's sometimes a struggle to stay focused now that I'm a
student and essentially work for myself, but I always feel stronger
after I've made progress. The same applies to running- though I
sometimes hate to do it, it always proves to have been worthwhile.
  

    
Erk, I'm sorry it's taken me so long to get back here! Yes, lots of people
with depression find that work helps them focus and takes their minds off
the symptoms. I love the analogy to running (or any other exercise) -- it's
hard to get started sometimes, but you always feel better afterwards.

Hey, for those of you in the Midwest, I'm going to be doing a Q&A and
booksigning (minus my co-author) on January 26 at 2pm at the Barnes & Noble
in Ladue, MO. That's suburban St. Louis. If you can tear yourself away from
the Super Bowl pre-game festivities, come on out and say hi.