Husband. Shakta. Vegan. Mentally Ill (Recurrent Major Depression; Generalized Anxiety Disorder; PTSD; Dissociative Disorder [otherwise specified]; ADD)
As a child and through my teens and twenties my meat eating was fast, copious, gluttonous even, and absolutely thoughtless, totally reflexive. Growing up in a suburb of Syracuse, New York, I had only…
What is Depression?
When people hear the word depression, what comes to mind for most of them is sadness. That is, they understand it as a mental/psychological experience of a “depressed” mood: Depressed people feel sad. For many, this feeling of sadness is indeed a primary characterizing trait of depression.
{Note: In early 2014, I became a vegetarian (now vegan), and decided to quit pig farming and transition to vegetable farming. I “announced” my decision in a piece on The Dodo. “Mud Season, 2014” is about my experience of the first few weeks of spring 2014, during which I was trying to take my first…