I recently had a conversation centered around the idea of hopelessness and suicide. The conversation was dark, depressing and eye opening. I am always amazed when I speak with someone who does not believe in depression, at least in the clinical sense. They feel it is only in a person's mind and if they would just...DO something about it, it would be all right. Unfortunately, depression is real. It is a living, breathing part of your everyday life if you have fallen under the spell. You cannot escape it without a dedicated plan that often includes counseling and medication. What I find myself asking is, "Why do some people seem susceptible to depression when others do not?" I have never

We’ve all felt the pangs of Sacramento’s economic downturn, from some people losing jobs to others finding it more difficult every day to get one, and the more unfortunate circumstance of many even losing their businesses or homes. But how much longer is it expected to last, and is this the worst of it? The Sacramento Press asked people in Capitol Park their thoughts on whether Sacramento is in a recession or a depression.   Capitol area resident, 55-year-old Diana Williams, program technician for the Department of Health, said she sees both: “The reason for it is that I’ve been on the service (for the State) a little while, and I’ve experienced difficulties in politics where it’s inf

Martha Schmidtmann Dunne, whose husband Mike Dunne is a local food and wine writer and editor at Sacramento Bee, found that she was also a writer when she began penning a book about her family’s struggle with her youngest son’s Asperger’s Syndrome. “I never had any intention of writing a book. I was just trying to understand my son,” said Dunne, who wrote her book in the house she shares with her husband and son in Sacramento. Four years ago, Dunne and her husband came to the realization that their adult son, Dylan Dunne, then 36, had Asperger’s Syndrome. This led her on a three-year research spree of Asperger’s that eventually culminated with the publishing of her book, “Wait, What do