I wrote this essay in early May, hoping the Albany Times Union would run it on their op ed pages, but they still haven’t gotten around to it, so I’m finally publishing it here. It’s more urgent than ever, but people still don’t seem to understand how drastically ill he is. Duty to Warn: The… [Read More]
My Quaalude Confessions, Part One
Reading about Bill Cosby’s fondness for using Quaaludes to drug women he wanted to assault sexually brought back vivid memories of my life in Manhattan in the late Sixties and early Seventies. The bottom drawer of my dresser was crammed full of pharmaceutical samples, including Quaaludes, and one night at Max’s Kansas City, a movie… [Read More]
Paranoid schizophrenics I’ve known
Esteban Santiago, the lone gunman who killed five innocent strangers and wounded six more at the Fort Lauderdale airport on January 6th, had sought help from the government in November. He walked into an FBI office in Anchorage, Alaska, claiming that the U.S. government was controlling his mind and forcing him to watch Islamic State… [Read More]
Robin Williams and the Dangers of Depression
As one of the millions of people who have suffered from severe clinical depression, I can readily imagine why Robin Williams committed suicide. When you’re in the depths of depression, it sometimes seems as though the darkness will never end, and suicide is the only way out. And when life pelts you with lemons, you… [Read More]
Anger Management Part I
Is it just me, or does anger management get easier with age? It’s taken me decades, but everyday aggravations don’t get me nearly as riled up as they used to. Is it simply that my psychotropic meds are working the way they should? Is it because of hormonal and biochemical changes as I creep toward… [Read More]
Deja vu: Another troubled young man, another massacre
Back in July, I concluded my blog post about the horrific massacre in the Colorado movie theatre as follows: Social media and mass communications have become so overwhelmingly powerful, the images of violence and mayhem so inescapable, and powerful deadly weapons so readily available, it’s no surprise that for certain deranged individuals, the lure of… [Read More]