breakdown

40 hours, 40 years

by Katrina on March 27, 2012

The number 40 has been on my mind a lot lately. For one thing, I’m turning 40 this week. You would think I’d have had ample time to prepare for this milestone, but somehow it snuck up on me like the Norwegian rat that once scampered across my kitchen floor at 6 o’clock in the […]

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Almost two years ago, I wrote my first blog post. As soon as it went live, I thought, I have quite possibly just ruined my entire life. This was about a year after I went home sick from my job and then never went back. The whole experience still felt painfully raw. I was filled […]

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Letters from two stressed out dads

by Katrina on February 27, 2011

I get a lot of emails from women about what it’s like for them to try to work and be mothers. Every once in a while I post them with the author’s permission, like this one from Tennessee, and this one from Baltimore. I think it’s important to share these stories, because it shines a […]

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The problem that has many names

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by Katrina on February 7, 2011

I just stumbled across an interesting story about the term ‘nervous breakdown‘ that came out in The New York Times last year. It explains why the term fell out of favor decades ago with psychiatrists, who now prefer labels like ‘anxiety disorder,’ ‘depression,’ or ‘schizophrenia’ when diagnosing patients. But the term ‘nervous breakdown’ is still […]

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Letter from Baltimore

by Katrina on December 1, 2010

It’s been quiet around here for the last week. I took some time off to focus on my kids. (“Happy Chicken Day!” says my daughter, Ruby.) Kids are back in school and today I’m catching up on a few bloggy things. Thanks to everyone who left their suggestions to my question about what you’d like […]

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Warning bells are ringing

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by Katrina on September 21, 2010

I recently got an email from a blog reader who said she had been obsessively reading and re-reading my first post, and all the comments that followed it. I wanted to include an excerpt of her email here, but wasn’t able to get in touch with her to get permission. (If you’re out there, my […]

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Cry, baby

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by Katrina on September 7, 2010

My first semester in grad school for journalism, more than a decade ago, was a shock. Boom! Right from the beginning we had daily story deadlines. Each of us desperately wanted to prove ourselves to be the next Edward R. Murrow. None of us knew what we were doing. We were awestruck by our professors, […]

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A mother of a day

by Katrina on May 11, 2010

I had a truly crappy Mother’s Day this year. I think Anna Jarvis would understand. Inspired by her own mother’s life, she started a campaign in 1907 to recognize mothers for their contribution to society. She was successful in making Mother’s Day a national holiday, but then spent the rest of her life fighting its […]

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Letter from Tennessee

by Katrina on May 5, 2010

In the last few months I’ve gotten several emails from women (and men) who found the blog and wrote in with their own stories. I love reading these stories but rarely share them. This one from a woman named Tammy in Tennessee was particularly touching to me. I decided to share it with you (with […]

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Book: “it sucked and then i cried”

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by Katrina on April 28, 2010

I have heard from dozens of women over the last year who had some version of a nervous breakdown while working and raising kids, or came very close to one. Some were already friends. Others I met through the blog. There are a lot of us out there. But so far, no one has written […]

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