Over the past twenty years of living with major depression, I’ve met many people in our Western New York community seeking help for depression. The questions are often the same: “Where do I go for help? What local resources are there? I have an adult child, co-worker, or elderly parent struggling with depression. How can I help and support them?”
As a lawyer and mental health advocate, people have asked me these questions for years because they know about my work fighting stigma. When stigma goes down, treatment goes up.
Our community has terrific mental health resources, but most folks don’t know how to find them or learn about what they do. I thought it was time, perhaps long overdue, to create a website that provides not only resources, both local and national, but more: podcasts, videos, and a place where I blog about living and working with depression. I chose the name – The Buffalo Depression Project – because it is a work in progress, an ongoing “project” that I hope will change and grow as the conversations about mental health in our community evolve, especially about depression, but generally, about any form of mental illness.
I know about the struggles people with depression face – at work, at home, and living in the world with mental illness. The two pillars of depression – a sense of helplessness and hopelessness – can darken the days of sufferers and those who care about them.
But things can get better. People can learn to manage their depression or help a loved one to do so. I have experienced this and known hundreds of people who have done so across the U.S. and in our community.
We all need help sometimes. So many of us can’t fix depression on our own.
This website is meant to answer that call.