In April 2006, one month out of the psych unit at Johns Hopkins hospital, I composed my first raw and candid piece about my depression, inspired by Montgomery County Executive Douglas Duncan who withdrew his candidacy for governor of Maryland because of his struggle with depression. I sent the piece to the Washington Post. It was rejected. Then I send it to the Baltimore Sun. Another rejection. I finally used it as a column for my biweekly gig with Catholic News Service. The piece made it up to Beliefnet.com, unto the desk of a wonderful woman who e-mailed me and asked if I’d like to write anything else on depression.

I hesitated. But then I thought about Douglas Duncan and all of my mental health heroes like Abraham Lincoln and Kay Redfield Jamison who weren’t afraid to write about their experiences with mental illness. A few articles for Beliefnet led to an invitation, in December of 2006, to write a spiritual mental health blog, Beyond Blue. My brilliant, compassionate, and supportive editor, Holly Rossi, was a partner in launching it. Because of her intuition and encouragement–her nudging me to dig for the good stuff deep within my heart–and because I had finally given up on hiding my real struggle, Beyond Blue became the success that it is today.

Of course, all the inspiration and meaning you all add to the mix helped too!

To read more Beyond Blue, go to http://blog.beliefnet.com/beyondblue, and to get to Group Beyond Blue, a support group at Beliefnet Community, click here.