John Folk-Williams

John Folk-Williams has lived with major depressive disorder since boyhood and finally achieved full recovery just a few years ago. As a survivor of this devastating illness, he has learned first-hand how it can interfere with every aspect of living. Recovery has meant trying to undo damage of many types, to body, thinking, feeling, personal behavior, self-esteem and important relationships.

He’s had to support this ongoing process by making significant life-style changes. Chief among them was retiring from a high-stress profession and devoting himself to the work he finds most fulfilling – writing.

He’s become a full-time blogger on mental health and has written for several websites to share what he’s learned about recovery. His first blogging experience was writing the personal site, Storied Mind. His posts there and support from readers became crucial to his own healing, and he’s become a strong advocate for the value of writing and other expressive arts as effective forms of therapy. Storied Mind has won several awards, including selection as a top 10 depression blog in 2008 and 2010 by Psych Central.

That experience led him to expand his writing by contributing posts to My Depression Connection at Health Central and by developing a second blog of his own. This new site, Recover Life from Depression, is a self-help resource to support those who are trying to find the path to recovery that is right for them.