(uiowa.edu)A Very Brady Druggie? Marcia Spills
Gina Serpe (10/13/08)
Growing up Brady wasn't all it was cracked up to be.
Erstwhile Marcia Brady Maureen McCormick is telling all—and we mean all—about her formative years both on and off TV, revealing new details about her depression, drug addiction, unwanted pregnancy and what can only be described as an exhaustive history of suitors in her new memoir, Here's the Story: Surviving Marcia Brady and Finding My True Voice.
In addition to discussing an unusual string of relationships with Steve Martin, Michael Jackson, and her TV bro Barry Williams, the actress and sometime country singer also reveals that she once traded sex for drugs and engaged in full-on binges at the Playboy Mansion and at the home of Sammy Davis Jr.
Marcia, Marcia, oh, Marcia.
"As a teenager, I had no idea that few people are everything they present to the outside world," McCormick, now 52, writes in the book, excerpts of which were released today. "Yet there I was, hiding the reality of my life behind the unreal perfection of Marcia Brady.
"No one suspected the fear that gnawed at me even as I lent my voice to the chorus of Bradys singing 'It's a Sunshine Day.' "
McCormick was 14 years old when the family sitcom began its four-year run in 1969 and apparently didn't have much personal experience to draw on for the character. In the book, due out tomorrow, the actress says she came to the feel-good show from an abusive family, with a father who abused and cheated on her mother.
When the show ended, McCormick says she turned to drugs, taking cocaine and Quaaludes among other illicit substances, a habit which failed to help her secure additional employment.
In the memoir, the actress also details a blown interview she had with Steven Spielberg, blaming the ill-fated meeting on her being high at the time.
What followed throughout the '80s was a battle with addiction and depression, including interventions and rehab stints galore along with various medications and therapies.
Despite her tumultuous road since then, McCormick seemingly has no regrets about her Brady gig and subsequent permanent place in pop culture.
"I'll always be struck by how much a part of people's lives Marcia is and always will be," she writes. "But now I'm not bothered by the connection. It took most of my life, countless mistakes and decades of pain and suffering to reach this point of equanimity and acceptance."
Buddhism & Depression
Kalachakra.net
Depression can come in various forms, from a passing blue mood to a severe psychological condition like major depression or manic-depressive illness, which require extensive treatment. The more serious conditions require professional help with for example intensive therapy or medication, there seems to be no easy way to avoid that.
General psychology has determined that depressive disorders are often caused by a combination of genetic, psychological and environmental factors, but can also be caused by other illnesses. Women experience depressive disorders twice as many as men, and hormone levels appear to have a significant influence.
Please note that this page deals mainly with aspects of the "lighter" forms of depression. The techniques described here should not be considered in any way to replace professional treatment for a serious psychological condition. However, the discussed techniques may help to avoid the recurrence of depression, once one has come out of the "black hole" again.
Buddhism generally approaches depression from a quite different viewpoint than modern Western psychology. The Buddhist perspective is that an underlying selfishness/egotism is often the basic cause of feeling depressed. Please realise that if this is upsetting you, basically this is considered the main psychological problem that everyone has according to Buddhist psychology, and depression can be an unexpected result of it.
This does not mean that the suffering person should be "blamed" for the condition, but rather opens up a very different approach to the problem using
meditation and emphasis on
compassion and loving-kindness. Even though these methods may neither be quick nor instantly effective, negative side effects are virtually unheard of; and who cannot use a bit of emphasis on loving-kindness? A very interesting aspect of reflection on compassion and love is the point that we need to respect, forgive and have compassion not only for others, but ourselves as well.
One of the causes for depression can be a strong sense of dissatisfaction with ourselves; perhaps the page on
lack of self-confidence could be helpful? In modern society, it appears that only "being number one" counts, but this leaves out the other six billion people, including "me." Does that mean that I am worthless? Of course not! Just look at the other end of the scale: many of our so-called great heroes of the past are admired for their power, courage and intelligence, but how many heroes can you think of that actually made it a point to create happiness and security instead of waging war and creating havoc?
Simply being a loving and caring person tends to help the world a lot more than being "number one." One may admire pop-idols and movie stars, but many of them are (or will be) in a sorry state, addicted to drugs and "life in the fast lane"; not understanding that happiness is a state of their own mind, not of their bank account, level of drugs, availability of sex etc.
If we can genuinely wish ourselves happiness and radiate that wish to others, our state of mind can change dramatically. If we change our mind, we can change our mood -- a simple process, but not easy to achieve quickly. One of the most important things is to understand that we can change our own mind if we make a bit of an effort. If we would not be able to change anything in our mind, how did we ever learn to read and write?
"When you are depressed, the past and the future are absorbed entirely by the present, as in the world of a three-year-old. You can neither remember feeling better nor imagine that you will feel better. Being upset, even profoundly upset, is a temporal experience, whereas depression is atemporal. Depression means that you have no point of view."
When we are in such a state, we probably need more than what is described below, but once we can see the way out again, it is possible to work on a more permanent change of our mind. The great Buddhist sage Nagarjuna said:
If there is a remedy when trouble strikes,
What reason is there for despondency?
And if there is no help for it,
What is the use of being sad?
So come what may,
I'll never harm
My cheery happiness of mind.
Depression never brings me what I want;
My virtue will be warped and marred by it.
Openness can be another key factor: "miracles" do happen when we stop resisting them, because although the result can appear miraculous, our mind changes continuously, and our minds can only be changed by ouselves....
More>> TRANSFORMING DEPRESSION
Lama Zopa Rinpoche
The best solution to purify the karma of having depression is to do the purification practice of
Vajrasattva. As long as the karma isn't purified, you'll continue to suffer from depression again in future lives.
Maybe you wake up in the morning feeling depressed for no particular reason. If you can't solve this problem through meditation it might help to just go to sleep, or go somewhere to rest, or take a nice drive somewhere. Otherwise you'll get upset, disturbing the people around you as well. When you're angry, all sorts of bad, uncontrolled thoughts can come into your mind. More>>
Depression Drugs Do Not Work, finds data review. David RoseMillions of people taking commonly prescribed antidepressants such as Prozac and Seroxat might as well be taking a placebo, according to the first study to include unpublished evidence. The new generation of antidepressant drugs work no better than a placebo for the majority of patients with mild or even severe depression, comprehensive research with clinical trials has found. The researchers said that the drug was more effective than a placebo in severely depressed patients but that this was because of a decreased placebo effect. The study, described as “fantastically important” by British experts, comes as the Government publishes plans to help people to manage depression without popping pills.
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