Results tagged “depression”

A Canadian IBM employee lost her disability benefits after the insurance company checked out her Facebook profile. According to the Daily News, "Nathalie Blanchard was diagnosed with depression and granted leave from her job at IBM in Bromont, Que." a year and a half ago. She received monthly benefits until Manulife deemed "the pictures Blanchard posted to her private Facebook account prove she is no longer depressed. One showed her having fun at a Chippendales show, another at her birthday party and a third on a beach holiday." Blanchard said she has the same problems—plus her doctor told her she needs fun—and her lawyer said, "I don't think for judging a mental state that Facebook is a very good tool."

After the U.S. Department of Labor announced that October's unemployment rate was 10.2%, one thing that was left unsaid was the number of people who have been unemployed so long they've given up looking for work, not to mention the people who are working part-time but would rather be in full-time jobs. According to the NY Times, "In all, more than one out of every six workers — 17.5 percent — were unemployed or underemployed in October. The previous recorded high was 17.1 percent, in December 1982."

W Magazine strays from its normal high fashion looks and points the camera at hip(ster) couture, namely the Depression Era threads being paraded all around town. The mag notes, "at least young New Yorkers are going down in (historically appropriate) style. In Williamsburg and the Lower East Side, the resurgence of feathers, vests and newsboy caps are a fashionable response to the plummeting Dow." But these old-timey signifiers have been around for well over a year now—does this mean the hipsters knew just how bad this recession thing would get and were subliminally warning us through their curly mustaches and buttoned vests? Somebody check how many hipsters cashed in their stock options before Bear Stearns! And while admiring their vaguely Depression Era-ensembles, keep in mind that the bars you see these kids in are pouring $10 to $15 cocktails. The real folks feeling this recession are probably just huffing, with the kind of facial hair that comes from having sold all their razors as scrap.

The Daily News reports that a 30-year-old man committed suicide—"A jogger discovered the body of Paul Zolezzi, 30, about 7 a.m., police said"— (apparently near the Brooklyn Museum in Mount Prospect Park, not Prospect Park) and left a suicide note on his Facebook status. His message read, left last night, reads, "Was born in San Francisco, became a shooting star over everywhere, and ended his life in Brooklyn......And couldn't have asked for more." His mother told the News that her son, an aspiring model and actor with a heroin addiction, was depressed after a broken engagement. She also blamed the drugs, "I would say that people get so lonely, so delusional that all they want to do is be remembered... He probably wanted to be remembered in a big way, to do it dramatically - that's what drugs will do to people."

Meet Janet Faello (and pop a Zoloft): The 53-year-old divorcee with two daughters in college has been trying since May 2007 to sell her and her ex's Long Island 6-bedroom home. Her initial asking price was $829,000, then $750,000, now $699,000. Care to guess how many offers she's gotten? If you said anything more than zero, you're not depressed enough. Faello, whose experience is emblematic of the current housing implosion, is stuck in the home, surrounded by memories of her failed marriage and steep property taxes. She tells the Times, "I’m not ashamed to say to you, I have had to borrow money from my father." The article paints a bleak portrait of NYC suburbanites who feel like hostages in homes they can't sell. Pending home sales in the Northeast fell 14.5% from December 2007 to December 2008, and are not expected to "hit rock bottom" for at least another year. As one frustrated Connecticut home seller puts it, "Sometimes dreams just blow away." For further reading, curl up with a bottle of pills and George Packer's disturbing article about Florida's housing apocalypse.

A truly heartwarming story from the Star-Ledger: Estelle Manorek, 90, attended a day of classes at West Caldwell High School in West Caldwell, NJ. Manorek "grew up the child of Polish immigrants in Jersey City during the Depression" and never attended high school because she went to work at age 14 after her brother contracted polio.

Remember the fun times camping out on line for concert tickets as teenager? Well, someday soon we might get to relive those precious moments, except this time for bread. The Times recently asked five economic experts to give their forecast for New York City's near future, and if you like a little doom to go with your gloom, you're going to love their predictions. (Spoiler: barrels with suspenders are poised to become the new Uggs.)

If you thought your Christmas was depressing, the Burg (with some help from the All-For-Nots) are here to share your pain. Non-trust fund hipster bread lines, depression, hand-made garbage gifts, suicide threats...Happy Holidays from the Burg!

Despite the police chief involved with the case calling it a "coverup," Isiah Thomas and his family are still sticking to the story that he did not accidentally overdose on sleeping pills Friday, but that an ambulance was only called to treat his daughter's fainting after a dizzy spell. Harrison Police Chief David Hall again made the situation clear to reporters saying, "It wasn't his daughter - and why they're throwing her under the bus is beyond my ability to understand." While the former Knicks coach had nothing to say yesterday, his 20-year-old son Joshua was backing up his father's story and calling the police chief's comments "disrespectful." Meanwhile the Post says that Isiah has had a harsh fall since his demotion by the Knicks, describing him as "steeped in sadness and loneliness...dreaming that one day all those who chanted "Fire Isiah!" would be forced to eat their words."

Previously Charles O'Byrne, an aide to Governor David Paterson, claimed he didn't pay $200,000 in income taxes between 2001 and 2005 because he was dealing with depression (and he's paid off most by now). Now, O'Byrne's lawyer says he suffered from "late-filing syndrome" that made working on his tax returns hard.

Senior in-house adviser to Governor Paterson Charles O'Byrne owed over $200,000 in unpaid taxes until settling recently with the government. His reasoning for not paying state or federal taxes from 2001 to 2005 while being employed by the state: depression.

AP photographer Mark Lennihan took this photograph of 13-year-old Jeremy Conroy selling apples in front of the New York Stock Exchange today. Apparently Conroy was "reenacting a scene of boys selling apples during the Great Depression." Like this one.

New York University's Child Study Center is pulling the plug on a controversial ad campaign publicizing childhood mental health problems that was considered stigmatizing. The campaign was meant to raise awareness of conditions like Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Asperger's Syndrome, autism, depression, and bulimia.