During one of our visits to California to see my family (when we still lived in Connecticut) my sister was talking about a couple she knew. She said to me, “Oh, well you know Jerome, don’t you?” I said, “Nooo,” after mentally running through the list of people I had met on visits. She said, “Well, he knows you. From The Well? You play online games together?”

“Oh, that Jerome,” I responded. “Of course I know him. Nice guy.” Actually, despite knowing him for a few years, I had no idea what he looked like, although I could tell you what characters he played on our server in our online game. I think it’s possible that from 3,000 miles away I had hung out with Jerome as much as my sister had in person.

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I woke up Monday morning to an email from the partner of a member of my online depression forum, telling me that C. had died on Easter morning of cardiac arrest. I sat at my desk stunned. All I could think was that a big part of the heart of the forum was gone.

I am not a very emotional person, but as I sat reading the remembrances of C. that members were posting on the forum, the tears were pouring down my face. The posts confirmed my initial feeling – this was someone that in a short time had had a real impact on the community.

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The Wall St. Journal reported this week that Instant Messaging is becoming popular with therapists who are conducting therapy online. Given the popularity of patient-to-patient support chat rooms on the Internet, it’s not surprising that professionals are utilizing this tool.

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Here’s something I don’t get to say very often – a new mental health study came out that I’m very excited about. A study funded by the National Institute of Mental Health showed that people whose depression is not treated successfully with an initial course of antidepressant therapy can often find success by trying a second course with a different antidepressant or an additional antidepressant.

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