A note to our listeners, the following episode features discussion of suicide.

There are lots of things connecting the brain and the rest of the body. You've got veins,

bones, skin, tissue, all kinds of stuff, a neck. In fact, if you separate the brain from the

rest of the body, neither one tends to do so great.

Don't try it, just trust me.

So it stands to reason that mental health and physical health are linked together pretty closely.

It's all health.

Something goes wrong with your physical health.

Other things might go wrong with your mental health.

Or, putting it more succinctly, something goes wrong with your health, other things might go wrong with your mental health. Or, putting it more succinctly, something goes wrong with your health, other things might go wrong

with your health. It's depression mode. I'm John Moe. I'm glad you're here. John Cotter is an author and professor based in Rhode Island.

His new memoir, Losing Music, is about his experiences with contracting and living with Meniere's disease.

That's an inner ear disorder that can cause dizziness, vertigo, and hearing loss.

And in John's case, suicidal depression, as his life comes apart,

he loses balance, loses teaching positions, and he experiences the loss of music in his life. John Cotter, welcome to Depression Mode.

John, thank you so much for having me. It's such a pleasure.

How are you feeling today?

I'm okay. A little, you know, I'm in Colorado and everybody tells you to hydrate and you tell them,

I used to live here. Of course I know to hydrate. Stop, you know, lecturing me, you know,

and then you get here at events get ahead of you and you wake up the next day and you think,

why do I feel like this? Why do I feel like a hand towel that's been wrung out? And it's because I didn't drink

any water yesterday, so I'm hydrating now. But anyway, I'm doing okay. I'm doing okay. I'm feeling

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