{"id":18595,"date":"2026-03-11T06:21:59","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T06:21:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gpbookstore.org\/articles\/uncategorized\/how-ginger-zee-learned-to-manage-her-depression\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T06:06:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T06:06:07","slug":"how-ginger-zee-learned-to-manage-her-depression","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gpbookstore.org\/articles\/positive-living\/entertainment\/movies-and-tv\/how-ginger-zee-learned-to-manage-her-depression\/","title":{"rendered":"How Ginger Zee Learned to Manage Her Depression"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a meteorologist on TV, I\u2019ve covered every natural disaster from Katrina on. Hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, wildfires\u2014I\u2019ve reported on them all, and one thing I\u2019ve seen firsthand is how people rebound, no matter the devastation. They take stock, draw on their faith, rebuild and grow because they\u2019ve faced the worst. Often they are the first people to reach out and help when others are suffering.<\/p>\n

In my own life, I\u2019ve struggled with a different sort of natural disaster\u2014devastating bouts of depression. The first struck when I was 22, a recent college grad looking for a job in television meteorology. I know now that transitions can be a trigger for major depression. Back then I couldn\u2019t understand why I felt life wasn\u2019t worth living. As if I were a prisoner in a strange dark room without even a hint of light.<\/p>\n

\"GingerFor a long time, I ran away from depression<\/a>. I\u2019d try to escape by throwing myself into a relationship with the wrong guy or telling myself that a few glasses of wine were all I needed to cheer up. I saw therapists, but they didn\u2019t help much because I wasn\u2019t willing to be completely honest with myself or them.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m a people pleaser, and it was as if I had to please even the therapists. I\u2019d tell them what I thought they wanted to hear. I\u2019m sure it looked like I was a big success as a broadcaster, going straight from college to one job after another, moving to bigger markets, from Grand Rapids to Chicago and now New York. ABC News had just hired me to be the weekend meteorologist on Good Morning America. <\/em>It was all I\u2019d dreamed of and prayed for, all that I\u2019d worked so hard to achieve. Yet I felt empty inside.<\/p>\n

Worse than that, I could feel myself plunging into that dark room I\u2019d tried so hard to avoid. It had happened before. Things would be going well, and then the darkness would descend like a fast-rolling fog. I\u2019d find myself trapped in a small, cold place with the blinds all the way down.<\/p>\n

This time it hit me in a hotel room in Washington, D.C., where I had a meeting, when I was far from my family and friends in Michigan. I was in deep trouble, and I didn\u2019t want to run away from it, not this time. There was too much at stake.<\/p>\n

I called my mom back in Michigan and my cousin and, with their help, came up with a plan. I would check into a mental health hospital in New York for a weeklong, inpatient therapy program before I started my job at Good Morning America. <\/em>I\u2019d confront this monster once and for all.<\/p>\n

Of course, the minute I checked in, I wanted to check myself out. I don\u2019t belong here, <\/em>I told myself. The other patients seemed really sick compared with me. They had serious mental illnesses, not my garden-variety depression. Some of these people, like my roommate, could barely speak. I wanted her to like me (I wanted everyone <\/em>to like me), and she just ignored me, didn\u2019t even say a word.<\/p>\n

Then I had my first one-on-one session with my therapist, Dr. Wilson. He was clinical, matter-of-fact, not trying to be my parent or best friend. He wanted to get me out of this place, which I wanted too, and for the first time someone helped me connect the dots.<\/p>\n

What was it about me that got me sucked into such emotional turmoil? Why did I feel that when anyone was angry or frustrated or sad, it was my fault and I needed to fix it? Why did I always end up going out with the wrong man while running away from men who weren\u2019t natural disasters themselves? Therapists always make you talk about your childhood, and with Dr. Wilson I thought, Oh, here we go again. <\/em>But he pushed me to untangle the feelings and needs buried deep inside me, and I came to a profound understanding I\u2019d never had before.<\/p>\n

My father and mother are wonderful people, and I\u2019ve always felt loved by them, but their marriage didn\u2019t work out. They got divorced when my brother and I were young, and both remarried. He and I spent most of our childhood bouncing from one household to the other with stepparents and half brothers and sisters added to the mix\u2014no wonder I felt compelled to change apartments four times in the five years I lived in Chicago. Chaos felt normal.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n