Excerpt from Living Well Emotionally

Before I got MS, when doctors would ask me, "Have you ever suffered from mood problems?" I'd say, "Hell, no!" Sure, I had periods of sadness, anger, and anxiety, and I've always been a passionate guy, and pretty open about my feelings. When I was in the military, I was extremely intense and sometimes emotionally angry in my desire to succeed. I was trained and ready to slit the throat of the enemy. But depressed? No way! It was a foreign concept to me. MS changed all that.

I started getting depressed. I took the depression grand tour: light depression, moderate depression, and kick-ass severe depression. Then doctors started prescribing me different drugs for depression and the real fun began.

I am a 100 percent supporter of Western medicine, with all its miracles and its imperfections. I'm also wide-open to critical opinions and alternative approaches. In my opinion, when the pharmaceutical companies do something we disagree with, we should tell them. And when they create a drug that helps us live a better life, or saves lives, we should cheer them on. I work with leading pharmaceutical and research companies and their trade association PhRMA, as spokesperson for the Partnership for Prescription Assistance, a fantastic program that is the proudest professional achievement in my life so far.