Beyond One-Size-Fits-All: A Neuroscientist's Battle with Anxiety & Depression

05.19.2026

Beyond One-Size-Fits-All: A Neuroscientist's Battle with Anxiety & Depression

by Jyoti Mishra

Professionally, I'm a neuroscientist studying human brain circuits. I also run clinical trials of new treatments for depression and continue to innovate on new care pathways.

Personally, I have deeply suffered from anxiety and depression and am grateful for the many treatment options available because it's definitely not one-size-fits-all. Below are two expressions of my recovery journey from a recent prolonged and very difficult episode.

I wrote “Down, down, down then up!” when I was just transitioning out of severe depression - still raw and very vulnerable. I wrote “The Phoenix is I” later in the transition to wellness and thriving self-confidence.

With these expressions, I want to relay that there is surely light at the end of the dark tunnel, and to never give up! I love and respect the mission of the ADAA and believe it is the perfect platform for me to share my anxiety and depression story.

Down, down, down then up!
by Jyoti Mishra

Last September I had a fall
Not physical, but a mind’s call
My default mode went on overdrive
For six months a struggle to survive
Incessant ruminations and worries galore
The world went grey and all a bore

Even though the sun shone the same
Anxiety fully had me claimed
Hyperaroused, no sleep, no rest
As a scientist, I tried my best
To find a remedy that’d work for me
But just trials and failures is all I'd see

So convinced I'd lost my mind
and that life is best left behind
I did not know how to weather this storm
How to regain that peace and calm
But then with a therapeutic alliance and family support
and finally the right meds to boot

The skies cleared again this spring
I could finally hear the songbirds sing
And notice the leaves chatting in the breeze
My kids’ laughter brought so much ease
That same default mode full of negative ruminations
Was again abound with positive creations

I can laugh again and introspect too
And make a rhyme that rings true
Of this past terrible episode
That made all days an overload
I am the sky above the cloudy weather
So grateful for this sunny harbor

Each moment now a mindful reminder
It's impermanence just makes me kinder
And oh so very wonder struck
How a good mind can run amuck
It's not my first and may not be last
Only the present more precious than future or past

Surely life will throw another punch
Yet now I have learned a bunch
This depression does not define me
I have so much to set me free
Most of all love and community
I am here for you now, as you’ve been for me.

The Phoenix is I
by Jyoti Mishra

In the chaturanga of the morning dawn
I imagined a bird being born.

Rising from the ashes of its past,
the memories will surely last
of seasons that came before
some fun, yet others with storms in store.

I observe the spider on its climb
spinning webs in great time,
but the human doesn't give a dime
and swipes it like some dirty slime!

I am that spider climbing high
Yet sometimes falling at another’s sigh!
Then rising again from the ashes past,
a new journey needs to start.

It's new, yes, but a cycle too.
Today's sky is cloudy, but tomorrow blue.
Today’s Earth maybe covered in frost,
yet the vibrant beauty isn't lost.

Tomorrow spring is around the bend -
the hummingbird will buzz again.
As I see those little wings flutter,
I know I can rid me of the clutter.

The mind may be led astray,
but it's mine to hone cuz it's here to stay.
Stronger, wiser and mindfully slower,
I choose intention - what makes me happier.
Certainly not the material goods,
cuz that is how the landfill stood!

The wet Earth under my heel and toe,
the surf and sunshine make me glow.
The flowers that bloom once in awhile,
captured in mamma's paintings with style.

It's the mindful nature walks
when I can hear the forest talk,
and reveal the mysteries of eons ago
yet cycling in seasons high and low.

Change is nature
our wisest teacher
I'm not a preacher
just another creature.

Fall then rise,
low then high
the Phoenix is I
the Phoenix is I.