Jan. 8, 2026
Finding Light: Cathelina Duvert's Journey Through Depression and the Power of Writing
Send us a text In this heartfelt episode of Living the Dream with Curveball, we are joined by author and English teacher Cathelina Duvert, whose journey through depression has inspired her writing. Cathelina opens up about her experiences with mental health, starting from her early struggles to her eventual diagnosis. She shares the five strategies that helped her combat depression, including meditation, daily affirmations, and the healing power of writing. With a focus on positivity, Catheli...
In this heartfelt episode of Living the Dream with Curveball, we are joined by author and English teacher Cathelina Duvert, whose journey through depression has inspired her writing. Cathelina opens up about her experiences with mental health, starting from her early struggles to her eventual diagnosis. She shares the five strategies that helped her combat depression, including meditation, daily affirmations, and the healing power of writing. With a focus on positivity, Cathelina discusses her book, "The Box," which explores the life of a young woman facing similar challenges. Listeners will find solace in her candid reflections and practical advice on seeking help and finding passion in creativity. Cathelina also talks about her blog, "Cathy's Cross," where she aims to connect with others battling depression, reminding them they are not alone. Tune in for an uplifting conversation that encourages you to embrace your light and pursue your passions. Discover more about Cathelina and her work at www.cathelinaduvert.com
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Welcome to the Living the Dream podcast with Curveball. if you believe you can, achieve.
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Welcome to the Living the Dream with Curveball podcast, a, show where I interview guests that teach, motivate and inspire. Today I am joined by author and English teacher Cathlena Duver.
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Kathleena is the author of the book the Box. So we're going to be talking to her about her book and her blog and everything that she's up to and going to be up to. So, Kathleena, thank you so much for joining me.
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> Cathlena Duver>Curtis, thank you so much for inviting me. I'm really glad to be here.
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Why don't you start off by telling everybody a little bit about yourself?
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> Cathlena Duver>Sure. My name is Kathleena Jufir and I am a writer, I am an author, I am a teacher, and I've been, I've been teaching for about 8, 17, 18 years, but I've been a writer all my life, even before I realized that I loved writing. And about 25 years ago, I started writing, a story about a young woman who is going through emotional issues.
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> Cathlena Duver>And when I was diagnosed with depression, that's when I realized that my main character was going through depression. And I took the story from there. It took me a very long time to finish the story because life happened. But, finally I was able to publish it last year and it is now a book available on audio, print book and ebook on Amazon.com and it's called the Box.
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Well, when did you first start, having your experience with depression?
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> Cathlena Duver>Oh, I first started having it about, I'm going to say, 11, 12 years old. And I didn't realize what it was until I was diagnosed in my mid to late 20s.
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Well, what, what are some things that you, you do to help, combat depression?
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> Cathlena Duver>Well, funny enough, I found five things that helped me combat depression. And I realized all these things completely by accident. My sister, my two of my cousins and I would get together and we, you know, sort of challenged each other to, to better ourselves, to work on the things that we wanted to, to achieve the things that we wanted to. And then we started talk, we started reading books together, like, oh, gosh, what is it called?
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> Cathlena Duver>It's the, the Miracle Morning. And we tried to incorporate, some strategies in the Miracle Morning in order to get ourselves, where we wanted to be. So we started meditating and sharing with each other the meditations that we like, especially the ones that we would find on YouTube.
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> Cathlena Duver>We started using daily affirmations, and again, we started sharing what we liked, so those two things we did that sort of helped me overcome, depression in the long run was what helped me. I started exercising regularly because my sister did it, and I saw the benefits that it was having on her, and I kind of wanted those benefits as well, like physical, goals. And I didn't realize at the time that it was also helping me with my mental state.
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> Cathlena Duver>And so that was the third thing that I did regularly. And then also one of the things that my sister, my cousins and I shared were, these videos on YouTube where there are people, you know, giving speeches, you know, how should I say it?
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> Cathlena Duver>Like they were motivational. And I would listen to them as I got ready for work with people, you know, talking about how great we are and, and we were put here for a reason. And, you know, we have to do the things that we were meant to do. Things like that really inspired me. So I listened to those on a regular basis. And of course, my writing, my writing is my life. it's my lifeline.
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> Cathlena Duver>I, I, I think in a way, writing sort of saved my life. I, it wasn't always something that I did regularly. It wasn't something that I did that well until I perfect, not perfected it because I'm not perfect. But, I, I, I practiced it, I studied it, and, and it's just, it's just one of those things that I will never give up. I just absolutely love writing. So those, those were the five things that I did that really helped me combat my daily struggle with depression.
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Well, when did you first, seek help for depression? And what made you, realize you might need some help to seek the help?
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> Cathlena Duver>Yeah, that's a good question. It wasn't on me, so I was always prone to burst out into crying fits.
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> Cathlena Duver>You know, I would just really be sad, depressed, start crying for no reason. And I didn't really understand why I was crying either. and my sister, who happens to be my twin sister, she did not know how to help me. And one evening when I, after I burst into crying into tears for no apparent reason, there were probably reasons behind them. I just didn't realize it at the time. she was just like, enough that this isn't enough. You have to have, you have to find some help for this. And she's the one who started looking for a therapist for me. And I don't know if the therapist that I started seeing was a result of her finding the therapist or maybe I took over the search. I just don't remember. But I did start seeing a therapist, and I realized that it was helping me.
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> Cathlena Duver>Now at the time, we didn't really. The therapist and I didn't really go deep into what was causing my depression, but it was a way for me to talk about my everyday struggles. It was a way for me to, learn some strategies to struggles. So it really started helping me.
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Well, yeah, you have a blog. Talk to the listeners about your blog and tell us why you decided to write it and what we can expect when we read it.
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> Cathlena Duver>Okay, so it came from two previous failed blogs.
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> Cathlena Duver>Well, I'm not going to say they were failed blogs, but when I was 40, years old, I didn't have a partner and I wanted to be married. I wanted to have children. And I was just like, why am I still single? And so I decided to write a funny, sort of funny slash inspiring blog about my, my single life. And I called it the True Confessions of a Reluctant Bachelorette because I really wanted to be married. And, and it was a fun blog filled with, with really sort of essays about the status of the single person and, and how people view us single folks. And, and it was also fun disaster dates. I like telling stories about the, the disastrous dates that I was on. And when I finally did meet someone and I married him, there was no reason to have my reluctant bachelorette blog. So I wanted to write something a little bit more meaningful. But I still wanted it to be on the lighter side. So I decided to write a blog called Tied the Knot. And with Tie the Knot, I was going to write fun, funny stories about, you know, my, my adventures in, you know, in marriage while.
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> Cathlena Duver>While being married. And that did not resonate with me as much. I probably wrote like 10, maybe 15 blog posts for that one. And it didn't really resonate with me. And I realized towards the end of that, the life of Tied the Knot, I was writing a lot about things that mattered to me, like, you know, my, my m. My father's legacy, you know, the, the beauty that my. That I saw in my mother, who is. Who has since passed on. And so I started feeling like I needed to go more towards, being true to myself, be writing something that was meaningful rather than something that was just funny and quirky. And so I really went inside myself and thought about, well, what do I want to share with people out there? And by that time I had already realized the five strategies that helped me deal with depression. So I decided I'm going to write a blog about depression, but it's not Going to be something negative. It'll be about the, positive aspect of. Of not aspect, but positive perspective on depression. So I called it Kathy's Cross because that was my cross to bear.
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> Cathlena Duver>depression is my cross to bear. And, the subtitle is A Depressive Positive Perspective. Because I took all the issues that I had or, or negative situations, that, that I was. That I found myself in, and I tried to look at them in a positive perspective, for each one so that I don't keep thinking of myself as being in the dark. But I wanted to see the light through my depressive stakes. So that's what I did.
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>What value would a depressive get, out of reading your blog?
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> Cathlena Duver>That's a great question. And I think, I think a person who's depressed may look at my blog and think, I'm not the only one who goes through this, because believe it or not, depression is being talked a lot about these days. But people.
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> Cathlena Duver>Depression is one of those. Those conditions where you still feel like you are the only one who's going through it. Because I felt like that and I still feel like that sometimes. so I feel like a person who's depressed reading my blog. Will. Will read it and be like, well, I'm not the only person who's going through this. Or I know, I know the name of what I'm going through because I talk about not just my depression, but my anxiety as well. And I didn't realize, until I wrote the blog post, well, until I read another book and then I wrote the blog post on it about somebody who was going through depression and an. And I'm like, oh my gosh, I didn't realize that all those things that I was going through was an anxiety that was exacerbated by my depression. And so I had.
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> Cathlena Duver>Somebody sent me an email telling me, oh my gosh, Kathy, I just read your latest blog post and I had no idea that what I was going through was what you were going through. And she, she explained to me how, you know, the moments that she felt that she was not feeling right. And, and with all these ideas going on in her, negative ideas going on in her head and not being able to find the words to express it. That's exactly what I had explained in my blog. And so I was really, really pleased with the fact that she was able to see something in there that she felt she, she, resonated with. And I feel that people who read the blog posts may find something that they resonate with and may feel like they are not alone.
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Well, what advice would you give to, the people who are depressed out here?
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> Cathlena Duver>I would say, please, please, please know that there are people out there who believe in you and who you, you can possibly trust. Find that person that you feel that you can trust with anything that you tell them and share with them what you're going through. They might be able to find a way to help you. Just like my sister was able to help me find, a therapist. Somebody may be able to find something that helps them. Of the things that I always tell people, too, is that before I said that writing, I feel like writing has saved my life. I would say that find something that you are passionate about and pour yourself into that thing. And who knows, that thing may be able to help you release those negative demons. You know, I called, I called my depression. Well, I don't like to call it my depression, but I call what I was going through the depression monster. And I felt like every time that I wrote and I wrote about my depression, I felt like I was leaving it all on the page. I was expelling it from my body.
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> Cathlena Duver>I was expelling it from my mind. And I feel that that's what creativity does for us. Whether you love to garden, whether you love watching movies, whether you love writing, painting, roller skating, any of those things, anything that is your passion and you feel that you can pour your heart into it. I feel like it will help you get, Elevate your mood and you will be able to possib, I don't know, seek clarity, see what you're going through, understand why it is that you are going through what you're going through. And maybe that, that burst of clarity that, that aha, moment will help you over that stump over and help you and help you, overcome what it is that you're going through currently.
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Well, tell the listeners we're baking. Find your book.
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> Cathlena Duver>Absolutely. So my novel, the Box, which is about a young woman who's suffering with depression and how she managed to get over it by looking more into her past and the things that her mother, had to go through, can be found on Amazon. and as I said before, it's also available on print, print book, ebook, and audiobook. And, I also do have a.
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> Cathlena Duver>It's also available on my website. So kathleenaduvair.com is my website and you can also find. Oh, and the book, my novel, the Box, it could also be found on bookshop.org it can be found on Barnes & noble.org and I'm Dot com, excuse me, and a number of other different, independent bookstores.
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Online. Tell us about any upcoming projects that you're working on that listeners need to be aware.
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> Cathlena Duver>Of. Sure. So one of the things that actually just came out, I, I published a short story in a book called Where Kindness. Kindness Lives. And it's just an anthology of nine, nine different stories of diff writers. Different perspective on what kindness is through fictional stories. And it's such a lovely, lovely book. And I would urge anyone, if you're going to purchase that book on Amazon or bookshop.org or wherever you buy it, email me a co copy of the receipt and you can get a free recipe, a cookbook that is a companion book to this kindness anthology.
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>All. Ah, right. So you gave out your website.
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Kathleen.
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> Cathlena Duver>Duvert.Com.
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>So close us out with some final thoughts. Maybe if that was something I forgot to talk about that you would like to touch on any final thoughts you have for the.
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> Cathlena Duver>Listeners. Oh, I just want to say, well, thank you so much for this time. and I would like to say to the listeners out there, whoever's listening, whether you are a writer or not or some type of artist or anything, I would urge you to really, really step into your light. I mean, I feel, I feel like we're all born, we're put on this earth to do something wonderful and, and it's our business, it's our job to make sure that we get that thing done. And if it's not, we're not, if we're not getting it done for ourselves, we're getting it done for other people who will find benefit in it. And I really, truly believe, believe that that's what I want to end.
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>With.
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>All right, ladies and gentlemen, to keep up with everything that Kathleen is up to, visit kathleenaduvert.com pick up her book, check out the blog, follow rate, review, share this episode to as many people as possible and visit www.craveballuh337.com for more information on the Living the Dream with Curveball podcast. Thank you for listening and supporting the show. And Kathleena, thank you for all that you do. And thank you for joining.
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> Cathlena Duver>Me. Thank you so much for having me.
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Here. For more information on the Living the Dream with Curveball Podcast, visit www.craveball337.com until next time, keep Living the.
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