On a recent social media post of mine, a commenter stated that he thought my position was that relapse into clinical depression (i.e., another major depressive episode of the kind I just came through) was inevitable. In his experience, he has come through two major depressive episodes in his life and believes that he will never be in that place again. I hope that he is right.
For me, I’ve had to work over the last year to remove the words “always” and “never” from my vocabulary, at least when I am talking about what I will or will not do now or in the future. These are absolute terms. They have zero tolerance for aberration. They set up unrealistic expectations for me. They demand perfection. They set me up to fail.
I’ve become much more comfortable with uncertainty. It’s an unexpected outcome of this experience and one I deeply appreciate.
As I’ve written before, I do not believe that any outcome is inevitable. Instead, I recognize that I live in the rain/sun paradox. Right now it is sunny and, at some point, it will rain. Now I know that the rain is temporary. The sun will come out again.
From history major, with side quests in Medieval Studies and chemical engineering, to nonprofit finance leader, Big 4 tax partner, technologist, researcher, and now co-founder of Divine, nothing about my career has been linear. The throughline has always been systems: financial systems, organizational systems, technological systems, and human systems. I have an MBA in Operations and Supply Chain Management and a PhD in Organizational Leadership Psychology, and I’ve spent my career trying to understand how complex systems shape people’s choices, opportunities, wellbeing, and sense of belonging. Today, my work sits at the intersection of psychology, technology, human-centered design, and digital trust. I am co-founder of Divine, an open-source, decentralized social video app built to put creativity back in human hands and replace doomscrolling with joyscrolling. Divine is part of a bigger question I care deeply about: how do we create online spaces that support safety, creativity, identity, and belonging without defaulting to surveillance, extraction, or control? At Divine, I wear a lot of hats across engineering, finance, operations, and strategy, while helping shape the app’s trust, safety, and values work. I focus especially on teen online safety, human-generated content, participatory design, and healthier relationships with technology. I am a postdoctoral alum of Vanderbilt University’s Department of Computer Science, where I worked with Dr. Pam Wisniewski’s Socio-Technical Interaction Research Lab. I continue to write, speak, and research at the intersection of online safety, digital trust, decentralized technology, and youth wellbeing. I was named a Distinguished Fellow at the Institute for Data Integrity in 2023. In 2025, I had the honor of serving as President of Division 13 of the American Psychological Association, the Society of Consulting Psychology. I also live with major depressive disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder. In 2020, I took a leave from PwC to focus on my mental wellness, and I now speak and write openly about mental health, especially in the workplace and in relation to digital wellbeing. This blog, Seriously Jerk Brain, chronicles much of that journey.
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Lizzie — this post was very helpful to me today. The reminder that the only constant in life is uncertainty/change. It’s a hard lesson to accept and hold onto.
I am overjoyed that you’ve come through your depressive episode and are enjoying some sunny days. May it last as long as possible and may any future rainy days be short-lived. xo, Megan
Seriously, Jerk Brain?! 
Lizzie — this post was very helpful to me today. The reminder that the only constant in life is uncertainty/change. It’s a hard lesson to accept and hold onto.
I am overjoyed that you’ve come through your depressive episode and are enjoying some sunny days. May it last as long as possible and may any future rainy days be short-lived. xo, Megan
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