Brought to you by the Depression Is Real Coalition, The Down & Up Show is dedicated to the reality of depression. Our hosts will talk with some of the world's top experts on depression, as well as people who have been impacted by this illness. The reality of depression is that it is a debilitating and potentially deadly medical condition that affects more than 15 million Americans every year. The other reality of depression is that there is hope.

Christine Stapleton

Christine Stapleton knew she would be a writer at an early age when she learned that people actually got paid to write the stuff on the back of cereal boxes. She settled on journalism in the 1970s after watching the Watergate Hearings and All The President's Men a few dozen times.

She graduated from Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan in 1981 with majors in journalism and political science. She worked in publishing before becoming a newspaper reporter in 1986.

In her 21 years at The Palm Beach Post she distinguished herself as the paper's court reporter for 12 years, covering notable trials such as the William Kennedy Smith rape trial, Florida's landmark case against the tobacco industry, Tom and Nicole's adoptions and Roxanne Pulitzer's dalliances.

She was among the lead reporters in The Palm Beach Post's coverage of the November 2000 election and was one of three reporters who produced two award-winning projects on migrant farm workers and pesticides. She now works on investigative projects and assists reporters with computer-assisted reporting.

Her awards include: Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award 2004 and 2006; ASNE Jesse Laventhol Prize for Deadline News Reporting 2003; Sigma Delta Chi's Green Eyeshade Award 1991; and the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyer's Steven Goldstein award for her 13-year battle to free a man wrongly convicted of murder. She is a senior fellow of the Knight Foundation and has appeared on The Deborah Norville Show, Inside Edition and City Confidential.

Her groundbreaking weekly column on depression evolved from her own battle with the disease and covers a wide range of topics frequently ignored by the mainstream media, including insurance parity, China's ban on adoptions to parents who take antidepressants and self-medicating her own depression with drugs and alcohol.

Christine is a single-mother of a 15-year-old daughter, Kealy. She enjoys traveling, shopping and scuba diving with her daughter.