St. Joseph Media • 27th August 2018

Can Depression Be Diagnosed With A Blood Test?

It may be closer than you think. A team of researchers across Canada are zeroing in on new ways to treat and diagnose depression involving brain scans, blood tests and ‘precision psychiatry’

“It’s been absolute hell,” Sara* says of the depression that has ripped through at least five generations of her family. Her great grandmother killed herself at the age of 35. Her grandmother ended her own life in 1988, after suffering for decades. Her great aunt spent 40 years in a German asylum, shunned f

The Globe and Mail • 26th January 2024

Amplify: As a mother, I’m worried we don’t honour female art enough (just ask Barbie)

This is the weekly Amplify newsletter, where you can be inspired and challenged by the voices, opinions and insights of women at The Globe and Mail and our contributor community.

This week’s newsletter was written by Amberly McAteer, a freelance writer and editor in Toronto, and former editor at The Globe and Mail.

When my three-year-old daughter, Lucy, asked her teacher what she thought of her art project in preschool, the teacher answered: I won’t tell you what I think, it’s about what you t

SJC Media • 28th November 2021

I’m so sick of hearing “just you wait” from veteran parents

Maybe I’m being too earnest, but as a new mom, there are so many stages I'm truly excited about. Please don’t rain on my parade prematurely.

I hadn’t even given birth to my daughter when I received my first “just wait.” I was telling a friend at work that I was having trouble sleeping. In the 30th week of pregnancy, essentially housing a full person, turning over in my sleep was near impossible. I felt like I could not possibly get bigger, or more uncomfortable.

It would be my first “just wait

The Globe and Mail • 22nd December 2019

Opinion: A dogged grief, during the most wonderful time of year

Amberly McAteer is an editor in The Globe and Mail’s opinion section.

When my husband opened the container of our most cherished ornaments, I instantly knew something was wrong. Until that moment, the Christmasing of our house, on a crisp, snowy Sunday, had been picturesque: the eggnog poured, the Michael Bublé holiday album loud and the tree placed in the living room window.

“They’re gone,” he said, along with a string of unpublishable obscenities. I turned the music off as he pulled out shat

The Globe and Mail • 22nd December 2021

Opinion: When the truth matters most, I won’t lie to my child about Santa

Amberly McAteer is a freelance writer in Toronto and a former editor in the Opinion section at The Globe and Mail.

The first time I remember feeling truly devastated was Christmas Day, 1987. I was four years old.

A few days before the Big Day, my brother, four years my senior and a dedicated truth-teller, was trying to convince me Santa was pure fiction. “He’s a fat guy, you think he’s in the kind of shape to go to every house in a night?

“Do you think he eats all those cookies and isn’t viol

The Globe and Mail • 13th April 2017

In Maui and Kauai, I found a vacation unlike anything I expected

When the microphone plunges into the Pacific, somewhere in the channel between Maui and Lanai, the whole boatload of us gasp in unison. About 30 tourists, smartphones in hand, had been busy scanning the water's surface for another quick glimpse of a tail or a burst of a spout from one of the thousands of Alaska humpback whales in these waters. Like us, these giants decided to escape the cold, travelling a long way south to make Hawaii their temporary home.

"I'm going to stop talking for a secon

The Globe and Mail • 16th March 2013

Beautiful beaches, fantastic food: This place has it all

As the catamaran slows to the sandbar, a tiny dab of white in an otherwise turquoise expanse, I start counting the dark circles gliding through the shallow water. Stingrays – I lose count after nine – circle, waiting for their visitors. I step off the boat, and before I'm even waist deep, two rays snuggle into my ankles. They feel like cold, giant portobello mushrooms. I didn't know terror and glee could co-exist.


(Click the bold words to see Amberly's Twitter videos and photos.)

This is St

The Globe and Mail • 13th December 2021

12 wonderful pet gifts, and adoptable pets, perfect for your home this holiday season

It is the most wonderful day of my year. Getting to spend an entire day with wonderful animals – homeless through no fault of their own, looking for their second chance and full of plenty of love to give. Add to that, the thrill of giving these deserving babies the best toys and products of the year? It’s a very merry day indeed.

Bruce came in the door bursting with puppy energy. He had no time for introductions; he wanted to play immediately and made everything a game. His favourite? Pounce on