There's this thread going on, this muttering sense, of something not right with how we are as a society..
Outside In is a psychotherapist. She writes about depression, one :
So, too, with most of our depression. It will pass. I worry that the cute little sad guy cloud on the television commercial, the one who, a pill and moments later, is happily bouncing around like a manic widget--well, I worry that he’s the guy with the mood disorder. I think that our decreasing tolerance for distress combined with our ever increasing demand for the quick, generally external, fix leaves us feeling entitled to no moods. We’re not even satisfied for life to be a bowl of cherries with pits and a few rotten ones; we want life to be pasteurized cherry yogurt with a shelf life of forever.
Two:
No one expects us to up and fix these chemical imbalances [of diabetes or low thyroid]. But even though we now understand the chemistry of depression somehow we still expect that we should be able to fix it. Pull ourselves up by the bootstraps and get over it. But when it comes to taking anti-depressants we feel embarrassed and as though we need to defend ourselves.
I'm with her on both points, first; that as a society we have developed an underlying expectation that there will always be cake and frosting, and never eating rice and beans day after day; and second, that there's nothing to be ashamed of, having the fuses blow a bit.
Outside In also asks her friends to comment, specifically the group (I think it is a group) known as Sigmund, Carl, and Alfred and Mamacita (This is a neighborhood of the internet totally new to me, which I bumbled into following Grace over to Genuine's)
Ouside In also points us to Beth*, who is writing an anatomy of her depression. (Beth is Jay Allen's mom. He's the Zero Boss.)
More people talking about depression.
Heather wrote about it, as she said, "I can't do this by myself."
Shrinkette published a letter I sent her about my own experiences with depression--mine and others.
I did some more self-revelation in:
Depression. There should be a different word for it, this malignant thing that takes over your life. .
One of the things that is both a symptom and a barrier to getting better is: Joie de Vivre, Where are You?
Hmmn. Where's the fun? Where's the giddy laughter? I need to add back fun into my life. I've let it slip away. Yesterday at my workout group we were doing jumping jacks and watching a toddler trying to do the same thing, and falling on his butt, and laughing and getting up again.
In the course of looking for a post at Shrinkette's, I found her thoughts on Effective interventions for (possibly) suicidal patients.
Shrinkette's posts on soaring antidepressant use, part I and soaring antidepressant use, part II are also very instructive reading.
I wrote a note to Shrinkette about non-psychiatrists prescribing antidepressants, which she published with my permission. She also points us to Beth*, who is writing an anatomy of her depression.
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