You have a cadre of old time readers who actually read your stuff and think very highly of your writing. Don't think of ever giving up on that. It is a rare gift.
I have had clinical depression for decades, and take a med. every day. Clinical depression makes everything seem sadder, worse, harder, more terrible, that it actually is. The med. helps me deal with situations as I would as a "normal" person. But that does't mean I am immune from situational depression, which could come from divorce, death of a loved one, lonliness, etc. Depression is not something you can have at will. Maybe you can pretend to be depressed in order to receive attention, but real, situational depression needs to be dealt with and worked through.
I'm glad you are back, Sarah; I've missed you! Loretta
Nice to hear from you, Loretta! I agree that it is totally unfair that if one is clinically depressed, they also get to be situationally depressed just like everyone else.
My take-away from the article wasn't that people "perform" depression as a way to get sympathy, but that it's an unconscious mechanism that evolved for that purpose, if that makes sense. With so many people in the world currently depressed, anxious, etc., to me it's a major warning sign: we're not living the way we're supposed to live (which if you ask me, "isolated from each other" isn't the way we're meant to live).
You have a cadre of old time readers who actually read your stuff and think very highly of your writing. Don't think of ever giving up on that. It is a rare gift.
Nice to know, thank you! :)
I have had clinical depression for decades, and take a med. every day. Clinical depression makes everything seem sadder, worse, harder, more terrible, that it actually is. The med. helps me deal with situations as I would as a "normal" person. But that does't mean I am immune from situational depression, which could come from divorce, death of a loved one, lonliness, etc. Depression is not something you can have at will. Maybe you can pretend to be depressed in order to receive attention, but real, situational depression needs to be dealt with and worked through.
I'm glad you are back, Sarah; I've missed you! Loretta
Nice to hear from you, Loretta! I agree that it is totally unfair that if one is clinically depressed, they also get to be situationally depressed just like everyone else.
My take-away from the article wasn't that people "perform" depression as a way to get sympathy, but that it's an unconscious mechanism that evolved for that purpose, if that makes sense. With so many people in the world currently depressed, anxious, etc., to me it's a major warning sign: we're not living the way we're supposed to live (which if you ask me, "isolated from each other" isn't the way we're meant to live).
Thanks for your note! :)
Love your essays, long or short, political or not.
Oh, thanks, Robert!
Good to see you back.