I wrote a letter

[catsidhe]

I just sent off a letter to The Age, in reply to the letter titled "Another cause of depression", here.

The letter I replied to reads:

Martin Flanagan, in his comment on Paul Hester's death (2/4), is right in everything he asserts about individualism, war, politics and economics, but I am left wondering why our degraded environment, both in Australia and globally, so rarely get a mention in the discussion about depression.

We see degradation around us every day: drought, declining water resources, polluted waterways, littered streets, loss of diversity while an apparent lack of interest by government and the community reigns.

Personally, this factor, more than any other, is what makes me depressed and prone to losing optimism. If we could truly begin to care for the environment, maybe the level of depression would decrease correspondingly.
Lena Mazza, East Brunswick

My reply was:

Lena Mazza, dare I suggest that you are not depressed, nor are you a depressive. You may well be disencouraged, despondant, pessimistic and sad, but if you had ever suffered the Black Dog, you would know that all the things described by you and Martin Flanagan are not causes of depression, but merely potential triggers.

Depression is not just 'feeling really bad'. My experience of depression is that it scythes away all positive feelings. You feel no joy, no hope, no satisfaction from achievement, no warmth from love. Instead, you are left defenceless from the undiminished power of despair, self-hate, fear and doubt. Depression is not just the bad feelings, it is the inability to be redeemed by the good. When the Dog is upon you, all you feel is the spiral into an infinite dark pit, with no hope of getting out of it. You may know intellectually that this, too, shall pass, but the knowledge gives no comfort.

Your letter was not wrong in spirit, but it does show that you don't know what depression is.

I know what he was trying to say, but he just got my goat, because his view of depression, as seems usual among people who don't suffer it, is "depression == feeling really sad". The full experience is so much more than any degree of 'sadness'. feh.

I probably over-reacted. I just got jacked off by his misconceptions, and wanted to try and set the record a little straighter. Let's see if they even print it.

Comments

[drjon.livejournal.com]

Not bad... certainly accurate, perhaps a little blunt where not warranted imao, but then it was your call...

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

*nods* I think you've got it about right.

The most educational item I've seen was a chart - iirc - of serotonin levels. One was of a "really sad" person and the other was of a depressed person. Now that was educational.