A deadly disease
Make no mistake, depression is a deadly, deadly disease. On my friends list right now no fewer than four people are talking about their own depression and how they're fighting it. At least one friend found out that a former flame of hers killed himself recently. And then this afternoon there comes news of a famous and talented actor who killed himself. It is no less dangerous and deadly a disease than cancer or heart disease. It is just much much more insidious. I know that this gets repeated over and over, but there are connections in the depressed brain that just don't act the same as in the 'normal' brain. Neurons misfire or don't fire, synapses aren't bridged, thought processes are re-routed, and so on. The brain takes on a life of its own, suggesting things like 'you've got all of these pills here, why not try them all together?' and 'you know your family would be better off without you.' All of which is, of course, nonsense, but that doesn't make it any easier to stop thinking them. It'd be so easy to think that it was just voluntary, conscious thinking on your part, but it isn't.