Kramer, Peter D. - Against Depression

[oyceter]

fannishly had this sitting around, and then her therapist recced it, so, here I am

Comments

[honorh]

Huh. I'll have to see if I can find that one on my weekly jaunt to B&N. If anything, I find that depression stifles my creativity, so I've never bought into the Van Gogh defense. Sure, going through depression and hard times can add up to some beautiful things, but if there's no end to it . . . people don't understand just how painful it is until they've been inside.

I remember vividly hitting baseline the first time I got on medication. I actually remarked to my mother, "This must be how normal people feel." People think medication numbs you, but it doesn't--depression does. Being able to feel something other than the depression? That's what baseline means to me.

[knullabulla]

On Van Gogh: I'm willing to bet that the guy was bipolar. Cause really, it just sounds far more manic to suddenly get it in your head that "oh, if I give her my ear, than she'll REALLY like me!" I mean, when you're depressed, you generally don't consider your body parts to be the bestest gifts ever--you're depressed and you suck and your ears suck (well, not literally. You'd probably end up with a lot of ear aches if they did).

Quite right about depression making you numb. I get smacked by hormones--put me on the pill and I become downright suicidal--so I haven't seen for myself how meds help, but I do trust your judgement on the matter.

[qiihoskeh]

For practically any mental illness, and some physical ones, it seems that there are different groups of doctors who define the name of the illness in quite different ways. I'm not sure what my point in saying this was ....

[superplin]

Thanks for the review: I've had this in my stack for months, but haven't yet got round to it. Nice to hear it's worth reading!

[fiveandfour]

Thanks. It's kind of ironic that I was just thinking the other day that I'm finally starting to feel like myself again and wondering if that meant I was "cured" or if once diagnosed as depressed one was forever depressed and had to stay on medication to keep from sinking back down. I'm definitely interested in reading this to help me figure out points of interest to discuss with my doctor. Funny how little accidents of timing like this occur...

[flangirl]

Thanks for the review. I think I'll try and check this out from the library next time I go.