... sometimes "depression" seems like such a portmanteau word, too... the details of people's emotional and mental states are so unique, even when there are commonalities....
gah, I'm talking in bland generalizations; not sure what I'm trying to say...
It's a portmanteau word, but it's also a door to a whole corridor of things that hitherto were shut off. Like dyslexia, which we know now is an umbrella word that covers all kind of learning styles anc challenges. But when I was growing up, the word was "stupid" or "lazy" or "unteachable". "Dyslexia" functioned to take the judgment out, and hint that there was some brain wiring at issue, that the emotional fallout was a result and not a cause.
I suspect that "depression" is going the same way.
It's definitely good to take the judgment out. And yes: so many things turn out, upon examination, to cover a range of phenomena--like autism, too.
I went back and read mychapeau's entry and ended up thinking intensively about the act of keeping a personal journal of your feelings. You allude here to Lucy editing herself; sometimes writing for posterity and sometimes personally--and mychapeau was talking about how we are continually reassessing and reinterpretting our lives and feelings.
In the end, that fact made me abandon introspective journaling. I couldn't catch all the changes and didn't want to be pinned down to a momentary feeling (and I often didn't like the me I saw when I went back and looked...)
I journaled obsessively for decades. I forced myself to stop back in the early 90s when I realized I was recording nothing but anxiety whining. Sometimes I sneak back at it, like in my dayplanner. I never thought ahead until recent years: what to do about them? I think the best thing is to burn them, if I'm stricken with a killer disease that gives me time. Otherwise, tell my daughter to burn them.
I don't do it now because from time to time I look back to regain my old thinking on a memory, or to correct memory flaws, when they meld over time with what I wanted to happen, or with emotional coloration.
Yeah, I think it will hit a lot of people--but if the result is a widened awareness of the cost of being forced to keep silent about what we know now is a treatable condition often inherited, rather than a moral failing, the revelation will do some good.
Wow. Her books make a heck of a lot more sense now. I had them all. I liked the Emily books best; likely because it was a character I could sympathize with. I also liked the ones--I don't remember the name of them, but the Disney show Avonlea was based on them, with Felix and Cecily, and a male narrator who went to live with his cousins or something.
Though I loved the Anne books, and have read the first one more times than I can count, I have to admit that I never learned much about the author. This was informative and touching, thank you.
Anne of Green Gables was a "gateway book" for me. I was always encouraged to read while growing up but my Mother decided to read that book with me when I was 8 or 9 years old. I vividly remember her coming up to bed with me every night while we read through another chapter. It the first "thick" book I remember indulging in and I was hooked there after. It was such a huge part of my youth that I vowed a long time ago to do the same thing with my daughter (if I am ever blessed with one).
Hearing that the author was so conflicted and haunted is heart wrenching. I think the word "Depression" is so ignored because it is used for such a huge spectrum of emotions. Also, so many people "cry wolf" with it that it is much like a car alarm - ignored so often that even when there is something truly sinister going on many don't take notice until too late.
Yes, this is another aspect of human behavior. I used to know someone who threatened suicide when she didn't get her way, or get enough attention by trying to cause guilt or sympathy. It was a little like heroin addiction--took more longer and louder threats to manipulate people into doing what she wanted them to do, until people just drifted away, avoiding contact.
The downside is that such behavior causes one to look askance at someone else using the same language about suicide, who might really be in danger.
I guess the best thing is to take every threat seriously.
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... sometimes "depression" seems like such a portmanteau word, too... the details of people's emotional and mental states are so unique, even when there are commonalities....
gah, I'm talking in bland generalizations; not sure what I'm trying to say...
Reply
I suspect that "depression" is going the same way.
Reply
It's definitely good to take the judgment out. And yes: so many things turn out, upon examination, to cover a range of phenomena--like autism, too.
I went back and read mychapeau's entry and ended up thinking intensively about the act of keeping a personal journal of your feelings. You allude here to Lucy editing herself; sometimes writing for posterity and sometimes personally--and mychapeau was talking about how we are continually reassessing and reinterpretting our lives and feelings.
In the end, that fact made me abandon introspective journaling. I couldn't catch all the changes and didn't want to be pinned down to a momentary feeling (and I often didn't like the me I saw when I went back and looked...)
Reply
I don't do it now because from time to time I look back to regain my old thinking on a memory, or to correct memory flaws, when they meld over time with what I wanted to happen, or with emotional coloration.
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Hearing that the author was so conflicted and haunted is heart wrenching. I think the word "Depression" is so ignored because it is used for such a huge spectrum of emotions. Also, so many people "cry wolf" with it that it is much like a car alarm - ignored so often that even when there is something truly sinister going on many don't take notice until too late.
Reply
The downside is that such behavior causes one to look askance at someone else using the same language about suicide, who might really be in danger.
I guess the best thing is to take every threat seriously.
Reply
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