Depression

Depression is a hot topic at Facebook. That is, I keep seeing the same copy/paste status updates meant to educate people about the nature of depression and other mental health issues. The gist: if people see you with a broken leg or no leg they are sympathetic; since they can not see inside a person's brain, they do not extend that same compassion to the afflicted individual.

Psychiatrists think everything can be fixed with a pill ~ correcting brain chemistry imbalances. They do not believe bipolar individuals who say events precede their mood swings.

I was in a good mood for about a week. As soon as I hear Chris cough, my mood changes. Now that John is back to his normal noise, I am depressed. I am tired; feel a cold coming on; want to go to sleep, despite the early hour. John is not thumping around like last night, but the level of his kitchen noise is back to normal ~ his normal. Both things depress me, because I am so stuck living here with them as neighbors.

Yet I do not copy paste those depression memes at Facebook. My game friends are basically strangers. Few communicate via a comment. Some do reply to comments I make on their photos or posts. They seldom comment on anything I post. My close family members know all about depression. I assume my high school classmates, cousins and older nieces and nephews are knowledgeable about depression and other mental health issues. The younger friends, maybe not.

So many of us have mutual friends; if one of us posts a meme, we soon see it dozens of times. The status update box asks: What's on your mind? I guess depression is on a lot of people's minds. And bullies, and cancer, and loved ones smiling down from heaven, and...