Important post

Tributes to Althea Hayton

Althea Hayton, founder of Womb Twin, passed away peacefully on August 13 (sorry for the delay in posting this news on the blog). We are all ...

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Platitudes for the depressed

So Pamela Stevenson (now Connolly) has written some books about psychology.

The one about depression seems to be full of platitudes that get nowhere near the problem.
Here is a a short list of what you can do about depression while you wait for that appointment with a psychiatrist for some antidepressants which will slow you down and nicely blurr the issues and make life liveable again.
  • Educate yourself and others round you about depression.
  • Make a list of any specific concerns that may be contributing to your depression.
  • Try to take care of those things as best you can.
  • Make a list of positive things in your life about which you feel hopeful, focus on these things.
  • Try to exercise. Try to eat a nutritious healthy diet. Pay a little more attention to your physical appearance.
  • Gather support from friends and family. Garner human touch. Don't isolate yourself.
  • Create a daily schedule of activities for yourself.
If the individual concerned is capable of any of this then they are no longer depressed. If I knew all about depression and exactly why I was depressed and I was able to do something about it, I would have no problem.
If I was bothered about myself enough to exercise and eat healthily and have friends who hugged me and had a structured meaningful existence I would not be depressed at all.

We dont know about depression. Depression is a mystery. People don't suddenly get depressed, they have a lifelong tendency towards depression. What if depression is grief and loss and terrible sadness and utter helplessness and isolation? What if people with a tendency to depression get platitudes thrown at them and no empathy whatever for how they truly feel?

No one is listening to the wombtwin survivors who feel grief and loss and terrible sadness and utter helplessness and isolation. Call it depression, a personality disorder or what you will, but there is a rational intelligent and loving reason why some people feel this way.

We need to ask those vital questions about the mothers pregnancy!

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