I can’t believe how many people here who use this place have been affected by Clinical Depression in one way or another. We have to hide so much. Sure… go ahead and say to an employer or prospective employer “Oh… by the way… I take medication in hopes of keeping my clinical depression in check.” even when you go to the ER for something and they ask “any medications?”… you say “yes… Zoloft 200 mg a day.” and their manner suddenly changes. Try to start a new relationship… when you spend more time together and they ask “What is that pill you take every morning?”… “Oh… that… well I have been diagnosed with depression and my psychiatrist says if I don’t take the medication I may have another episode.” See ya later! Or you have to get very good at dodging certain questions. I would say the margin of positivity is very slim and odds are stacked against all of us who have this… in all aspects of our live. Mental Illness hurts. The stigma is too great. —Question Dodger
This article appears in Feb 20-26, 2014.
There still is a stigma, absolutely. But it’s a lot more open and understood than it was 2 decades ago. Cynics might say that it’s become “overdiagnosed” or a catch-all excuse but the fact is you are now far more likely to encounter someone who is either personally afflicted or has a loved one who suffers with it.
As you pointed out, OP (SOHI ?) there are a lot of folks here who do understand. Both the stigma, and the tortuously long road to getting to a point of stability – be it, meds, or therapy or a combination. The mental health field covers such a broad range from dedicated professionals to out-and-out quackery. As PK so accurately summed up, it’s a long, rough road with lots of dead ends. Hard to live even a semblance of life while being a guinea pig.
It’s getting better, but there’s a long way to go.
Hey OP, I feel for you–if it helps at all, think of it as your personal “asshole gauge”–i.e., people who are shitty and judgmental of you because of your depression are assholes who aren’t worth your time…..it sux to have to view it that way, but sometimes it helps…and, OP, we all have some sucky “asshole gauge”. All the best to you–hope you feel better soon.
Ivan and SheSang pretty much sum it up.
As someone who has dated multiple people with clinically-diagnosed mental health conditions, there are people out there for ya. it’ll just weed out the badies.
Do you have a car, OB? You’d probably have better luck if you had a car. Women look deep when looking for a keeper, so ditch the pills and purchase a big shiny chick magnet ASAP!!!
gosh, is that sohi? nothing wrong with you bub that a little LESS obsession with ass to mouth wouldn’t cure, eh?
OP the right person for you will understand and not run for the hills when told of your mental illness.
A SLIM MARGIN OF POSITIVITY
“Or you have to be very good at dodging questions. I would say the margin of positivity is very slim and odds are stacked against all of us who have this.” Question Dodger
Reading this bitch and then doing my daily new avatar post where a slim margin of positivity also obtained, I couldn’t help but see certain similarities.
New Avatar Alert! Hello From Dachau
A pleasure as always.
Cheerio!
Well, for those who might find MM’s posting of a concentration camp avatar on a depression thread a tad triggery – Here’s the Red Army Chorus singing a James Bond tune:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-F832ZZNRV0
Go Team Canada!
PIPPED IN THE DEPRESSION SWEEPSTAKES
RSVP
: Col. Ivan Sonofabitch – 95th Rifles (02/23, 10:32AM)
I thought being an inmate of Dachau was pretty depressing but clearly Ivan has trumped me in the depression sweepstakes. With his standard control move of retrieving a video from his commercial attachment bucket he has sucked viewers to click on to hear the Red Army Chorus singing a James Bond tune he has ratcheted up the depression level at least another notch.
Think of it. Those who clicked on are depressed not only by seeing the flat, mongoloid features of the Chorus members themselves, of hearing their hoarse bellowing voices, but also are subjected to the stink of their rancid garlic breath as it emanates through the screen. Now that’s depressing, really depressing. I’ve been pipped.
There cannot be even the slimmest margin of positivity here.
A pleasure as always.
Cheerio!
Hey Question Dodger
Maybe if you all had a very successful retail business on Spring Garden Road, an expensive car, a beautiful waterfront condo, and many beautiful expensive things you wouldn’t be so sad.
Wow!!! Montrealman. Just Wow!
That’s just a tiny bit of overkill, don’t you think?
I mean, my first response was to download a photobucketed image of the monument at Natzweiler-Struthof, which remains the only KZ that I’ve visited to date. (Luddite that I am, my own collection of daguerrotypes remain defiantly undigitized.
Instead, because it was a most pleasant Sunday here in Dartmouth, and because our Olympic underdog squad of professional hockey players had just finished showing those meatball-gobbling neutrality monkeys from Sweden how to play the game of kings – I opted for whimsy. Hence,” Skyfall”
I’m not totally certain what sort of response I expected from you, but an excerpt from the Goebbels Diaries was not prime amongst the options.
Now, I’m depressed. >: (
AN EGREGIOUS SOLECISM
RSVP
: Col. Ivan Sonofabitch – 95th. Rifles (02/23, 6:34PM)
My response was in proportion to egregious solecism you made in respect to my Dachau avatar. How was your response such an egregious solecism? It was an egregious solecism since it pre-supposed that my avatars must reflect the content of the bitches in which they are found as an extended comment.
This is not the case and never has been. My avatars are free-standing entities. In response to your comment I linked Dachau with “Clinical Depression” as a “jeu d’esprit,” nothing more, but, to my dismay, I was confronted with the depressing link to the Red Army Chorus which, of course, had even less to do with “Clinical Depression” than Dachau. Do you see it now? Do you see it?
For example, my new avatar, “A Young English Poet,” has nothing to do with “Cloning in HRM.” I mean, who gives a damn about cloning in HRM.
A pleasure as always.
Cheerio!
Keats’ headstone is far more interesting than Cloning in HRM , I’ll grant you that.
OB:
I think you’re making things out to be a little more difficult for yourself than it has to be.
I have clinical depression, OCD and a panic disorder, and I’ve never felt like I was being persecuted by anyone. I’ve learned to cope with my illnesses and moved on with the business of living. I think you would benefit from talking to a counsellor, because you haven’t really come to terms with your illness. Unfortunately, most mental illnesses are chronic and it might sound harsh, but you really need to get on with the business of living and not letting a mental illness define who you are, because a) the only one who has to live in your headspace is you and b) no one really gives a shit about someone’s mental illness. So it’s up to you to make the best of the hand you were dealt with.