Depression vs Vitality

Quote by Andrew Solomon "The opposite of depression is not happiness but vitality" Poster by Bergen and Associates

I’ve been pondering Andrew Solomon’s exquisite reflections on his own experience with depression. As a writer, he captures the pain and anxiety of depression remarkably.

He wraps depression with words to enable those who have depression to feel understood and validated and affirmed. No, you are not crazy, you are not alone, and you definitely are in remarkable company in your struggle with depression.

He explains depression to those who have never experienced it so as to have them understand…maybe for the first time, the devastatingly crippling nature of depression.

Quote by Andrew Solomon, "It

He gives hope as he discusses treatment. He advocates for actively pursuing treatment:

People will come to me and say, “I think, though, if I just stick it out for another year, I think I can just get through this,”

And I always say to them, “You may get through it, but you’ll never be 37 again. Life is short, and that’s a whole year you’re talking about giving up. Think it through.”

Andrew Solomon

Ted Talk

On trying to resist depression, deny depression, or decide that one just doesn’t have it:

Shutting out the depression strengthens it. While you hide from it, it grows. And the people who do better are the ones who are able to tolerate the fact that they have this condition. Those who can tolerate their depression are the ones who achieve resilience….valuing one’s depression does not prevent a relapse, but it may make the prospect of relapse and even relapse itself easier to tolerate.

Andrew Solomon

This video is almost a half hour long. Many of you will not watch it, or not watch it to the end.

It’s all kinds of marketing wrong to put a video this long in a blog. But what it says is important, and I’m doing it anyway…because the more depression is talked about and the more it is out in the open, the less people will have to struggle with hiding it. ‘Cuz hiding depression is one sure fire way of not helping it get better.

But I am asking you to consider the value of investing the time to watch this thoughtful discourse on depression in its entirety…because you may be suffering from depression and have never let yourself admit it. You may recognize depression for the first time. You may have a loved one you will be better able to understand after watching this.