Depression, choices, happiness. links to other people's posts.

[wispfox]

theferrett posted about depression and suicide, and linked to a post his wife zoethe made, which talks not only about depression, but about how happy is a choice that *I* have to make, and not something that anyone can give me.

The people who seem to be happy most of the time? They have bad days, weeks, months, too. Really.

Comments

[phaedra-lari.livejournal.com]

The people who seem to be happy most of the time? They have bad days, weeks, months, too. Really.

And some of them act happy all the time to cover up the fact that *most* of the days, weeks, months are bad...

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

That, too...

I suppose I should weigh in...

[happypete.livejournal.com]

Since I'm not just known to be generally happy, but happiness is so much a part of me that there are people in fandom who don't even know my given name, but know me only as Happy...

Yes...us happy people have down days. Weeks. Months. I've even had a down year in my life--thank ghu for modern psychopharmacology and all that...

I see it as "default states"--some people "default" to crabby, depressed, irritable, what have you, and have to be dragged "kicking and screaming" over to happy...I choose to "default" to happy, or at the very least "content," and have to be dragged down--temporarily--by negative circumstances...

but never for long!!!

[ommango.livejournal.com]

I found those touching and inspiring posts. I was struck by the shame around depression/suicide that kept theferrett from getting help when he was staring at the spider smudge. Sad, and glad he made it through that and other such experiences. He mentions that depression is brain chemistry gone awry (my words, not his). I think that if we all look at depression as a brain chemistry problem it helps take away the judgement that keeps people from getting help when they need it.

[beowabbit]

Years, sometimes. :-/ But I think I'm back to being happy most of the time. :-)

Re: happy most of the time

[wolfieboy.livejournal.com]

Yep. I'm happy most of the time. I look at it as a form follows function thing. There are some rather nasty things deep in my psyche but I've found that if I act happy that my mind frequently follows along and I end up being heppy.
Sometimes this doesn't work and I end up having a bad time-interval. And once or twice, I've had a cascade failure that has been really difficult...