Chatting to a friend over lunch yesterday I became aware of a frustrating misconception about depression which hadn’t really occurred to me before – the notion that the opposite of depression is happiness and that depression is simply the experience of being very sad for a long time.
Sometimes I rather wish I had just been sad for a while. Sad, I think, I could have done. Sad doesn’t crowd in during the threadbare hours to chase you out of yourself; it doesn’t turn out the lights, one by one; it doesn’t steal the things you care about and taunt you because you can’t find their whereabouts. Sad isn’t a menace threatening to stay by your side for eternity; it doesn’t convince you to abandon all hope, love and laughter. Sad doesn’t take your life away, incrementally, until the only thing left to do is jump off the cliff edge it has led you to.
It’s funny where a throw away comment can take you, isn’t it? My friend simply said ‘I’m really glad you are feeling happier’. It was meant as a kindness and an encouragement, and it was taken as one, but behind the scenes it got me thinking about what I’m really trying to achieve here. Is this a search for happiness? My conclusion, I think is ‘no’. For me, trying to recover from depression isn’t about trying to find happiness, it’s about trying to find health. It’s about getting myself on a mental and emotional even keel which allows me to experience a range of emotions safe from the harm that my dark passenger can and does inflict.
Sad is sad. It’s the opposite of happy. Depression is depression. It’s the opposite of well and the opposite of what I’m striving to be.
How do you eat an elephant? 
Amen! I couldn’t agree more.
Reblogged this on madness42 and commented:
This is brilliant. All people who don’t understand depression should be made to read it, my Lovely Hubby included!
Excellently put.
Reblogged this on SparrowInTheSnow and commented:
I can’t post today . . . But “How do you eat an elephant?” wrote this short and well said post I’d like to share. -Sparrow
You have made such a good point. Really well put. I think that unless you go through depression you don’t understand that depression is depression, not just sad, or blue, or low or whatever else people say.
You said it so well.
Reblogged this on Tiptoeing Around The Abyss and commented:
I found this post this morning on what it means to recover from Depression. It struck a cord with me and I felt the need to pass it along.
This is so true. I live in a world were nobody who understands talks about it becasue of the attached stigma, but I hear plenty of comments from those lucky enough to not have any idea what they are talking about. I am recovering. I am med free for the first time in over ten years. I am aware of the episodic nature of depression, and know I could stumble at any moment. I am not on a quest for happiness, just to be myself again. I want to be sad and happy. I want to feel love and anger. I want to feel them all in healthy doses, but most of all I just want to feel. I think I am going to reblog this as I have some folks that read my blog that would appreciate this.
Yes, thank you Casey, for directing me here.
This is so incredibly accurate to how I’ve been feeling. Convincing my husband that I’m not “just sad” has been a chore. Especially because I can’t always say WHY I feel depressed.
The opposite of being depressed is being well. I am going to borrow that, if it’s all right with you.
Absolutely fine by me 🙂