Review All the Comics!

     Allie Brosh of Hyperbole and a Half recently published a comic on depression that is making the rounds on the inter-webs.  It's a follow-up to an earlier post she did on depression, but in this one, she does a spot-on characterization of dissociation, which can be so hard for people with to depression to describe to anyone who hasn't experienced it.  Actually, that is my favorite part of the piece: her description of trying to explain depression to a person who has never experienced it.  I was laughing so hard I nearly cried, because truly, the situation is so bizarre, and maddening, and usually just a total failure.

Photo credit:  Hyperbole and a Half

     "I have depression."
     "Oh, that's really too bad.  You know, you shouldn't take life so seriously.  Just let it go, you know..."
     "Yes, thank you.  That's very helpful."
     "Have you tried going to bed earlier?  Your body needs rest."
     "Hmmm... yes.  Thank you.  That is very insightful."

    Don't you hate that?  As if a good night's sleep and deep breathing will cure this disorder that is plaguing America. It was really good to find this comic and realize that I wasn't the only one who found those conversations massively surreal.
      Honestly, I am glad she wrote this second one because her first one was kind of misleading.  That's not to say that it wasn't funny; Hyperbole and a Half pretty much makes me laugh out loud with every single post, and this one is no exception. And it is not that the article did not have any good pints, because it definitely did.  I can completely relate to that voice of self loathing that is constantly mentally berating you until you just need to crawl around your house in this pathetic lump of sadness.  That seriously happens to me all the time, even when I am on medication.
     What bothered me about "Adventures in Depression" was that at the end it represented depression as freeing and empowering.  She asserts that once the self loathing gets worn out, you can go on and be yourself because you don't care about how you are perceived by others.  It really irritated me that anyone would suggest such a thing, because this has not been my experience, and I don't think it is healthy to suggest that there is an upside to being massively depressed.  I don't think it was her intention to suggest that depression is freeing; she mentions in the second piece that the "I don't give a fuck" stage is short lived, and that the feeling of liberation is really more a liberation from self loathing; but I am glad she wrote the second piece to clarify.