Depression Won’t Define Me

Back some thirty-five years ago when I was a child, the word depression wasn’t readily used as a diagnosis, rather, it was used to describe a point-in-time state of being. “I’m depressed because I have no friends.” While this use of the word is obviously still valid, depression, in all its varied forms, has come to mean so much more. Back in those days, we’d call it a bout-of-the-blues or feeling down-and-out to which our mothers would emphatically state, “snap out of it… stop feeling sorry for yourself!” My Mom didn’t realize (though, who could blame her) that this prolonged, repetitive, inescapable, inexplicable “mood” that plagued me was actually an illness. Keep reading »