“It is not pleasant to experience decay, to find yourself exposed to the ravages of an almost daily rain, and to know that you are turning into something feeble, that more and more of you will blow off with the first strong wind, making you less and less. Some people accumulate more emotional rust than others. Depression starts out insipid, fogs the days into a dull color, weakens ordinary actions until their clear shapes are obscured by the effort they require, leaves you tired and bored and self-obsessed- but you can get through all that. Not happily, perhaps, but you can get through. No one has ever been able to define the collapse point that marks major depression, but when you get there, there’s not much mistaking it.”
~ Andrew Solomon, The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression
That's quite a paragraph. It's hard to know, really, what to say about it. I haven't read this book, but I am familiar with the facts of Solomon's life. It's difficult to know where to start or (and this sounds incurious) whether to start. Curtis
ReplyDeleteI've read the book several times, in fact. I've also read William Styron's book about his brush with acute depression, as well. I've also read several books and articles about the "scam" that is the anti-depressant industry. Dr. Joseph Glenmullen, of Harvard Medical School, wrote a book entitled "Prozac Backlash -- Overcoming the Dangers of Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, and Other Anti-Depressants with Safe, Effective Alternatives". Excellent book.
DeleteThe reason for this post was that here was an article about depression, and the arguments pro and con with regard to anti-depressants, in the NYT Magazine this weekend and the author referenced Solomon several times. Having read all the other books, I found the article in The Times lacking, but extremely sincere.
No reason to be curious about something that doesn't effect your life on a daily basis. Solomon's book really is (in my opinion) one for the more intelligent and well-read "depressive." For people who want to understand more about why they suffer the way they do. While all of my therapists have known of, and even know, Solomon, they hadn't read his book. It's more for the lay person wanting understand the more universal unpinnings of his or her condition.
It's like that with addiction as well. People who don't suffer from addiction have absolutely no idea what it's like to suffer from addiction. They can read about the physiological aspects of addiction and gain an intellectual understanding of it. But it really is the kind of horror, and extraordinarily lonely road, that one can only understand by being in the middle of it and trying to get through each day.
Sorry for sounding so sad and depressed. That's because I am. That's why I went back to writing this blog. My "audience" is minute and they know what they are in for if they visit. Although, some will attest to my having posted some cheerier and informative posts ...
Stop being cheery and informative. (just write so we know you're still floating about the place, that's all)
ReplyDeleteWill do, Sir Randal. ;-)
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