I’m just curious—was the despair about anything? Did it have no referent at all? You had a stable environment, good relationship with parents, self-confidence, social success, and yet still despaired? Was there no consistent content in your despairing thoughts?
I ask because this has always been a great interest of mine. I have been hospitalized for major depression a few times, but I have always been able to identify the circumstantial causes, even when others have not been perceptive enough to acknowledge them. I’m not saying that my case need be everyone’s case, I’m just trying to understand the subject better. Many would expect me to be able to understand clinical depression given my history, but the fact is I have almost no ability to imagine depression uncorrelated with my life. There is even a sense in which I consider my mind and my life to be one and the same thing.
poke:
I’m just curious—was the despair about anything? Did it have no referent at all? You had a stable environment, good relationship with parents, self-confidence, social success, and yet still despaired? Was there no consistent content in your despairing thoughts?
I ask because this has always been a great interest of mine. I have been hospitalized for major depression a few times, but I have always been able to identify the circumstantial causes, even when others have not been perceptive enough to acknowledge them. I’m not saying that my case need be everyone’s case, I’m just trying to understand the subject better. Many would expect me to be able to understand clinical depression given my history, but the fact is I have almost no ability to imagine depression uncorrelated with my life. There is even a sense in which I consider my mind and my life to be one and the same thing.