Commentary from Published November 6, 2016
It’s hard to remember this is an illness, not a choice or a personality defect. Accepting depression as a medical condition is one of the great challenges of mental illness. Even though suicide is one of the top ten causes of death (http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.htm) the illness label still eludes us.
In terms of feedback I get from this comic, I still get too many that suggest that depression is a lucid choice. If we just realize how awesome life is, we will snap out of it and resume a productive healthy life. This idea is so pervasive in society that we tend to think that way ourselves, that it isn’t an illness and we are just messing up our own lives, helping us sink even further into the darkness. But if we think of it as an illness and treat it as a medical condition, it is easier I think. We can validate our need for intervention, we can accept our bad days better, and we can stop blaming ourselves for feeling this way. But we have a long way to go before it’s accepted as an illness, even though it’s commonly grouped under mental illnesses.
This is one of my favorite characters in the strip. I really like drawing her into the strip whenever I can, she appears at least once every ten strips and is third for number of appearances of depressed characters.
In terms of feedback I get from this comic, I still get too many that suggest that depression is a lucid choice. If we just realize how awesome life is, we will snap out of it and resume a productive healthy life. This idea is so pervasive in society that we tend to think that way ourselves, that it isn’t an illness and we are just messing up our own lives, helping us sink even further into the darkness. But if we think of it as an illness and treat it as a medical condition, it is easier I think. We can validate our need for intervention, we can accept our bad days better, and we can stop blaming ourselves for feeling this way. But we have a long way to go before it’s accepted as an illness, even though it’s commonly grouped under mental illnesses.
This is one of my favorite characters in the strip. I really like drawing her into the strip whenever I can, she appears at least once every ten strips and is third for number of appearances of depressed characters.
This is probably the thing I hate most about depression; the STRUGGLE to not believe the lies it tells me. They feel so much more like the truth.
Part of the problem is that the lies are so embedded in the society we live in. It is easier to believe what society believes even when it isn’t true.
Feeling that something is true doesn’t make it true, no matter how strong that feeling may be.
Wow, I liked that one. Thanks!
I am still hoping to really believe it one day.
Love the last panel, the difference between the woman and her reflection is perfect. Thanks Clay.
The reflections in the mirrors in these comics are always so smug.
This one was particularly well done. The reflection comes off as smug and condescending. Great job!
Every god damn day.
Jesus. Best plot twist on the site so far.
In fairness, this is the third time I’ve used the mirror plot device.
Plot twist? I knew it was the Mirror from the first panel Sadly.
Well, it IS in your head. Like a stroke or brain tumor. And potentially as deadly.
It took me 30 years to convince myself that it wasn’t just a passing “bad day” that I would get over, and another 10 to convince a doctor to prescribe medication for it. But now I have meds that work and a rock solid coping mechanism for relapses or real “bad days”.
I struggle with doubting my depression every day. Like it’s my fault and I’m doing nothing to change it.
I have an unusual perspective on this that I hope may help others stuggling with this issue. I had a psychiatric diagnosis of depression for 20+ years. A year ago I learned that I actually have a rare neuroimmune disorder. My condition is now treated with immunotherapy (with psych meds as an adjunctive). So now I KNOW FOR SURE that my depression was a true PHYSICAL illness, caused by antibodies attacking my own neurons. This will not be the cause for most folks with depression (it’s a rare condition), but it shows that if we keep looking we will eventually find the many underlying physical causes of depression for all sufferers. This disease is in your head alright, but it’s for sure NOT in your imagination.
The best part is when you get all that negative feedback from your family.
damn
Difficult to believe that when your family doesn’t believe it either.
Chris
Per C’s comment, there’s plenty of evidence that many cases of depression may be due to neuroimmune issues that just don’t have labels yet. About half the people who receive interferon therapy develop at least short-term depression. “Sickness behavior” (the suite of fatigue, social withdrawal, loss of appetite, cognitive issues) that comes with many diseases has a lot of overlap with major depressive disorder. It would be really great if we could strip the “mental” label from depressive illness.