Commentary from April 13, 2017
This strip was inspired by a question I get occasionally about the first characters in the strip eventually getting together. That was never a plan; I doubt with her inability to understand depression coupled with his inability to “get over it” that any romantic spark would flourish, and if it did, it would probably not last long. I believe this is what she feels, that if she says the correct string of words he’ll wake up. And we of course, know this isn’t going happen.
There’s also the idea that depression isn’t normal, which, to be fair, isn’t the norm. But to the sufferer, who has had depression creep up on them over a long time and take over most of the facilities, it does feel like their own version of normal. It’s normal to wake up dreading the day. It’s normal to spend the day with thoughts of despair. It’s normal to spend the night wishing you weren’t alive to feel this way. There is nothing to snap out of, this is The New Normal. For those that don’t suffer this is difficult to grasp, that you life can fundamentally change in a way and still seem superficially the same. What goes on in your head and body is different, even though we’re still similar in our routines and appearance.
There’s also the idea that depression isn’t normal, which, to be fair, isn’t the norm. But to the sufferer, who has had depression creep up on them over a long time and take over most of the facilities, it does feel like their own version of normal. It’s normal to wake up dreading the day. It’s normal to spend the day with thoughts of despair. It’s normal to spend the night wishing you weren’t alive to feel this way. There is nothing to snap out of, this is The New Normal. For those that don’t suffer this is difficult to grasp, that you life can fundamentally change in a way and still seem superficially the same. What goes on in your head and body is different, even though we’re still similar in our routines and appearance.
It’s incomprehensibly exhausting to be “not normal” 8(
Unfortunately there is no snapping out of it. There is just a lot of hard work and professional help to find some relief. Even then, there are numerous setbacks and bad days along the way. More people need to understand that.
Depression isn’t simply feeling bad all of the time, though that is the major symptom. It causes a person to develop a network of mutually reinforcing negative patterns of thinking. When I started taking an antidepressant it prevented the worst of the negative emotions, but the negative thoughts were still there. It took me another year to analyze those thoughts, to figure out why they were fallacious, and to find ways to reject and avoid them.
I don’t think I’ll ever be completely free of depression, but I’ve kept it at bay for decades.
We all get the “snap out of it” line from time to time, but nobody ever tells us what they think we can “snap in to”.
It’s too bad you can’t snap out of it just by snuggling puppies. 🙁
Warm, cuddly, sweater puppies.
If anything could do it, that would be it.
She doesn’t seem to understand. Depression.