I’ve been sparse around here lately, mainly because of a bout with depression and a bad chest cold.
From an evolutionary perspective, it seems that depression is an exagerrated coping mechanism, or, rather, a mechanism that kicks in after you’re coping mechanisms have up and quit. How you’re predisposed or not to depression seems to be a medical conundrum we haven’t yet cracked.
According to NIMH, eleven percent of missed work days are from depression, and one in twenty workers are fighting depression today. Over the course of a year, almost ten percent of Americans will experience depression.
In any case, that’s why I haven’t been around much lately. Seems the process of buying and moving into a house has maxed out my coping mechanisms, and now I’m searching for better meds and working at getting through one work day at a time. That’s how it goes with depression. Either you give in or you fight the damn thing. Either way, it’s not a lot of fun.
So until I’m a bit better, I’ll continue to be sparse around here. As I get better, I’ll write more. In the meantime, check out some of the weblogs along the right sidebar. They’re worth the read.
I also suffer from the beast. Sorry to read it’s got you down right now. May you be up and kicking its ass soon.
I remember reading something (how many sentences have I started with those words?) that considered the evolutionary function of depression in communities. The argument, IIRC, went like this: having a group that didn’t contribute as much as others while not consuming as much could be beneficial where food gathering was hazardous business. If everyone was chipper and full ‘o pep for potentially fatal hunts, you could possibly lose enough people that the commuity wouldn’t be able to reproduce itself. Tolerating the depressed in your community could give it an edge, and so whatever genetics components that contribute to depression or susceptibility to depression were preserved. I’m not sure if that’s the correct argument—let alone if I buy it—but it’s interesting to think about.
One thing that can rouse me temporarily from a bout of depression—at least long enough to yell at someone—is hearing something like, "Oh, things are fine—what do you have to be depressed about?" The answer, of course, is "That’s what DEPRESSION IS, you FUCKING PINHEAD." I hope you don’t have anybody like that around. But if you do…well, I figure wooden baseball bats will never go out of style. And if anyone asks, we were on IM and you were explaining Foucault to me.
Thanks. I’ll keep a baseball bat handy, just in case.
There’s nothing like a major life change to throw you off balance. I hope things will take a turn for the better soon — I miss My Irony!