Eric's Depression

I read an article this morning from my favorite movie reviewer, Eric D. Snider. I’ve followed Eric for some time and he graduated from the same college as I did, but a couple of years back. I have an autographed book of his somewhere around here. Anyway, this article wasn’t his normal fare, but darn well worth it.

http://www.ericdsnider.com/snide/the-great-depression/

I HIGHLY recommend you read it. I also wrote a blurb about depression a year or so ago,

http://groesser.multiply.com/journal/item/99/Depression_Thoughts.

It wasn’t nearly as well done as Eric’s.

I want to be a little more forthcoming on this topic. I don’t think my depression spells are chemical, or biological. I think mine are situational. I can feel them coming on and I know the triggers and I have ways of coping with it. Luckily I’ve been able to handle them. I don’t know what it would be like with a biological issue. I’ve never taken medication for it but then I don’t know how seriously it was taken back when I had it.

I’ve learned lately that it is best to just say what is on your mind, come clean so to speak. I didn’t know what told me that what I had suffered from was depression. Probably my wife…you know…telling me it was depression. Eventually it sunk in and I somehow think it was my idea and a brilliant deduction.  It was the worst two years of my life, and some here can catch the reference. Actually, it was a damn horrible year followed by a mighty hard go. I had driven away my closest friends and strained other’s. I dreaded opening my eyes every morning. It was hard to function. I was slowly being crushed and I felt I had lost everything. In the moment I was finally faced with all that I had done, all that was happening to me, I decided to change my situation, even if it completely messed up the plans I had made for my life. Well, to be honest, many of those were already shot. Well, situations sometimes have other factors, so I was left with changing my attitude, my reason for going on. I had a bad year, but I made it through.

Once I returned to BYU, I was highly functioning again. Luckily, all this happened away from school so I didn’t completely submarine my chances at a good education. What followed were some of the best times of my life, ones I’ll always remember. Dating like there was no tomorrow, operating on little to no sleep, jamming differential calculus and transistor operation into my head, programming….ah, structured programming; it clears my head like no other task. Aside from a short blip of indecision on where my life was going, it all fell into place.

I’m glad I had that year away, to get it all together. I met some of the most wonderful people then, Park, Noelle, Eric, Bebee, Hecking, Griffith…the list goes on. 

Still, don’t neglect depression. See someone about it. I was in a tough spot because of my situation and people didn’t want to pass judgment on that choice. Professionals tiptoed around it. But my situation isn’t yours. If you think you have a problem, do something. Life is too short to mess around with it. Life is too short to not be happy.