When depression is stigmatized as illness and weakness, a double bind is created: If we admit to depression, we will be stigmatized by others; if we feel it but do not admit it, we stigmatize ourselves, internalizing the social judgment?. The only remaining choice may be truly sick behavior: to experience no emotion at all.
- Lesley Hazelton
Main Entry: de·pres·sion
Pronunciation: di-’pre-sh&n, dE-
Function: noun
Date: 14th century
1 a : the angular distance of a celestial object below the horizon b : the size of an angle of depression
2 : an act of depressing or a state of being depressed : as a : a pressing down : LOWERING b (1) : a state of feeling sad : DEJECTION (2) : a psychoneurotic or psychotic disorder marked especially by sadness, inactivity, difficulty in thinking and concentration, a significant increase or decrease in appetite and time spent sleeping, feelings of dejection and hopelessness, and sometimes suicidal tendencies c (1) : a reduction in activity, amount, quality, or force (2) : a lowering of vitality or functional activity
3 : a depressed place or part : HOLLOW
4 : LOW 1b
5 : a period of low general economic activity marked especially by rising levels of unemployment
Geez, if I could get through to you, kiddo, that depression is not sobbing and crying and giving vent, it is plain and simple reduction of feeling. Reduction, see? Of all feeling. People who keep stiff upper lips find that it?s damn hard to smile.
-The psychiatrist Berger to Conrad Jarrett, in Judith Guest’s Ordinary People
Main Entry: de·pressed
Function: adjective
Date: 1621
1 : low in spirits : SAD; especially : affected by psychological depression
2 a : vertically flattened (a depressed cactus) b : having the central part lower than the margin c : lying flat or prostrate d : dorsoventrally flattened
3 : suffering from economic depression; especially : UNDERPRIVILEGED
4 : being below the standard
Every age yearns for a more beautiful world. The deeper the desperation and the depression about the confusing present, the more intense that yearning.
- Johan Huizinga
And that about does it. How have you been?
