Hyperbole and a Half: Adventures in Depression

[Fumesucker]

A remarkably perceptive piece about depression, well worth reading the whole thing.

http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2011/10/adventures-in-depression.html

Some people have a legitimate reason to feel depressed, but not me. I just woke up one day feeling sad and helpless for absolutely no reason.



It's disappointing to feel sad for no reason. Sadness can be almost pleasantly indulgent when you have a way to justify it - you can listen to sad music and imagine yourself as the protagonist in a dramatic movie. You can gaze out the window while you're crying and think "This is so sad. I can't even believe how sad this whole situation is. I bet even a reenactment of my sadness could bring an entire theater audience to tears."

But my sadness didn't have a purpose. Listening to sad music and imagining that my life was a movie just made me feel kind of weird because I couldn't really get behind the idea of a movie where the character is sad for no reason.



Essentially, I was being robbed of my right to feel self pity, which is the only redeeming part of sadness.