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in eleventh grade, i had an english teacher who was about twenty-two and right out of college. poor thing, she had no idea what to do with us. not that we helped much. anyway, one of the books she assigned us was goethe's the sorrows of young werther, which, oddly enough, made quite an impression on me. that is, two bits of it did. the first is the above, one of my favorite quotes of all time. but the important one at the moment is werther's discussion with his friend albert about illness:
( 'The question ... is, not whether a man is strong or weak, but whether he is able to endure the measure of his sufferings.' )
even the german romantics knew that for real depression, of the long-lasting, screw-up-your-life variety, you need medical help. the medical help can't always fix it and make it better, of course, but they can't always do that for observable physical problems either. but there's no more good reason to think a person can combat depression on her own than there is to think she can remove her own ruptured appendix.
the depressive episode i had a month or so ago was the mental-health equivalent of a wee sniffle. but those of you who have bigger, more chronic issues than that? dude, if it were a bronchial cough you couldn't shake, you'd go to the doctor, right?
right?
( 'The question ... is, not whether a man is strong or weak, but whether he is able to endure the measure of his sufferings.' )
even the german romantics knew that for real depression, of the long-lasting, screw-up-your-life variety, you need medical help. the medical help can't always fix it and make it better, of course, but they can't always do that for observable physical problems either. but there's no more good reason to think a person can combat depression on her own than there is to think she can remove her own ruptured appendix.
the depressive episode i had a month or so ago was the mental-health equivalent of a wee sniffle. but those of you who have bigger, more chronic issues than that? dude, if it were a bronchial cough you couldn't shake, you'd go to the doctor, right?
right?
