>> Both of the first two links I checked about inertia and depression USE the term "lazy" --applying it to someone who may, in fact, be diagnosed on the bipolar scale as depressed. BE WARNED that the posts, while helpful for the occasional bout of 'the blues' are NOT ideal. <<
Thanks for catching this. I have added a warning above the links.
>> Probably "the best of a bad lot", am I right? <<
Exactly. I look first for positive content -- is it on topic, does it have something useful? Then I try to weed out negative content -- does it say something awful? But sometimes that leaves me with 0 links.
>> Treating people with depression as though they are lazy is a cruelty endemic to modern American culture, and it is VERY cruel indeed. <<
Agreed.
Another problem is that small but crucial distinctions are usually lost in topical posts. Frex, depression can be acute or chronic; biochemical, psychological, and/or circumstantial. Those different forms may respond to different treatments. Drugs won't help short-term depression because they take weeks or months to have any effect if they're going to at all; you need coping skills to deal with the acute form. Conversely, biochemical depression is a long-term problem not much influenced by circumstantial or psychological factors, and usually requires pharmaceutical support.
A majority of people, if something horrible happens, are going to have at least one experience shortly afterward when they have no energy and no drive. If that's never happened to you before, it can be alarming and you might not know how to deal with it. So the first thing you should do is rest, because your supply is probably just depleted and will bounce back to normal. Eat healthy foods, take care of yourself, do things that usually make you feel good. Try to work through what upset you so much. Then if you don't feel better after a few days or weeks (whatever your help-seeking threshold is) the problem might need expert attention.
I couldn't find a webpage that said that.
>> I'm sorry to harp about something incidental to the actual poem, /except/-- Would you really suggest those links to Maze, unwarned and without support? Because in the poem, she isn't in a stable place, and hitting the "lazy" designation -might- just be one time too many, and send them into a downward spiral. <<
These are valid points. I want the resources to be helpful, not harmful. But I'm limited by what can be found online already or what I have time to write myself. So I added the warning, and maybe someone else will know of better links. Once in a while, readers do suggest articles that are exactly what I needed but couldn't find earlier.
This poem is really about acute depression rather than chronic depression, which I've dealt with in some of my other writing. It's a lot easier to find close matches for the version everyone pays attention to, so then I can weed out the crappy ones and still have some left.
Re: Good poem, BUT--
Thanks for catching this. I have added a warning above the links.
>> Probably "the best of a bad lot", am I right? <<
Exactly. I look first for positive content -- is it on topic, does it have something useful? Then I try to weed out negative content -- does it say something awful? But sometimes that leaves me with 0 links.
>> Treating people with depression as though they are lazy is a cruelty endemic to modern American culture, and it is VERY cruel indeed. <<
Agreed.
Another problem is that small but crucial distinctions are usually lost in topical posts. Frex, depression can be acute or chronic; biochemical, psychological, and/or circumstantial. Those different forms may respond to different treatments. Drugs won't help short-term depression because they take weeks or months to have any effect if they're going to at all; you need coping skills to deal with the acute form. Conversely, biochemical depression is a long-term problem not much influenced by circumstantial or psychological factors, and usually requires pharmaceutical support.
A majority of people, if something horrible happens, are going to have at least one experience shortly afterward when they have no energy and no drive. If that's never happened to you before, it can be alarming and you might not know how to deal with it. So the first thing you should do is rest, because your supply is probably just depleted and will bounce back to normal. Eat healthy foods, take care of yourself, do things that usually make you feel good. Try to work through what upset you so much. Then if you don't feel better after a few days or weeks (whatever your help-seeking threshold is) the problem might need expert attention.
I couldn't find a webpage that said that.
>> I'm sorry to harp about something incidental to the actual poem, /except/-- Would you really suggest those links to Maze, unwarned and without support? Because in the poem, she isn't in a stable place, and hitting the "lazy" designation -might- just be one time too many, and send them into a downward spiral. <<
These are valid points. I want the resources to be helpful, not harmful. But I'm limited by what can be found online already or what I have time to write myself. So I added the warning, and maybe someone else will know of better links. Once in a while, readers do suggest articles that are exactly what I needed but couldn't find earlier.
This poem is really about acute depression rather than chronic depression, which I've dealt with in some of my other writing. It's a lot easier to find close matches for the version everyone pays attention to, so then I can weed out the crappy ones and still have some left.