ysabetwordsmith | Poem: "Traumatic Inertia"

This poem was written outside the prompt calls, and posted as barter for

nanila. It is a direct sequel to "The Hardest Part" in the Polychrome Heroics series.

"Traumatic Inertia"

Damask's Journal

Maze: I can't seem to get out of bed today.

Mira: Me neither.

Ham: Did anyone get the license number of that truck?

Clement: Not fucking funny.

Clarity: Let's think of something we can do in bed, then.

Keane: We'll just spend the day processing.
Don't worry, folks, I got this.

* * *

Notes:

(Links for apathy, inertia, and depression are the best I could find, but some still refer to "laziness." :( If anyone can suggest more positive replacements, that's welcome.)
Apathy is a lack of motivation, which can result from PTSD, depression, or other causes. Contrast it with other emotional states. Inertia is a limitation in fitness. Depression increases this, but exercise can reduce depression and anxiety. Here are some tips for exercising while depressed. There are ways to overcome apathy, break inertia, and ease depression.

Emotional processing is necessary after major upheavals. Know how to process and release emotions. The other headmates may not appreciate Keane much, but he's crucial to the system's functionality.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

If you as a reader even /suspect/ that what you're dealing with is NOT a bout of inertia and sadness over something like a breakup or fight with a friend, I'd say-- run, don't walk to the link labeled "ease depression". It's a good, safe start, and then go where the mood strikes you among the more limited links. Because they're not /bad/, they just have the Puritanical association that 'lazy' is a mortal sin and it creeps into their tone, quite obviously.

Edited (cut out the now irrelevant bit about problem with links) 2014-06-10 22:27 (UTC)

>> 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.

I'm digging through links. Straight off the top of my head, WebMD is much more helpful, and oddly, MORE optimistic.
http://www.webmd.com/depression/features/exercise

If you like it, add it above, please. (I've expressed a problem with something, I'm bleeping well going to try to help make it better!)

Includes mention of both depression and anxiety, something Maze and her System seem to experience a LOT right now (and for good reasons).

http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/depression/in-depth/depression-and-exercise/art-20046495?pg=2

Again, very helpful, start where you ARE, start small, don't sweat the occasional setback. GOOD advice especially for people whose situations are compounded by depression, like a disability, or poverty, or a dozen other things. "I don't have the money to join a gym" is a very VALID complaint that's usually shot down as "you'll find the money when you get SERIOUS about your health." (To them I wave my fingers in rude, entirely non-ASL gestures.)

I read a book several years ago, which actually LOOKED AT the studies of Prozac and other depression treatments and compared them to, among other things, both a "couch-potato-no-change" group and one which worked up to an hour of exercise per day. And both studies were compared against the studies of chemical treatments for depression--Guess which one is cheaper and /within two percent/ of the MOST effective drug therapy?

Yup, the exercise.

I'm currently trying to dig through my memory for the name of ONE of that particular chain of books, but it was one of the few written for the layperson which EXPLAINED methodologies, INCLUDED the methodologies, and expected the reader to actually be able to interpret the data graphs from each study compared.

Okay, didn't find the actual book, (memory must crap out at the fifteen-year-mark?) but check this out for specific, concrete comparisons. Includes data on how much exercise saw improvement, long term comparison and neutral language.

http://www.health.harvard.edu/newsweek/Exercise-and-Depression-report-excerpt.htm

From the excerpt for the full text, there's one key bit of data: SSRIs (serotonin reuptake inhibitors, Prozac and Zoloft are brand names of this category) can take four to EIGHT WEEKS to begin affecting mood. And the side effects are /serious/. Check this out to see which drugs are being discussed in the other links: http://www.health.harvard.edu/special_health_reports/Understanding_Depression

Last comment: our understanding of chronic depresion is RAPIDLy changing. If your last"new" information is more than five years old, check this out. Serotonin levels aren't the CAUSE of chronic depression, they're a SYMPTOM.

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2008/07/06/head_fake/?page=full

Edited (last link) 2014-06-10 23:11 (UTC)

>> Straight off the top of my head, WebMD is much more helpful, and oddly, MORE optimistic.<<

Yes, it is; I've added both of your links.

>> (I've expressed a problem with something, I'm bleeping well going to try to help make it better!) <<

Much appreciated!

>> Includes mention of both depression and anxiety, something Maze and her System seem to experience a LOT right now (and for good reasons). <<

Those problems go together for many people. Yes, Damask have solid grounds for being kind of a mess right now. Not only are they trying to cope with the aftermath of trauma, they've got new superpowers and new headmates and then even more shit happens. 0_o

I think they have the potential to all be relatively healthy, emotionally. It's just going to take WORK to get there.

Oh yes. There's nothing wrong with Damask that time and effort can't mend. They're never going to reintegrate into a single person, but as long as they're comfortable and functional as a team, that's an evolution not a disorder. They'll get there.

Poem: "Traumatic Inertia"

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