Lived Experience Forum

[MoonGal]

Hiya Forumites, just came across this article on social media and it is a good 'un in describing the experience, good to see some real stuff being published in mainstream press and I like the illustration too. (As we had a conversation here "The difficulty of picturing Mental Illness" about what images media uses to accompany stories about mental health - usually stock photos of people clutching their heads)

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Article: The Guardian Opinion published Wednesday 20 April 2016

What does depression feel like? Trust me – you really don’t want to know by Tim Lott

"Admittedly, severely depressed people can connect only tenuously with reality, but repeated studies have shown that mild to moderate depressives have a more realistic take on life than most “normal” people, a phenomenon known as “depressive realism”. As Neel Burton, author of The Meaning of Madness, put it, this is “the healthy suspicion that modern life has no meaning and that modern society is absurd and alienating”. In a goal-driven, work-oriented culture, this is deeply threatening."

Q. What do other's think of this article and ilustration doe sit speak to your lived experience?

[Sahara]

Hi @MoonGal, 

Thanks for posting the article by Tim Lott; I thought it was quite accurate in it's description of depression. I have read a few good articles over the years about depression and when I find a good one (one that rings true for me) I always feel better about myself for some reason.... I don't feel so alone.

It must be extremely difficult for anyone who has not had depression to understand how it feels. I don't think that it's possible. For me, it felt like ordinary sadness but multiplied by about a thousand times. It was also completely terrifying. I would wake up to pure, blind, white terror every morning. I would wish I was dead so as I did not have to suffer one more single day of it.

My head felt like a huge, leaden weight on my shoulders. My chest felt crushed, but the rest of my body felt empty.  It was hard to focus on anything and I was teary and shaking a lot. I was seized with sheer panic at the thought of doing almost anything.  I also felt like I was going insane and that I would never recover. It was like being trapped in an on-going nightmare. 

The difference between a healthy mind and a depressed mind is monumental. 

[MoonGal]

@Sahara - I loved your creative and insightful description of how you experience depression. It rings true too for my experience of it. 

[Appleblossom]

I liked your post @Sahara because of your description, not because of the state.

The article was interesting for mainstream journal.  I hesitated about his mention of his mum's suicide, but on researching, found he had written a book about her and so felt more accepting that he mentioned it, deliberately to draw a distinction between depression and a purely reactive grief.