“This story [“The Depressed Person”] was the most painful thing I ever wrote. It’s about narcissism, which is a part of depression. The character has traits of myself. I really lost friends while writing on that story, I became ugly and unhappy and just yelled at people. The cruel thing with depression is that it’s such a self-centered illness – Dostoevsky shows that pretty good in his “Notes from Underground”. The depression is painful, you’re sapped/consumed by yourself; the worse the depression, the more you just think about yourself and the stranger and repellent you appear to others.”
― David Foster Wallace
Author: kaleachapmanpsyd
Clinical Psychologist practicing in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles, California.
“Depression is the flaw in love. To be creatures who love, we must be creatures who can despair at what we lose, and depression is the mechanism of that despair.” ― Andrew Solomon, The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression
People with Mental Illness Enhance Our Lives
A terrific visual chronicle (it’s a comic) of various celebrities. Apparently this was a novel style for the author, Darryl Cunningham, but it doesn’t show. The illustrations complement the material perfectly. Powerful stuff. Recommended.
Those covered include: Winston Churchill, Judy Garland, Nick Drake, Spike Milligan, and Brian Wilson. Here’s the link:
10 Comics That Can Help You Understand Mental Illness
Following up on yesterday’s post, here’s a piece at io9 (we come from the future). Take a look and see which ones appeal. The styles of art vary quite a bit. I’ve noted a couple that I can vouch for. The comics are:
- Psychiatric Tales by Daryl Cunningham. (recommended). A psychiatric ward from the perspective of a nurse assistant. “…combines science, history, and anecdotes to demystify and destigmatize mental illness, and Cunningham’s stark artwork can be deeply affecting.”
- Adventures in Depression and Depression Part 2 by Allie Brosh (recommended). Sets the standard for depression narratives. Sad, but also very funny.
- Marbles: Mania, Michelangelo and Me by Ellen Forney (recommended). Insightful first-person account of the frustrations of being bipolar.
- depression comix by Clay. “…a sometimes gut-wrenching, sometimes tender, often relatable series of comics about the daily struggles of life with depression.” (I don’t know this one, but it looks very promising)
- I Do Not Have an Eating Disorder by Khale McHurst. Chronicle of disordered eating.
- better, drawn (various artists). Wide range of mental health topics in a variety of styles.
- Look Straight Ahead by Elaine M. Will. Narrative fiction about a mental breakdown.
- I’m Crazy by Adam Bourret. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Available only on Facebook?
- Invisible Injury: Beyond PTSD by Jeff Severns Guntzel and Andy Warner. Addresses the sense of “moral injury” veterans often feel when asked to do something that goes against what they consider to be right and wrong.
- The Next Day by Jason Gilmore, Paul Peterson, and John Porcellino. Interviews with survivors of suicide attempts.
Adventures in Depression
You may well have seen stacks of Allie Brosh’s book, “Hyperbole and a Half” in bookstores. What you might not have known is that it contains a harrowingly accurate first-person account of major depression. I wrote it on my old blog here: “Understanding Depression, Visual Edition.”
It is literally one of the best (if not the best) first-person accounts of what it is like to be depressed, including the frustration of others’ well meaning reaction. Much, if not all, of the comic is also available on her blog.
Here are the links:
Depression, Part 2 (this came two years later)
“It seemed silly to wash one day when I would only have to wash again the next. It made me tired just to think of it.” ― Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar
Darkness
Here’s a web comic by artist Darryl Cunningham from the UK. Cunningham struggled through depression and crushing shyness himself, before finding a creative outlet in comics. His empathy shines through: Darkness.
I’m a big fan of comics that cover this material, as people struggling with depression often struggle even to pick up a book, let alone wade through text. Graphic novels, comics, whatever you choose to call them, can offer a user friendly interface into a world that offers some comfort. I’ll be featuring more of his comics in coming weeks.
Melancholy as Heroism
Another fragment from Peter Kramer’s eloquent There’s Nothing Deep About Depression article:
Through the “anxiety of influence,” heroic melancholy cast its shadow far forward, onto romanticism and existentialism. At a certain point, the transformation begun in the Renaissance reaches completion. It is no longer that melancholy leads to heroism. Melancholy is heroism. The challenge is not battle but inner strife. The rumination of the depressive, however solipsistic, is deemed admirable. Repeatedly, melancholy returns to fashion.
I hope this taste will tease you into the article. It’s a great read.
Depression is a Legitimate Illness
Thoughtful piece by Therese Borchard on the stigma and its effect: people don’t really take depression seriously.
However, asking for dough for depression is a whole other story. I may as well be asking to save the mosquitos. At some level, I believe stigma exists in each and every one of us. We think the person who can’t get upright in the morning is too lazy, stupid, or addicted. Their condition is their fault. If it’s your sister who can’t keep a job because of her mood disorder, she isn’t trying hard enough and she won’t do yoga. If it’s your neighbor who has been depressed her whole life, she wants to be depressed on some level: she is unwilling to move beyond her baggage and do the hard work of recovery. Depression is a white and blue-collar disease that is invisible to the public, and therefore it’s not real. Everyone who suffers from it has contracted it by their lack of discipline and good sense, their negativity and stubbornness.
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