For anyone wishing a pretty decent account of one writer's depression, I can recommend the very thin book —almost a pamphlet— "Darkness Visible" by William Styron. I just read it —not sure how, as fucked as my concentration is— at the urging of my sister (who has spent time considering ctb). From it I offer this quote:
"…to the tragic legion who are compelled to destroy themselves there should be no more reproof attached than to the victims of terminal cancer."
It is a lucid and familiar account of what I expect many of us feel and endure.
He does document his ascent out of depression, courtesy of several weeks in a hospital —and while for a writer of his income and stature you can be sure it was a private hospital, it still sounds like a pretty crummy place to spend a couple months (which speaks volumes for what we here would be likely to experience in the low-budget version). He freely admits it was a crummy place, too, with idiotic staff. However, despite expressing his relief at emerging from The Pit, he isn't a pro-lifer, which is a relief.
It doesn't change that for me, at least, I am ready to ctb. I want to ctb, where he was clearly still resistant to the idea. And he does argue that friends and family urging the depressed to hang on are doing the right thing —for me that's getting bloody tedious. But it is a good and sympathetic perspective from someone who isn't proselytizing Thou Must Choose Life. I would recommend it to anyone here.
"…to the tragic legion who are compelled to destroy themselves there should be no more reproof attached than to the victims of terminal cancer."
It is a lucid and familiar account of what I expect many of us feel and endure.
He does document his ascent out of depression, courtesy of several weeks in a hospital —and while for a writer of his income and stature you can be sure it was a private hospital, it still sounds like a pretty crummy place to spend a couple months (which speaks volumes for what we here would be likely to experience in the low-budget version). He freely admits it was a crummy place, too, with idiotic staff. However, despite expressing his relief at emerging from The Pit, he isn't a pro-lifer, which is a relief.
It doesn't change that for me, at least, I am ready to ctb. I want to ctb, where he was clearly still resistant to the idea. And he does argue that friends and family urging the depressed to hang on are doing the right thing —for me that's getting bloody tedious. But it is a good and sympathetic perspective from someone who isn't proselytizing Thou Must Choose Life. I would recommend it to anyone here.
