Post Secret Sunday

(edit: There was supposed to be a Post Secret Picture here, but for some reason, I can't find it. So, I'll just have to do without it.)


Unfortunately, it is typical to make fun of people who are severely depressed. Since we are humans and eternally flawed, we tend to make fun of or deride things we don't understand. You might be surprised, however, to find out the huge number of elderly people who are severely depressed. I know my dad is, but he's so old-school that he won't even entertain the notion of talking to his doctor about anti-depressants. I think he just figures that's the price of getting older. I can surmise that a lot of older people feel this way as well. Honestly, I don't really know what to do about it. It's hard to tell your parents, "You know depression is genetically inherited. I got this from your genes. You're depressed, too."

My dad self-medicates with alcohol mostly and sometimes prescription drugs-headache medicine or some other medicine for insomnia. He says he has trouble sleeping, but what he doesn't understand is that it's the alcohol that causes him to wake up and not be able to go back to sleep even though initially it relaxes him and makes him sleepy. It's a double-edged sword and I haven't the faintest idea of how to approach it with him. He has told me before, vehemently, that he will not stop drinking no matter what I or anyone else says.


Since I brought this over from my Humanis Vegatetalis blog, I thought it only right to copy/paste the comments as well.

EuroYank said...

Interesting photos and topic choices!

12/17/2006 9:50 PM

gpc said...

My mother is middle-aged and also suffers from depression, in my opinion. She thinks she's too old to go to therapy, and when I told her about a friend of mine who was depressed, she said, "In the old days, we would say what she needs is a kick in the pants." *sigh* Meanwhile, her way of dealing with the depression is to spread it around, most of the time, with negativity and over-analysis and anxiety.

12/18/2006 11:00 AM

Anias Nin said...

I have a friend whose mother is like that. My mom goes to therapy and has been for the last 20 years at least. A lot of people are afraid to admit that they have a problem going on in their heads-depression, mania-whatever it may be. As a society, we still think it's a stigma even if we say we've, y'know, evolved or whatever. It's hard to get through to some people. I still get treated differently by some people when they find out that I have severe and chronic depression. They look at me, confused, like, "But you're a Psych. major."

I'd be willing to bet that your mom doesn't really realize the extent to which she spreads her negativity. Some people, not all, who suffer from depression, are sort of like alcoholics, they need depression buddies like alcoholics need drinking buddies.

12/19/2006 6:57 PM

Marie said...

How to break the cycle, though? If dad was a depressed alcholic and daughter is an anxiety ridden depressive, how do we avoid passing it on to the kids?

1/08/2007 8:31 PM

Unfortunately, I never did get back to Marie with an answer (I use that term loosely.) to her question. I'm going to have to give it some thought and post about it when my thoughts have all congealed into something I can relate that is understandable; to me or to anyone else. (Blogger was not, at that time, sending me email notices of replies to my posts on that blog, so I never knew until today that she had even written one. I wish I had known earlier. It's been nearly a month since she wrote that. I feel bad that I didn't see it.)