Allie Brosh represents herself as a cartoon stick figure, lying in bed with a sad face and the word "No" as a happy-faced sun rises behind her.
It’s been almost a month since Allie Brosh posted this at her blog Hyperbole and a Half, but I only just saw it: Adventures in Depression.
I know I can definitely relate to this, and I have the feeling that I’m not the only one.
Categories: arts & entertainment, crisis, Culture, health, Life
Hoyden About Town 
OMG I was laughing and then suddenly I was sobbing. I needed that. Thank you Beppie and thank you Allie Brosh for sharing this. Maybe I need to go and find a *spoiler*…
Yes, I read this a while ago and loved it. Since then I’ve had friends who have struggled with depression email it to me. I think there’s something powerful about someone usually so irrepressably upbeat talking through the way that depression can sometimes be a thing in and of itself, stronger than whatever may have triggered it. The whole ‘sad legs’ thing, the being unhelpfully mean to yourself, the stopping for a rest on the way to the laundry – I’ve done all of those things, and for the longest time there was nothing ‘odd’ about them to me. It’s only now that that stuff has gone away with taking a medication to help me with anxiety, that I realise how much I’d normalised some pretty horrible day-to-day experiences and that those doses of unhappiness added up. Some of those ‘smaller’ things – the overwhelming apathy that can make you need to stop and stare at the wall in mopiness on the short trip to the washing machine, they don’t get talked about so much or seen as much by others (at least they haven’t in my ‘in real life’ circles even where we’ve talked about depression, these day to day struggles were the things that came to the fore when I was alone).
Thanks Beppie – I can definitely relate to that! The abusive self-talk is the worst, for sure.
It’s really well written. A little triggeringly well. But I’ll be glad to have seen it in a bit.
((Hugs)) Nick.
@Beppie – I can relate to all of that. Having all these half-finished chores around because you keep zoning out in the middle of them is so annoying.
This is probably off topic, but I thought a depression thread would be the best place for it: How do people respond to professional criticism without getting into a depression spiral? It is something I struggle with and do not have an answer to.