Depressing Clichés for a Friday Morning

On her Beyond Blue blog Therese Borchard recently posted something titled 10 Things Not to Say to a Depressed Person. Here they are in brief:
  1. It’s all in your head. You need to think positive.
  2. You need to get out of yourself and give back to the community.
  3. Why don’t you try and exercise?
  4. Shop at Whole Foods and you will feel better.
  5. Meditation and yoga are all you need.
  6. Get a new job.
  7. Are you happy in your relationship?
  8. You have everything you need to get better.
  9. Do you WANT to feel better?
  10. Everyone has problems.
I suggest you click here to read the text that accompanies each of these clichés. To be sure, these are clichés and they are often uttered by well meaning friends and family members who really do not understand the nature of depression.

On a personal note I suffered for a long time with depression. It was so very difficult to face all of the sad things in my life. And then something happened fairly accidentally.. I found out that I was lacking an important hormone. I was shocked at how much better I felt after just a week or so on the hormone treatment. Send me an email if you want more info.

Have you struggled with depression? Can you resonate with the clichés above?

2 comments:

  1. I have only suffered from a form of depression one time in my life. At least, that is all I can remember.

    I was fired from my job, which I did great at, and my branch was the only branch that made any money that year, but I got fired. I was down for almost a year. I didn't cry, or stop going out, or stop seeing friend, or stop going to church, but inside I felt awful.

    I am happy to say that today, I am fine, and don't miss the job any more. I do miss the $...but we've learned to live on hubby's income.

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  2. Having suffered from and having known people who have suffered from bouts of depression, I can bear witness to the fact that the cliches, while sometimes well meant, seldom ever help. They are based on the idea that if you try a little harder you can just snap out of it. (My wife calls it snap-out-of-itism.)This is generally not helpful and can leave a person feeling more depressed. (Why can't I just snap out of it?) Depression is rarely, if ever, that simple.

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