David Baxter PhD
Late Founder
A Gift of Depression
by Jane Chin, Ph.D., Jane's Mental Health Source Page
February 7th, 2010
I think one of the ways that we can save our own lives is when we decide to believe that we DESERVE to live a good life, and that we CAN create a passionate life for ourselves.
When I experienced clinical depression many years ago, it was this belief that motivated me to ask for help, and to persevere through the different ?trial periods? of medication and/or counseling.
It has been more than 12 years since I first sought help for clinical depression, and about 4 years since I experienced ? and recovered from ? a relapse.
For a very long time, this website has been my salvation, allowing self-expression while feeling less alone in the world as a person who had first-hand experience of the abyss that many of you reading this know about. I had long wanted to share more with you ? not only about the darkness I had lived through ? but also the light within that showed me the way.
In 2002, shortly after I had recovered from the depression relapse, I drafted an outline from which I wanted to write a book. In a moment of inspiration, I wrote out 3 pages of outline in what seemed like minutes.
The impulse for that outline was a feeling of, ?NEVER AGAIN!? I had once gotten complacent; I thought clinical depression would never return to my life. When I was proven wrong, I knew that I could not slip into complacency again, and that ?self care? should be my #1 priority.
Then, as if that inspirational creativity had served its purpose, it got up and left. I didn?t do anything more with this outline. The outline disappeared into multiple stacks of paper on the desk, until one day, I completely forgot that this outline ever existed?
Until 2009.
I was cleaning out boxes of paper and found the outline. It had been so long, I felt as if I was looking at someone else?s outline; I almost don?t remember drafting it!
But I knew that my desire to share the ?gift of depression? remains. That flicker may have waned, but it never died.
And I know that this year, 2010, is the time when I am ready to do something about it.
by Jane Chin, Ph.D., Jane's Mental Health Source Page
February 7th, 2010
I think one of the ways that we can save our own lives is when we decide to believe that we DESERVE to live a good life, and that we CAN create a passionate life for ourselves.
When I experienced clinical depression many years ago, it was this belief that motivated me to ask for help, and to persevere through the different ?trial periods? of medication and/or counseling.
It has been more than 12 years since I first sought help for clinical depression, and about 4 years since I experienced ? and recovered from ? a relapse.
For a very long time, this website has been my salvation, allowing self-expression while feeling less alone in the world as a person who had first-hand experience of the abyss that many of you reading this know about. I had long wanted to share more with you ? not only about the darkness I had lived through ? but also the light within that showed me the way.
In 2002, shortly after I had recovered from the depression relapse, I drafted an outline from which I wanted to write a book. In a moment of inspiration, I wrote out 3 pages of outline in what seemed like minutes.
The impulse for that outline was a feeling of, ?NEVER AGAIN!? I had once gotten complacent; I thought clinical depression would never return to my life. When I was proven wrong, I knew that I could not slip into complacency again, and that ?self care? should be my #1 priority.
Then, as if that inspirational creativity had served its purpose, it got up and left. I didn?t do anything more with this outline. The outline disappeared into multiple stacks of paper on the desk, until one day, I completely forgot that this outline ever existed?
Until 2009.
I was cleaning out boxes of paper and found the outline. It had been so long, I felt as if I was looking at someone else?s outline; I almost don?t remember drafting it!
But I knew that my desire to share the ?gift of depression? remains. That flicker may have waned, but it never died.
And I know that this year, 2010, is the time when I am ready to do something about it.
