You are no less or more of a man or a woman or a human for having depression than you would be for having cancer or cardiovascular disease or a car accident.
Matt HaigRead
When you're depressed, there's no calendar. There are no dates, there's no day, there's no night, there's no seconds, there's no minutes, there's nothing. You're just existing in this cold, murky, ever-heavy atmosphere, like they put you inside a vial of mercury.
Interpretation
The quote illustrates the sense of timelessness and heaviness that comes with depression.
Rod Steiger's quote conveys the profound experience of depression as a state where time loses its meaning and everything feels burdensome. In this dense atmosphere, the individual feels trapped in a cold and murky existence devoid of structure, making it challenging to escape the overwhelming feelings of despair.
In practice
In a speech addressing mental health awareness, this quote can be used to illustrate the isolating feeling of depression.
You are no less or more of a man or a woman or a human for having depression than you would be for having cancer or cardiovascular disease or a car accident.
I had a mental breakdown while doing my Ph.D. at Cambridge, soon after I cut off contact with my parents, and I started seeing the university counsellor, one of the best decisions I ever made. There's something very nourishing in setting aside an hour a week to talk.
One of the manifestations of depression for me is that I lose my will. And I thereby lose my ability to focus. I don't think I'll ever have the day-to-day consistency in my performance that something like This American Life has. If I'm not depressed and I'm on and I can focus and I can think through something hard and without interruption and without existential emptiness that comes from depression, that gives me - not mania. But I exalt. I exalt in not being depressed.
Just as our parents quieted us when we were noisy by putting us in front of the television set, maybe we're now learning to quiet our own adult noise with Prozac.
Years of depression have robbed me of that—well, that give, that elasticity that everyone else calls perspective.
When we are depressed, our thinking blocks us from being aware of our needs, and then being able to take action to meet our needs.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.