9 Comments
User's avatar
Stanley Wotring's avatar

Likening depression to judgment is brilliant in its simplicity!

Expand full comment
Al Bellenchia's avatar

Helpful. Healing. Thank you. 🙏

Expand full comment
Leland Katz's avatar

Having lived 86 years and having not worked for a living in 20+ years, and having lost my loving wife of 60+ years over three years ago, and now writing a political blog on the events of the day almost daily as my contribution to save American democracy, it’s easy to feel bad emotionally. When I do, I think of my lady love and our upcoming visit together and joy changes my emotional feelings.

ELDERS IN LOVE

We are in love.

Not with the

decrepitude of age.

But with a love

that recalls youth.

A love that’s steady.

A love that will not die.

In the morning

and the evening

we hold each other close.

In our ninth decade

we give each other joy,

we give each other love,

we give each other —

LIFE!

Expand full comment
M. Trosino's avatar

Knowing a thing or two about feeling lousy, I just want to say the differentiation of these three sources is helpful, particularly the explanation of depression, since I think that term is often misunderstood and mis-applied by both laymen, patients and doctors. So, thanks for that, Doc.

Expand full comment
William Weaver's avatar

Great post, thank you for sharing.

Expand full comment
Bill Alstrom (MA/Maine/MA)'s avatar

Excellent post. Smart discussion and differentiation. Very helpful. This morning two people close to us displayed the first two you described. Not the third, gratefully.

We'll be there for them anyway we can.

Thanks for this one. Quite timely.

Expand full comment
steven lassoff's avatar

My youngest daughter has a disability, so burnout and discouragement constantly creep into my life.

Aside from other standard solutions, swimming every day is greatly helpful.

Not just from the benefits of exercise but also from the wonderful feeling of buoyancy and gliding through the water.

Expand full comment
Babette Albin's avatar

Constructive differentiation.

Expand full comment
Dermott Knox's avatar

Thank you Deborah for that brilliant clarification. In my thirty four years in social work I have not seen such clear distinctions drawn in the field of feeling lousy.

A colleague social worker and I, in a group discussion, came to agree that mostly crying was good for people, because it is dis—-stress, or de-stressing. I’ve been in numerous situations where someone has felt relief after, what might be called, ‘a good cry’. So I’ve often wondered what the cultural messages are that we internalise, that somehow make people feel embarrassed when they weep. And then, just to add another factor, what about joyful, emotional crying? I’d welcome your comments.

Expand full comment