In What Way is Depression Painful?

Depression is not normally a condition that is associated with pain. When we think of pain, we might think of the acute pain of stubbing your toe, the more sustained and intense pain of breaking a bone, or the chronic pain of a physical disease or condition. But depression is painful. It’s just a difficult…

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The Role of Self-Discipline in Mental Health

Something that I have learned in my attempts to recover from depressive episodes is the vital importance of self-discipline (the ability to make yourself do things that benefit you even when you don’t want to do them). Indeed, the willingness to create a routine of healthy habits – and to be unwavering in sticking to…

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The Intertwining of the Self and the World: A Phenomenological Approach

As much as the world can feel separate from our discrete selves, upon closer examination, we will see that our whole experience of reality (and so reality itself) is acutely dependent on our inner world. The self and the world are inextricably intertwined. And this curious relationship between the ‘I’ we imagine sitting behind the…

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What It’s Like to Lose Your Vitality and Identity During a Depressive Episode

The writer Andrew Solomon is best known for his book The Noonday Demon, a harrowing personal account of clinical depression. In it, he captures the essence of the condition in one sentence: “The opposite of depression is not happiness but vitality.” While depression undoubtedly varies between individuals, it seems to commonly feature this loss of…

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Why It’s Difficult to Recover From a Depressive Episode

Depressive episodes vary in length. One person may experience the symptoms of clinical depression for a month, whereas, for another, the episode could last a year. The real cruelty of depression, however, lies in the fact that the very nature of the condition makes it difficult to recover from. I describe depression as the ultimate…

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