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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Phenomenology is a philosophical movement, founded by Edmund Husserl (1859 – 1938), which concerns itself with direct experiences. Phenomenologists study the nature of consciousness as it is experienced subjectively in the first person. Through systematic reflection on experiences from the first-person point of view, Husserl believed we could better understand the structures of consciousness and…
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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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When talking about mental health conditions, about the emotional pain and turmoil that goes on in your head, elucidating the experience often depends on metaphor and analogy. This is what sets apart depression, say, from the flu or a broken leg. People can understand the experience of flu without metaphor – you have a splitting headache, aches…
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