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Text about depression and it's metaphorical depiction


LaLa

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I hope you'll enjoy reading it, too:

http://www.theferrett.com/ferrettworks/2017/09/the-best-musical-you-never-heard-how-groundhog-day-made-me-a-better-person/

Intro + a few excerpts I like the most:

Quote

I knew musicals could cheer me up, but I’d never heard of one that gave me new tools to deal with chronic illness and depression. Yet when I saw Groundhog Day last Wednesday, I was so stunned by what a perfect, joyous metaphor it was for battling mental illness that I immediately bought tickets to see it again that Saturday.

Quote

This isn’t where he wanted to be.

Yet he has vowed to do the best with what he can. He helps [...] because even though it is a constant drain, it makes him feel better than drinking himself senseless in his room. He doesn’t get to have everything he wanted – also see: depression and chronic illness – and it sure would be nice if he could take a few days off, but those days off will make him feel worse.

He’s resigned himself to a lifetime of working harder than he should for results that aren’t as joyous as he wanted.

And that’s okay. Not ideal, but…. okay.


 

Quote

[...] Andy comes to realize that “feeling good” isn’t a necessary component for self-improvement, and works hard to make the best of a situation where, like my depression, even the best and most perfect day will be reset come the next morning.

 

This, not from the musical, also brings me an impressive insight / a great way to put some things I've already realized to some extent:

Quote

" [...] the only connection between your unquestionable intelligence and the sickness destroying your family is that everyone in your family, you included, use intelligence to justify sickness.

You seem to alternate between viewing your own mind as an unstoppable force and as an inescapable curse. And I think it’s because the only truly unapproachable concept for you is that it’s your mind within your control.
You chose to come here, you chose to talk to belittle my vocation, just as you chose to become a pickle. You are the master of your universe, and yet you are dripping with rat blood and feces, your enormous mind literally vegetating by your own hand.

I have no doubt that you would be bored senseless by therapy, the same way I’m bored when I brush my teeth and wipe my ass. Because the thing about repairing, maintaining, and cleaning is it’s not an adventure. [...] It’s just work. And the bottom line is, some people are okay going to work, and some people well, some people would rather die. Each of us gets to choose."

After reading, you might want to hear at least the song the author mentions there the most - here is a version that caught my attention:

 

 

 

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