Just something Lileks said this morning that struck me:
The worst thing about Depression isn’t the sense that you’re ac-centuating the negative, it’s that you’re seeing things the way they really are, stripped of the illusions you use every day to divert yourself from the Yawning Maw of Futility. It’s the wind that blows off the snow and reveals the stone.
I don’t agree. Life can be sugar-coated, yes, but depression is far from seeing things as they really are. It’s an illness and curing it doesn’t mean adding illusion, it means adding worth and value to each day.
I don’t think Lileks believes that you actually see things as they really are (i.e., how shitty they are) when you’re depressed, but rather that’s how you feel.
Personally, I have experienced exactly the feeling he’s talking about. If you’ve never felt that way, consider yourself lucky. It’s a very miserable, helpless place to be…
William Styron has a rather good book about his experience with depression and recovery. It’s aptly titled Darkness Visible, a reference to Milton’s description of Hell in Paradise Lost:
No light, but rather darkness visible
Served only to discover sights of woe,
Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace
And rest can never dwell, hope never comes
That comes to all (I.63-67)