Because life is worth living
Writing an article on teenage depression leads me to consider my own journey with the disorder. Since I was a young boy, I had been told to hold my tears, to keep my emotions on the inside. Vulnerability was a personal affront to the family name. “Don’t embarrass me,” Dad used to say with his hand. I learnt quickly.
It is a curious thing, being asked not to feel - or at least, not to feel deeply. Of course, that wasn’t the point - I realised only much later that it was the display of emotion that irked him so. But to a nine year old, how could I have known the difference? These teens I talk to, most of them do not understand depression as a medical condition. I do not blame them. Until I experienced it myself, I too thought it was something you could just “snap” out of.
I know differently now. Only those who have personally encountered it can understand the crushing weight of darkness that depression can sometimes summon. There is nothing to snap out of. Indeed, there is nothing at all.