In a podcast I was recently listening to entitled “The Hilarious World of Depression with John Moe,” he was interviewing comedian Andy Richter about his experience with lifelong depression. I appreciated Andy’s description in terms of the weight of depression and how it can exist despite what he would consider a good life, and how the hopelessness of this mental illness can be invasive, regardless of what is going on in your world at the time. At one point, John asked him “Is depression something that you managed or conquered?” to which Andy replied “managed, yes absolutely managed” and he went on to provide this analogy “It’s [like] a bad back. It’s a bad back that I have learned to cope with, deal with, with exercises, medications, therapy; that I have gotten to a workable level. And it isn’t to say that it doesn’t affect my quality of life because it probably does; it most definitely does, but it’s a bad back.”
The value of this analogy is that it takes the stigma out of depression. It helps us to gain a greater understanding that for some people, depression is organic; it is something they live with. His words are also a gentle reminder that we have to be active in managing depression whether it be situational or biological; in order to alleviate it’s weight.
To listen to the full podcast: https://www.apmpodcasts.org/thwod/2017/01/andy-richter-on-youthful-melancholy-and-twisted-entertainers/
Photo credit: http://Photo by JOHN TOWNER on Unsplash