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diff --git a/Takeout/Keep/2020-06-24T16_26_06.315-05_00.json b/Takeout/Keep/2020-06-24T16_26_06.315-05_00.json new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d959dde --- /dev/null +++ b/Takeout/Keep/2020-06-24T16_26_06.315-05_00.json @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +{"color":"DEFAULT","isTrashed":false,"isPinned":false,"isArchived":false,"textContent":"When you have depression it\u2019s like it snows every day.\n\nSome days it\u2019s only a couple of inches. It\u2019s a pain in the ass, but you still make it to work, the grocery store. Sure, maybe you skip the gym or your friend\u2019s birthday party, but it IS still snowing and who knows how bad it might get tonight. Probably better to just head home. Your friend notices, but probably just thinks you are flaky now, or kind of an asshole.\n\nSome days it snows a foot. You spend an hour shoveling out your driveway and are late to work. Your back and hands hurt from shoveling. You leave early because it\u2019s really coming down out there. Your boss notices.\n\nSome days it snows four feet. You shovel all morning but your street never gets plowed. You are not making it to work, or anywhere else for that matter. You are so sore and tired you just get back in bed. By the time you wake up, all your shoveling has filled back in with snow. Looks like your phone rang; people are wondering where you are. You don\u2019t feel like calling them back, too tired from all the shoveling. Plus they don\u2019t get this much snow at their house so they don\u2019t understand why you\u2019re still stuck at home. They just think you\u2019re lazy or weak, although they rarely come out and say it.\n\nSome weeks it\u2019s a full-blown blizzard. When you open your door, it\u2019s to a wall of snow. The power flickers, then goes out. It\u2019s too cold to sit in the living room anymore, so you get back into bed with all your clothes on. The stove and microwave won\u2019t work so you eat a cold Pop Tart and call that dinner. You haven\u2019t taken a shower in three days, but how could you at this point? You\u2019re too cold to do anything except sleep.\n\nSometimes people get snowed in for the winter. The cold seeps in. No communication in or out. The food runs out. What can you even do, tunnel out of a forty foot snow bank with your hands? How far away is help? Can you even get there in a blizzard? If you do, can they even help you at this point? Maybe it\u2019s death to stay here, but it\u2019s death to go out there too.\n\nThe thing is, when it snows all the time, you get worn all the way down. You get tired of being cold. You get tired of hurting all the time from shoveling, but if you don\u2019t shovel on the light days, it builds up to something unmanageable on the heavy days. You resent the hell out of the snow, but it doesn\u2019t care, it\u2019s just a blind chemistry, an act of nature. It carries on regardless, unconcerned and unaware if it buries you or the whole world.\n\nAlso, the snow builds up in other areas, places you can\u2019t shovel, sometimes places you can\u2019t even see. Maybe it\u2019s on the roof. Maybe it\u2019s on the mountain behind the house. Sometimes, there\u2019s an avalanche that blows the house right off its foundation and takes you with it. A veritable Act of God, nothing can be done. The neighbors say it\u2019s a shame and they can\u2019t understand it; he was doing so well with his shoveling.\n\nI don\u2019t know how it went down for Anthony Bourdain or Kate Spade. It seems like they got hit by the avalanche, but it could\u2019ve been the long, slow winter. Maybe they were keeping up with their shoveling. Maybe they weren\u2019t. Sometimes, shoveling isn\u2019t enough anyway. It\u2019s hard to tell from the outside, but it\u2019s important to understand what it\u2019s like from the inside.\n\nI firmly believe that understanding and compassion have to be the base of effective action. It\u2019s important to understand what depression is, how it feels, what it\u2019s like to live with it, so you can help people both on an individual basis and a policy basis. I\u2019m not putting heavy shit out here to make your Friday morning suck. I know it feels gross to read it, and realistically it can be unpleasant to be around it, that\u2019s why people pull away.\n\nI don\u2019t have a message for people with depression like \u201ckeep shoveling.\" It\u2019s asinine. Of course you\u2019re going to keep shoveling the best you can, until you physically can\u2019t, because who wants to freeze to death inside their own house? We know what the stakes are. My message is to everyone else. Grab a fucking shovel and help your neighbor. Slap a mini snow plow on the front of your truck and plow your neighborhood. Petition the city council to buy more salt trucks, so to speak.\n\nDepression is blind chemistry and physics, like snow. And like the weather, it is a mindless process, powerful and unpredictable with great potential for harm. But like climate change, that doesn\u2019t mean we are helpless. If we want to stop losing so many people to this disease, it will require action at every level.","title":"","userEditedTimestampUsec":1576653280940000,"createdTimestampUsec":1576653280940000,"labels":[{"name":"invasiveinsights"},{"name":"notchest"}]}
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