Tea at Trianon: What I Believe About Depression

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Friday, January 25, 2019

What I Believe About Depression

From Therese Borchard:

I believe depression is complex. I believe it is a physiological condition with psychological and spiritual components, and therefore can’t be forced into any neat and tidy box. I believe depression is part of a intricate web of biological systems — nervous, digestive, endocrine, respiratory. I believe it is about the gut as well as the brain, the thyroid and the nerves. I believe healing needs to come from a variety of sources. I believe every person’s recovery is different.

I believe untreated depression can increase the risk of developing other illnesses. A 2007 Norwegian study found that those participants with significant depression symptoms had a higher risk of death from most major causes, including heart disease, stroke, respiratory illnesses (such as pneumonia and influenza), and conditions of the nervous system (like Parkinson’s disease and multiple sclerosis).

I believe depression deserves the same compassion offered to people with rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, breast cancer, or any other socially acceptable illness. I believe persons who struggle with depression aren’t lazy, uncommitted, and weak. I believe they are not trying to get attention, that they are ill. I believe the best thing you can do for a person who suffers from depression is to believe her. (Read more.)