Alastair Campbell on depression

[julesjones]

I didn't post this when I first saw it on my friends list a few days ago, and now I've forgotten who it's gacked from. But apparently one of Janet Street-Porter's recent attention-seeking stunts was to sneer in the Mail about depression being the latest must-have fashion accessory. Alastair Campbell proceeded to take her apart in an article in the Mirror about what depression *really* is -- from his personal experience of severe depression, and the stigma that follows it. The sort of stigma that Street-Porter tried to impose whilst denying that such stigma exists.

It's also available online at his personal blog. Given some of the snark in the comment thread, I should note that I don't agree with Campbell's politics and have no partisan interest in linking to his blog post. This is a powerful piece with nothing of party politics about it, and well worth reading:

http://www.alastaircampbell.org/blog.php?id=435

Comments

[mishalak]

Depression, like love, is real. How it feels from the inside doesn't make it feel real though. Somehow, I do not know why, I stopped getting depressed. It is very frustrating to me to feel like I could have stopped being depressed, and that is how it feels. I suspect it has more to do with brain chemistry than any decision I made, but it still feels like one day I decided to be a happier person and it worked. And now, for whatever reason, when I feel the black dog creeping up upon me I can keep him at bay with happy thoughts like I never could in the past.

Perhaps I did have something to do with it. I think now that I'm older I don't give up as easily, so even when I'm unhappy for a day I soldier on and end up breaking the cycle before it can get really entrenched rather than just giving up.

But I am lucky that for whatever reason now I'm able to control it and I don't have a severe case that needs drugs, just Pollyanna thoughts.

[hafren.livejournal.com]

The fact that anyone writes for the Daily Vile is enough to condemn them in my book, but Street-Porter is particularly loathsome.