Radio Doug

[joanna bujes]

At 05:58 PM 03/29/2003 -0500, you wrote:
> >And I'll add that it's, um, interesting that someone who so
> >frequently talks about his long battle with severe depression is so
> >hostile to any kind of psychoanalysis or even introspection. Much
> >more comforting to blame biochemistry; otherwise, you never know
> >what you might find within.
>
>You can't manage a chronic illness, be it a "mental" illness or
>otherwise, by blaming yourself.  Especially if you are clinically
>depressed, that's probably the last thing that you should do.
>- --

Ugh, Yoshie, how is "psychoanalysis" or "introspection"  a form of "blaming 
yourself"? Doug's reply bothered me only to the extent that he minimizes 
the incredible difficulty, the pain and labor of introspection -- of facing 
what seems at first an endless and endlessly painful emptyness. I would 
hesitate to call anyone a wimp for avoiding it. I spent three years on the 
couch but it was not the result of valor or superior character; it was the 
result of the fact that my life had become an unrelenting panic attack and 
that I was in agonizing physical pain 24/7....with a newborn to care for. 
It was suicide or introspection. That's how hard it is.

Honestly,

Joanna

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