Hi all,
On Mon, 8 May 2000, the digest contained:
> Date: Mon, 8 May 2000 07:40:10 +0800
> From: Dennis Greene <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: depression
> I have had PD for 13+ years now and I am still sad occasionally - but,
> thank God, not depressed - and certainly not clinically depressed ...
> ... the difference between sadness and depression, far from
> being one of semantics, is profound ... the symptoms
> of PD (in particular the mask with its frozen, down turned, features ) make
> us look depressed it is assumed that we are depressed ...
I'll throw in my $0.02 here and agree with Dennis. Granted,
I've only been dealing with PD for 4+ years, I am far from de-
pressed. Angry at times, sad at others, but not depressed. I
have had bouts of depression -- what felt like profound depres-
sion -- back in my teens. But, my current feelings are far from
what I felt back then.
As I described in my "journal" on my Web site, My "mask-like
face" has been an issue most of my life. And, I would really not
like to have this one feature be one of the things someone used
to decide that I was depressed. I like to call my "mask-like
face" my neutral face as it is there when I am not expressing
emotion -- which is most of the time. :-)
I have heard some *incredible* things about the powerful drugs
used to treat clinical depression. So, I would like to avoid
those drugs as best I can. (As a side note, I was involved with
another on-line group discussion forum a couple of years ago
which had a number of people who were taking some of these power-
ful drugs. I found it interesting that they they came up with a
little piece of jewelry -- a pin -- that they would wear so that
they could identify each other outside of cyber-space in real-
life.) In fact, one of the things that contributes to *my* occa-
sional anger/sadness is that I have never been much of a "pill-
taker." And, now that PD has forced me to be on three different
"pills," in different combinations, four times a day, I get a
little upset at it on occasion.
So, yes, I understand that depression and clinical depression
can be a very difficult thing to endure. But, I would like to
avoid being labeled as such based on PD and facial expressions.
It seems that there are many different PD people with a vast
range of differences in their physical being, their personality,
and their symptoms and features.
Take care ...
Bill--
...who once saw a mime arrested and told he had a right to remain silent.
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