Exasperations

Phoned home. The skills of age cause depression. Of this I am convinced. I speak as a person whose wandered in and out of light depression ever since early teen age. About this, I am an expert.

I can honestly say I haven't had a truely good day abandoned from the grey clouds of depression. No matter how bright and sunny a day there was always a small black thundery rain cloud sitting over Signal Hill going "Okay Dunc, make my day!"

A phrase "the Age of Spin" was said to cover the last twenty years. Hell it began a lot longer than that. The selling of the dream began in the 1950's. A great dream of personal wealth and intellectual peak was sold to a couple of generations.

By the time you reached. Exasperation means that these individuals and good friends of mine appear to be impacting the wall of mental depression. Each individual had excellent high paying jobs. The careers though weren't part of the great dream.

The people that cope appear to have suffered from depression for years. The new person seems shocked by the impact of this disease. We veterans do sympathize. How do the vets cope?

Well like any one go get help. Second, and this is important, realize that you are not alone nor

Getting help. Thats the problem. Many of the counselors seem not to have ever suffered from severe or mild depression. They smile cheerily and say "So! You are depressed!"

Grrrrrrrrr

Then these "expert" counselors do the referral game. Hello has any one suffering from depression ever gone through the referral game and lived to tell the tale? It used to be counselors would be possessive. Nowadays the counselors get paid extra to refer.

Plus they don't have to expose themselves to reverse assessment. I practice reverse assessment. They assess me, it is only fair to assess back. Experts don't like this. It is far more difficult to continue with a program of treatment than to refer. Its sluffing off.

They have the Ryerson Hungarian degrees pasted on the wall saying they know everything. But I never seen them in the Salvation Army or soup kitchens where sufferers of mental health congregate and live out their lives in the bleakness of impoverished disillusion. Its the place to learn what mental illness truly is.

There are counselors who do work in that environment. Many only have good hearts but the government only pays for "good" school degrees. They play the referral game. Ever wonder why so many mentally ill live homeless or in shelters? Its because like the society at large they like to sluff off ill patients.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

The game rules. Basic chicken and egg stuff. Well to get help you must be referred to a doctor. You cannot get into the system without a family doctor. On the other hand you cannot get help without getting a referral to a doctor from a mental health worker.

Doctors make so much money that depression caused by poverty or money problems staggers them to disbelief. Solution, hand out drugs.

Worse, all doctors seem to think they know how to treat depression. I guess the ten years in medical school seems to have given them the right to understand everything or think they know everything. I caught one poor bipolar soul undergoing a crisis because the doctor prescribed Zoloft. On every leaflet about Zoloft it clearly states that one must not give it to a sufferer of bi-polar depression. She couldn't quit this doctor because her treatment hinged upon having a family doctor. I've yet to meet a General Practitioner who knew anything about mental illness of any sort. Its an ego thing.

How do the veterans of depression cope? One of the most important things is to realize that you are not alone. You are not the only sufferer of depression. This takes practice. Initially all depression like an illicit drug consumes the user. It makes the sufferer believe that they are the only ones to suffer from this, that there is no treatment, that no one understands.

It is important to realize that this is completely false. Yes, it literally puts the person into a state of constant pain. You must completely overcome this emotion often by sheer will power. If you do not want the grey life caused by drugs, the sufferer can use the option of self realization that this is the way it is and this is the way it always be.

Embrace it. To defeat something like this it must be stared in the face.

Why are all these guys suffering from depression. Well they all are males. Oh a couple of females. The males are in their fifties.

They have work and are either retired or nearing retirement. A large part of the depression stems from that "Dream." Causes.

1. Drugs or booze. Even quitting them doesn't guarantee the elimination of mental depression. Narcotics Anonymous (NA) recognize that often drug dependency stems from depression and people self medicate. They succeed because they make an effort to deal with dependency, the depression and socialized alienation of depressive behaviour.

If you are depressed avoid drinking or drugs... or if not don't get too high or buzzed. The high you feel is false.

2. Age. Perpetual youth was part of the old dream. The dream was to reach retirement age, cash in, ditch the old spouse, lie on a caribbean beach, drink a lot of beer and boink a lot of babes or hunks. Well aint that the life. Well by the time most are fifty the babes have wrinkles. And even if you could do anything, do it once then you gotta take three days rest.

Age. Even as late as the 1950's an aged person was revered as a source of wisdom and leadership. Well hasn't that idea gone to the dark side. Age the curse. Age the new leprosy.

The only thing is to mutter. "Okay you young little jerk, someday sooner than later you're going to be a broken down, fat, old flatulating, snoring, whiskered useless piece of shit. I can hardly wait to see it... If I don't die first. Hell thats a good reason to try to live."

3. Sports. Upon retirement you can play any sport. Now all your physical impairments disqualify you physically from major things like referring a checkers championship. And Hey doesn't anyone ever play Checkers anymore?

4. Personal goals. Hey I wanted to be a horse jockey. That really depressed me when I was disqualified because at the time there were no horses around Marathon. Now they tell me I'm too old. I am a victim of discrimination. Things like that cause depression.

Well thats just a few things. I just want those guys to know that I am thinking of them. Hoping for the best. Hope to see you sometime.