Wednesday, June 29, 2005

Oh, well...

Mike didn't get to it tonight, but as he's read a couple of mine before, that's show biz...

As long as the dialogue keeps going - that's the main thing.

One interesting thing Mike talked about that I could relate to was feeling as if you're mentally ill - depression, anxiety. This is my take on it:

Mental illness is an inappropriate response to reality; clinical depression, for instance, may mean you're sad when there's nothing wrong.

The way we feel is a completely appropriate emotional response to a horrible situation.

What would be 'mental illness' would be if you weren't upset at the atrocities going on. People wilfully shutting their eyes and ears and pretending everything's fine - now, that's mental illness!

And this is how I deal with it. I write. I talk. I connect with others. I try to stay mad instead of afraid, to do something, anything, instead of being paralyzed by fear and depression. And it helps.

It really does.

6 comments:

oldwhitelady said...

Yes, it does help. Mental Illness might just be noted by the lack of anger to the current policies. I never thought about it that way.

I like the way you handle things. You've had some great rants which help fire up the readers. There are quite a few other blogs that do the same thing. It is a pleasure to read your (and the other blogs). I think that is one of the reasons I finally set up my blog in November last year. Sometimes, I get mad at the issues and write letters and post on the blog. Other times, the blog is just a helpful relaxing past-time. It's so similar to TV, but doesn't have those stupid laugh tracks or those stupid scenarios of TV sitcoms.
Did I get off track, again?

Alicia Morgan said...

I'm laughing because that's just like me! I hardly watch TV at all, but I buy all the trash magazines (Enquirer, Weekly World News, Star, et al) for my junk entertainment fix. I'm way too ADD to have the TV on as a background (I can't filter it out) but I love my ragazines because they're quiet!

oldwhitelady said...

Oh, I forgot the worst of all... reality shows! Who gives a darn who wants to be a Hilton?
Yes, magazines and books are great to relax with. Those that you mention can be pretty funny. Some strange stories can be found in them!

Alicia Morgan said...

I think my ideal job would be to write for the Weekly World News - can you imagine sitting aroung a table thinking that stuff up, then gettin' busy with Photoshop?

afb said...

I think this is a better idea then watching tv. I love connecting on the internet with folks from all over. It does keep me mentally 'fit' too. We all need to vent, rant, have fun and just escape from our lives inside the blogs.

take care.........I love visiting here!

best wishes marie

Paul said...

"Situational depression" is not so great either, but I'd say: wait till something really awful happens in your own life for that, and then wait till it blows over (which can be a long time). But if you keep on keeping on, it does blow over.

You can be concerned about the world's troubles without being depressed - think of the Buddhist idea of "compassion," for example.