DowrgiHi Päivi,
Thank you for your posts, and thank you for showing such courage and being so open as to be so frank with everyone here. I do confess that I’m always somewhat reluctant these days, or at least not sure how, to reply to posts like yours as I’m not a ‘professional’ and in no way qualified to speak on ‘clinical’ matters.
Having stated that as a kind of ‘disclaimer’, what I would say, from my strictly own point of view, is that I find the modern obsession with being perennially bright and cheery and positive somewhat depressing at times. It’s as if sadness, melancholy, and hiraeth were somehow not valid as a feeling or sentiment. I know people mean well, but sometimes I don’t actually want to be cheered up, just have my melancholy recognised for what it is. I don’t know if that makes sense, and I know that there is a world of difference between clinical depression and just feeling a bit down, but, paradoxical as it may seem, I don’t think ‘enforced positivity’ is always positive – I see it as a papering over the cracks instead of working to heal those cracks if you see what I mean.
What I would say, again speaking from personal experience, is that I recognise the validity of my feelings and work from there. If these feelings are positive, negative, or something else is beside the point, just acknowledging them for what they are, I find, is key in working towards a better outcome – a bit like the Buddha recognising, and pitying, his ‘demons’.
Anyway, good to hear from you, and keep us posted …
Bennathow,
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