Living with depression for 20 years, the one thing I have realized is that you can’t expect anyone else to lift you out of the pit. You have to learn to become your best support. Whenever I read “I wish I had a friend/girlfirend/boyfriend” etc I think of people who are just waiting for someone else to do the heavy lifting they really have to learn to do themselves.
It’s nice to have support, but I can honestly say I don’t have any support from friends and family, and if one doesn’t have the support they just have to do it themselves. No one is entitled to support from other people, and that’s just the way it is.
As for people in the comic having support, from a narrative perspective, it’s just easier to read if there are people discussing it rather than having a single character sitting in a corner of a room thinking it to themselves. Most people don’t have this support, but it would be a less interesting comic if it was all just one person in the dark for 400 strips.
At the same time you have to be careful not to blame the victim for not having done the heavy lifting. It’s difficult to accomplish anything when you’re deprived of the ability to even try, have no hope that you would succeed if you did, and feel no satisfaction when you do.
True, but that’s maybe the hardest thing at all. Without those nudges (or in some cases, double-footed drop-kicks) to knock my mind out of the spiral at certain key moments in the past, before I had any real understanding or even concept of what was going wrong with my head, I don’t know if I’d still be here. I feel something approaching quiet terror for those who don’t have at least that still quite sparing and occasional support net that was my salvation. It’s diminished in recent years, but a skeleton still remains, and in-between I’ve grown to be able to deal with and comprehend my issues much better, but that growth needed roots and solid soil.
Its funny sometimes your comics are there exactly whenever I need them. Today is a day like that and I need to think its a progress. Thank you for reminding me, I love your comics. ?
Sometimes it’s really hard for me to notice any sort of progress that I’ve made over the years. This reminded me to take a step back every now and then and see how far I’ve come even if it was just a little. Thank you for that.
I just found this comic recently (last week) and, as someone who’s been depressed since 2010, I never thought I’d find so many of my internal thoughts and struggles written out so eloquently… and it’s sobering to read the comics written from the perspective of those around the depressed character.
I love depression comix because whenever I feel really depressed, I look to see if there’s a new comic. And when there’s a new comic, it makes me feel better. And when there isn’t a new comic, it gives me a reason to keep holding on.
There will be a new depression comix posted tomorrow. Recently I’ve started to do other comics as well as just depcom so that’s why depcom doesn’t come out as frequently anymore. The other comics are FOR LOVE AND LIGHT, a comic about Wren, a side character in depcom, and Sunflower, a story about demons dealing with the end of humanity (it’s not as serious as it sounds). These comics are at http://www.claycomix.com if you’d like to check them out.
Hey everyone. I read this comic and had to say something. It may not help all of you… Hell, it may not even help most of you for all I know… But if it can help even one of you, well, then it’s worth taking the time to post
I came on to this comic in order to understand how my wife feels, she’s lived with depression for the last 20 years. We’ve been married for 10 of those. Before we had kids she was able to manage it pretty well, but the last few years have been a real struggle.
I’ve learned a lot in the last 10 years about depression itself, and we’ve tried a number of things to help my wife survive the darkest days. At one point this year we got super desperate and started trying fad diets.
Whelp, the damndest thing happened.
She went 30 days without feeling so much as lethargic (and we had a side benefit if some chronic pain going away). Now mind you, this was not an easy diet for her to keep up, as it is designed to cut out all inflammatory foods. The diet itself is called whole 30. And I got to tell you this really sucks because my wife loves to bake.
But we simply can’t deny the benefits. After the 30-day period of the diet was over, we went back to eating less than healthy, and the problems started right back up. It took us a month to muster up the willpower, but we’re back on the diet, have only been for a day, and she’s back to feeling so much better.
I spent a lot of time researching the links between inflammatory foods and depression, and as baffling as it is there really seems to be something to that shit. So I just wanted to say, that if you’re feeling desperate enough, you might want to give it a try. That’s all.
Worth printing and pinning up, I think, like I used to do with interesting or insightful webcomics back in their wild west days of my late teens … as a guard against the blinkered and circular thinking that descends when you do get a bad day, and all you can see ahead and behind is shit, without realising that they’re actually really just small pockets in-between a lot more good stuff.
Thats brilliant. Thank you.
i truly wish i had “friends” with such “faith” in me when i needed them the most … sheesh
Living with depression for 20 years, the one thing I have realized is that you can’t expect anyone else to lift you out of the pit. You have to learn to become your best support. Whenever I read “I wish I had a friend/girlfirend/boyfriend” etc I think of people who are just waiting for someone else to do the heavy lifting they really have to learn to do themselves.
It’s nice to have support, but I can honestly say I don’t have any support from friends and family, and if one doesn’t have the support they just have to do it themselves. No one is entitled to support from other people, and that’s just the way it is.
As for people in the comic having support, from a narrative perspective, it’s just easier to read if there are people discussing it rather than having a single character sitting in a corner of a room thinking it to themselves. Most people don’t have this support, but it would be a less interesting comic if it was all just one person in the dark for 400 strips.
At the same time you have to be careful not to blame the victim for not having done the heavy lifting. It’s difficult to accomplish anything when you’re deprived of the ability to even try, have no hope that you would succeed if you did, and feel no satisfaction when you do.
True, but that’s maybe the hardest thing at all. Without those nudges (or in some cases, double-footed drop-kicks) to knock my mind out of the spiral at certain key moments in the past, before I had any real understanding or even concept of what was going wrong with my head, I don’t know if I’d still be here. I feel something approaching quiet terror for those who don’t have at least that still quite sparing and occasional support net that was my salvation. It’s diminished in recent years, but a skeleton still remains, and in-between I’ve grown to be able to deal with and comprehend my issues much better, but that growth needed roots and solid soil.
It’s progress. It’s amazing how bad those days feel when you get used to not having them. Contrast. Hurray.
Its funny sometimes your comics are there exactly whenever I need them. Today is a day like that and I need to think its a progress. Thank you for reminding me, I love your comics. ?
I missed cartoon mode! It’s the best for those 2 characters.
my computer was in the shop so I had to actually use paper, so I decided to do it in the style of my first strip in 2011.
>editing the first comic to make a point about progress
You, sir, are deliciously clever.
It’s actually drawn from scratch using the same pens. I thought it might be interesting to show a “relapse” in the artistic style as well.
Peggy Jupe
Awww i love it
Sandra Guoan
Sau Yee
Sometimes it’s really hard for me to notice any sort of progress that I’ve made over the years. This reminded me to take a step back every now and then and see how far I’ve come even if it was just a little. Thank you for that.
I just found this comic recently (last week) and, as someone who’s been depressed since 2010, I never thought I’d find so many of my internal thoughts and struggles written out so eloquently… and it’s sobering to read the comics written from the perspective of those around the depressed character.
Thank you for this.
I love depression comix because whenever I feel really depressed, I look to see if there’s a new comic. And when there’s a new comic, it makes me feel better. And when there isn’t a new comic, it gives me a reason to keep holding on.
There will be a new depression comix posted tomorrow. Recently I’ve started to do other comics as well as just depcom so that’s why depcom doesn’t come out as frequently anymore. The other comics are FOR LOVE AND LIGHT, a comic about Wren, a side character in depcom, and Sunflower, a story about demons dealing with the end of humanity (it’s not as serious as it sounds). These comics are at http://www.claycomix.com if you’d like to check them out.
I’m glad that’s the case. I was getting concerned when I didn’t see any updates for nearly a month.
And your other comics are quite good.
I just read the entirety of For Love And Light. What a masterpiece. I can’t wait to for more!
Hey everyone. I read this comic and had to say something. It may not help all of you… Hell, it may not even help most of you for all I know… But if it can help even one of you, well, then it’s worth taking the time to post
I came on to this comic in order to understand how my wife feels, she’s lived with depression for the last 20 years. We’ve been married for 10 of those. Before we had kids she was able to manage it pretty well, but the last few years have been a real struggle.
I’ve learned a lot in the last 10 years about depression itself, and we’ve tried a number of things to help my wife survive the darkest days. At one point this year we got super desperate and started trying fad diets.
Whelp, the damndest thing happened.
She went 30 days without feeling so much as lethargic (and we had a side benefit if some chronic pain going away). Now mind you, this was not an easy diet for her to keep up, as it is designed to cut out all inflammatory foods. The diet itself is called whole 30. And I got to tell you this really sucks because my wife loves to bake.
But we simply can’t deny the benefits. After the 30-day period of the diet was over, we went back to eating less than healthy, and the problems started right back up. It took us a month to muster up the willpower, but we’re back on the diet, have only been for a day, and she’s back to feeling so much better.
I spent a lot of time researching the links between inflammatory foods and depression, and as baffling as it is there really seems to be something to that shit. So I just wanted to say, that if you’re feeling desperate enough, you might want to give it a try. That’s all.
Worth printing and pinning up, I think, like I used to do with interesting or insightful webcomics back in their wild west days of my late teens … as a guard against the blinkered and circular thinking that descends when you do get a bad day, and all you can see ahead and behind is shit, without realising that they’re actually really just small pockets in-between a lot more good stuff.
Jacob Murray