Ruthie Relates

Depressed and you just don't get it. Every adult has experienced sadness. And yes, it is a miserable thing. But sadness is not depression. True depression is a mismatched jumble of feelings and emotions that don't require a trigger and are often debilitating. It is the brain's chemistry messing with you and each person experiences, expresses depression uniquely. What I know to be true is the fastest way to get folks to stare blankly or just walk away is tell them you are depressed. With all that is written and with all the opinions on what to say to depressed people, most people just don't have a clue or worse, they do have a clue and just don't want to deal with you. Plus, there isn't anything anyone can say to change the brain chemistry. Sure we can take drugs to change the chemistry of our brains. But that changes a lot of other things as well. The side effects, the long-term damage, the dependency, for many, is not worth it. Or it is worth it but the d

Today, with no sentiment whatsoever, I recalled my first experience as a published author: When I was seven, the Cleveland Plain Dealer printed my story about the Easter Bunny in the children's section. Saturday mornings were fearful times in our household. The mother monster [MM] reacted badly if her brood of three made any noise and awakened her. I learned to sit quietly in my bed and write until MM arose. I distinctly recall the satisfaction of holding that fat, blue, laddie pencil pressing hard to print my words. My roommate, a sister younger by 18 months, chose to draw with broken crayons on coarse gray bogus paper. No part of me recalls how that seven sentence story went from my bed to the newspaper, but I do know the action empowered me with the realization I was a writer. The Brood: