Not sure if you read The Bloggess–she’s erratic, but generally hilarious–but she made a lovely post this morning I wanted to point out.

It’s called Coming Out and it’s about mental health and suicide and talking about your problems.

In addition to being an excellent post that should reach a lot of people, it also reminded me I haven’t made any updates about my depression in quite awhile.

Part of the reason is because I’ve been making slow, steady progress towards normalcy. I’m continuing to taper the amount of anti-depressant I’m on, and hope to eventually drop down to a low maintenance dose. And I have the anxiety drug to rely upon to keep me from going off the deep end.

But for the most part I’ve been doing OK. It’s work, but that’s fine with me, because it’s a goal I’m happy to work towards. Do I backslip? Of course I do. But I don’t let me get it down, and I try to be proactive in deal with problems. I also try to be aware of my mood and how I’m reacting. Nothing excuses snapping at Michael, but recognizing what I’ve just done and apologizing is better than nothing.

Are things perfect? No. I still can’t bring myself to write, and I still find myself falling into some of my OCD traps, but that’s OK. It is what it is.

I’ll probably continue to be spare in writing about my depression, mostly because it sometimes feels like I’m just repeating, “woe is me, wah wah wah” but that doesn’t mean it isn’t important to every once in awhile remind the world that mental health problems are common, and nothing which we should be made to be ashamed of. They are just a part of everyday life, and nothing that cannot be overcome.

Illegitimi non carborundum