Wednesday, December 6, 2023

Sometimes It Helps Just To Have A Name For Something


I am so close to getting that little bit of the yard cleared. I worked on it this afternoon and that part is almost all border grass which is really a bitch to pull. While I was on my knees, I looked up startled to see someone standing on the sidewalk right beside me- a neighbor I've seen around. He's a friendly guy and we talked for a minute. He told me that he pulls weeds and I took his name and number. His name is John Henry Johnson which I think is one of the finest names I've heard in a long time. I should call him for some help. I need it. I think I'm afraid that anyone I hire might inadvertently pull some of the plants I want to keep. It's not always as obvious as that bed in the picture above where I wanted it all cleared out. In some areas I have about four types of invasive plants and five types of wanted plants and although I know the difference, I know it's not as easy to define for some people. Mr. Moon never can tell what I want pulled and what I don't so he's tasked with things like mowing while I do the get-on-your-knees stuff. 

Harvey also walked by as I was working. He coughed so that he would not startle me and when I saw it was him and smiled, he told me that he'd done that on purpose. He's such a sweet soul. He said, "That's hard work!" and I said, "It's harder than it used to be."

All day it's felt like Sunday. I mean, I had to correct my thoughts on that matter at least twenty times. Days that feel like Sundays are not the best days. I don't seem to be having the horrendous Sundays I always used to have but I do not associate that particular day of the week with any sort of great joy. 
Yesterday I felt content, which in my world is tantamount to joy. I felt pretty okay about myself and my life and enjoyed the simple tasks I did. I also read an article in the NYT's that I've been thinking about ever since. The title of the piece was "That Lingering 'Meh' Feeling Has a Name." It was about something I'd never heard of but, as sometimes happens, I recognized myself in instantly. The subject of the article was persistent depressive disorder, also known as dysthymia.
Have YOU ever heard of that? I had not but as I read, it was like a light snapped on and I thought, "Whoa. That's me."
The symptoms of this disorder, as listed by the John's Hopkins website are these:

  • Lasting sad, anxious, or “empty” mood
  • Less ability to concentrate, think, and/or make decisions
  • Less energy
  • Fatigue
  • Feeling hopeless
  • Weight and/or appetite changes due to over- or under-eating
  • Changes in sleep patterns, such as fitful sleep, inability to sleep, early morning awakening, or sleeping too much
  • Low self-esteem
  • And then this:
  • To diagnose this condition, an adult must have a depressed mood for at least 2 years (or one year in children and adolescents), along with at least 2 of the above symptoms. The symptoms of this illness may look like other mental health conditions. Always talk with a healthcare provider for a diagnosis.

    Two years? Try sixty-nine years. Two of those symptoms? How about all? 
    One can have P.D.D. and still experience major clinical depression at the same time. One of the paragraphs in the NYT's article really caught my attention. A woman who had been diagnosed with it said, "Clinical depression 'knocks me out. I can't get out of bed, shower, eat, or walk my dog.' With dysthymia however, she can still function. She may not want to do the dishes, for example, but she 'won't feel obliterated' by the task."
    Later on, the article says, "Because P.D.D. can be long lasting- and does not always disrupt a patient's day-to-day life- those with the disorder may assume their their milder depressive symptoms are simply character traits."

    Wow. Yeah. Character traits like not being able to travel? Like being obsessively worried about following a regular routine? Like feeling that one is merely a burden to loved ones? Like being (oh so slightly) agoraphobic?  Like crying at the drop of a hat? 

    So yes, I've been thinking about all of this and really though, what does it mean? 
    I really don't know. I do know I'm on two different medications for depression and anxiety and I am sure they help because I have not had a major clinical depression or bout of intense anxiety in a long time.

  • I'm writing about this because I think that many people probably suffer from it and you might recognize yourself in here. If so, please know that you are not alone and that there can be steps to take to help people escape this feeling of always being sad which takes away so much of our joy, our quality of life. The woman quoted in the article, Amanda Stern, has a newsletter called How To Live and if you go HERE, you can find more information on the disorder and how to possibly deal with it on a more informed level. 

  • Thankfully, I am still very much able to find some enjoyment and satisfaction in my life. Yesterday was an example of that. 
    I count my blessings, one of which is camellias. 


  • Love...Ms. Moon





29 comments:

  1. I was taking a psychology class when I heard dysthymic for the first time. I recognized myself right away. I count myself lucky that while I may function at a lower mood, I do function. I am more self conscious than I should be and I always feel as if everything is my fault. But I can push on. The concession I have made to myself is that I have given myself permission to stop trying to fix relationships.

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    1. I think that many, many of us live in this state. I am sorry you are one of them.

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    2. This is me, as well. Sometimes, I wonder if I'd be better off dead...but I don't have the courage to take such a final step that I can't get back! It's A pretty miserable life, isn't it! But some times aren't that bad. I live for those times...

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  2. Never heard that word before. Describes me very well.

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    1. The disorder is supposedly vastly under diagnosed.

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  3. Describes several people I know too.

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  4. Yes, I'm familiar with the term, though not, grace of God, with the disorder. I hope you get to feeling better.

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    1. I really am not sure when the last time was that I felt "better" for days at a time. And thinking about this makes me even sadder. Ugh.

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    2. Sorry you feel that way Mary. I could have written that about myself. xxx

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  5. 37p: Thank you for sharing this, Mary. That line about thinking the feeling is character traits slayed me.

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    1. Yeah- and if you've had it for years, it seems like the feeling IS character traits. But yes, the same line struck me too.

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  6. I don't get as depressed as I used to, which is nice, but I still get depressed sometimes. This morning I had a huge, ugly cry while I was rage cleaning. Perhaps depression is the appropriate response to a fucked up world. I'm thankful though that even when I'm depressed, I can still get out of bed and function.

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    1. I think that depression IS an appropriate response to a fucked up world. But it's not helping anyone to live in a state of it.

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  7. It used to be called “ melancholia” - Abe Lincoln, comes to mind. One foot in front of the other, just getting things done methodically, using strategy and charging forth into the bigger picture, a worthy cause, selflessly. Abe was mighty though suffering every day of his life, until he went into a theater for a reprieve of “ enjoyment”. Enjoyment killed him? Anyway, there are folks traveling around carrying heavy hearts, there is all sorts of baggage to tote in between our ears…that is where it all happens.

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    1. Yes. I've read that Lincoln suffered greatly from depression.
      I agree about how many of us are carrying around too much baggage for our own shoulders to bear. And as my friend Sue once said, "And it's not even our own baggage!"

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  8. I feel so much for people who suffer from depression! When my dad had his first heart attack at 48 he went into a depression. I always remember him saying that if all it took was to "shake yourself out of it", then he would have been fine long ago! And I always hated Sundays too. Growing up in an inner city, in the grey and the wet and then to have Songs of Praise droning on in the background - berrkkkk! For me the solution has always been to get outside into the fresh air but sometimes even that feels like too much, right!

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    1. Thank your lucky stars you don't suffer from it. And I hate it so much when people say that you have a choice when you wake up as to whether you want to be happy or not. Who the hell wouldn't want to be happy? Who would not choose that?
      I'm sorry that your father suffered. I've heard that heart attacks can cause year's long depression afterwards.

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  9. Oh yeah. I’ve heard of it. And it sucks.

    We used have a big house in semi-rural Connecticut. A friend often visited and loved to weed the gardens. One year she weeded the clematis.

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    1. One time Mr. Moon weeded my garden and pulled all the herbs. When I told him what he'd done he said that he didn't have any idea that they were herbs. I said- "Did you not notice that they were the best smelling weeds you ever pulled?"
      Ay-yi-yi.
      I hope you don't know about P.D.D. from personal experience but if you do...well. I understand.

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  10. interesting. not something I suffer from but it must be a relief to know that it's not character traits.

    I like Saturdays and Sundays, especially Sundays because I consider them 'free days' in that on those days there is nothing I am required to do (and on Sundays in this small town, nothing to do) the other days of the week there's yoga class, grocery shopping, cooking dinner, running errands, volunteering, etc.

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    1. Honestly, I am a bit confused- things like my agoraphobia and needing my routine ARE character traits by now. So if I suddenly got cured of the P.D.D. would I no longer have those traits?
      I can't see that happening.
      You leave a busy life, Ellen, and I admire you for doing all you do.

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  11. Hope you have more days where you feel good, Mary.

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  12. Camellias are the kind of blessings that sustain me. (Well, not LITERALLY camellias, but similar small things that add up to a greater sense of positivity.) I haven't heard of dysthymia before. (As in thymus? Is there a connection?)

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    1. No, no connection with the thymus. The word comes from the Greek, meaning "bad state of mind" or "ill humor" according to the Harvard Health website. I guess they should know.

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  13. Thank you for sharing about PPD, this is ringing some serious bells for me.

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    1. I am sorry to hear that it does but I suspect that many of us are affected by this disorder.

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    2. We are such complicated, mutlilayered, convoluted creatures. I have always answered heath care professionals no on questions of depression, because I felt that what I was feeling wasn't serious enough. But now, I feel that if I do bring up this new possibity... I'm not sure... about what will happen, or be said? At the same time I do enjoy discovering what the different aspects are that I am made of.

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