Thursday, August 25, 2011

the greatest darkness you can ever know.

Many times, I've been asked to describe depression.
Below is taken from gemstar


The best analogy that comes to my mind is the analogy of Frodo and the Ringwraiths from the Lord of the Rings by Tolkein. After Frodo gets stabbed by the evil Nazgûl sword, when the ringwraiths (Nazgûl) are near, Frodo has an almost irrisistable urge to join them. He reaches out for them. It's a sick longing he feels, and yet he does not really want to join them. In reality he wants to fight them! But under the poison of the Nazgûl and the One Ring, he wants to die, be dead, like them. It's only when he is somewhat healed at Rivendale that he is able to see clearly again for the time being.

The feeling of suicide is like the feeling Frodo had in the story where he wants to join the Nazgûl. Of course, Frodo's friends don't want that and fight to save his life. The poison of the blade is like depression. The irrisistable urge that utter despair brings to end all good things for yourself by suicide is the same as his urge. Those of us who fight this urge find a kinship in Frodo's journey to destroy the One Ring. And we all need a friend like Sam to see us through. It's when those Sam's are missing that we have the most trouble. That is the sadness of depression, the isolation we feel that is not our fault.

We push other's away and want to deal with things on our own, but the truth is that we need others. We need our Sam.

Depression is an emotional journey into the depths of the greatest darkness you can ever know.

2 comments:

Elisha said...

Very good explanation for depression. Very good analogy. Never thought of it that way. I think sometimes 'sam's' are often nearby but we just don't know it or we push them away. Hope that makes sense. For me, depression is like being hidden behind a black veil and everything seems dark. Only when the veil is lifted, do we see the light in things. Simplistic way of thinking, but that's my version. The LOTR version is more exciting though!

Blue Eyed Daffodil said...

I agree with Elisha, very good analogy for depression and sam's are often nearby.

Thanks for this post, it is always good to be reminded that however bad we feel inside there is always a "rivendell" not that far away xxx