clarity

Dr. Peter Kramer, perhaps the leading authority on depression, has written a new book, AGAINST DEPRESSION. He describes depression this way:

It is fragility, brittleness, lack of resilience, a failure to heal. It is sadness, hopelessness, chronic exhaustion allied with corrosive anxiety, a loss of any emotion but guilt, of any desire but to stop, please stop, and to stay stopped, forever.

I was coming back from swimming, riding the A train, when I started reading the review of Kramer's latest book in the book review of the TIMES. I have felt ok the last few days, and when I feel ok I can view myself with a clarity I otherwise lack. So reading this description, I found myself saying "yes, yes, yes, yes and yes."

I have to get that book. Maybe tomorrow.