Abstract
What is the difference between being unhappy and being depressed? Psychiatric textbooks list a number of symptoms, but do not describe the difference which, viewed from the inside of a depressed state, is startlingly clear. When we are unhappy, even if we have suffered the most terrible blow, we can seek and find some comfort. We can reach out for a comforting hand and find one; we can comfort ourselves. But when we are depressed a wall has come down between us and the rest of the world. There may be hands and voices offering comfort, but their message is lost on the other side of the wall and, if the message threatens to pierce the wall, we turn away in disgust. We do not deserve comfort, and so we give ourselves none.
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References
Rowe, D., 1978. “The Experience of Depression”. Wiley, New York and Chichester.
Rowe, D., 1982. “The Construction of Life and Death”. Wiley, New York and Chichester.
Rowe, D., 1982. “Depression: The Way Out of the Prison”. In preparation.
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© 1983 Plenum Press, New York
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Rowe, D. (1983). Resistance to Change. In: Karas, E. (eds) Current Issues in Clinical Psychology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-3721-8_17
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-3721-8_17
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
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