AND doing the thing that hurts those around you/ your relationships most/ exacerbates the problem (in my case, drinking).

I was off my meds for a week because I "couldn't be arsed" to go to the doctors and get a new script. What was that? Depression. How did I deal with that? Drinking. I could smack myself up the head as much as anyone watching could want, but in the end I have to accept the illness, and try to put things in place to make sure such damned stupid behavior isn't repeated. For a msart girl I'm a fuckit far too often.

Funnily enough, my cookie cutter list would say, "Get a pet!" And I'm sure the RSPCA would say depressed people/ alcoholics are the worst pet owners, EVAH! So I accept, what works for one does not work for all. FTR - my boy(s) and briefly girl never went without food, and although the boys lived with me in filth for a short time, they had clean litter and lots of love.

Sigh - I miss Dylan and Hely every day.

Irony: Well-intended essay on how to be happy results in 62 posts of argument and acrimony.

The Cellar: poorly written article attracts far more intelligent and realistic reaction than the original piece expressed.

I can't speak for anyone else, but I'm not done yet.

The road to hell, my friend, the road to hell...

:p

now you've all made me unhappy.

I'm off for a - what? What is an acceptable remedy these days? oh, no! Now I have to take a walk! Hells bells!!

Now watch this, this is how the Cellar works: if you admit to being happy, many someones will come along and try to throw a spanner in the works. The beauty of it is, if you're REALLY happy, they fail. And I am truly happy. :)

How To Be Happy:

2 Cups Sugar
1 Cup Cream
1/2 Cup butter, pure, smooth, a hint of salt, only
A pinch of cinnamon,
A drop of vanilla

Mix in blue skies, stars, a full moon,
sticky lemon candies
your best dream -
and throw in a tornado or two. What the hell.

You know, people would look at me and say I have everything I could possibly need to make me happy, but I can guarantee you that right now at this particular time in my life, I am not.

Yeah I guess I should just not feel sorry for myself and I should get up and grow a backbone or something right?

Just because someone appears to have an enviable life/style, doesn't mean it's perfect or even cookie cutter. Everyone has their demons and sometimes they get the upper hand, no matter who you are and how much money you have or how supportive your spouse is etc. Is it wrong for someone seemingly enviable to admit something like that and to have found what she thinks are a few tricks to drag herself out of a funk? A few tricks she decided to write down and share for others who might be in the same situation. I don't think so.

A final note, an enviable life is a matter of perspective. I'm pretty sure some starving people in some drought ridden African country might consider living on the streets of America enviable, even if they didn't have a house.

I don't envy her life. It is not the life for me, and never was.

If I had felt the honesty that I just read in your post, Ali, my opinion would have been so different.

My problem was with the article itself: LOOK! I have everything. Betcha envy me? You should. However, I'm afraid I'm getting older, so here's how I cured it!

It was just so very trite, and a bit demeaning to real women who are making it every day, no matter their circumstances. If I had detected any note of honesty, or barring that, some actual journalism, I wouldn't have taken her to task for missing, but pretending to hit, both sides of that coin.

Yeah well I think maybe she just needs a bit of help with her writing style. I know what you mean about her attempt to get people on side and it falls on it's face for me too, but I think the article has a few good points, and some not so good. Like everything in life, you've gotta take the good with the bad. Nothing is all one and none of the other. That's the thing I'm trying to focus on now to make myself happy.

Me too. I know we all have our share of the good and the bad. Sometimes it takes a LOT of focus. :)

But I'm glad to have the ability to focus...most of the time.

Um, I'm no DSM-IV, and I'm certainly no therapist... but I think I'd have to disagree with them, Pie. On what basis does a therapist call suicidal thoughts not depression?

Suicidal ideation is insufficient for a clinical diagnosis. 5 of 9 symptoms must be present.

But really, who will I convince here? Carry on. Feel better about yourselves for having real problems.