BEING DEPRESSED IS DEPRESSING

"Have you ever had one of those days 

when you can't just win, Eeyore?"

                                        -- Winnie The Pooh

          And I was just reading this newspaper article about a depressed man jumping off a top floor of a condominium.

          Depression, of course, is deadly.

          Everyone knows how it can make you suicidal—how, suddenly, jumping from the top of a skyscraper seems a lovely thing to do. All of us, at some point in our life, have been depressed. I, too, had been depressed. I knew that I was depressed at that time because I had this thought then that jumping off from a skyscraper sans a paraglider seemed a lovely thing to do. Luckily, there wasn’t a single skyscraper around at that time.

          These past few months, I have been feeling low and it’s not because I’ve been listening to Morrissey’s music. Yes, Morrissey’s music is depressing but no, it’s not the reason why I have been feeling melancholic these days. But I’ve been listening to Pharrell Williams’ “Happy” now to try to lift my spirits up. I listen to it twenty times a day with the volume way, way up (no, I don’t dance to it)  and my neighbors have been complaining about it. But hey, I’m trying to save my life here. Music, as they say, not only soothes the savage beast, it also “undepress” the depressed.

         Other cure for depression? You can find a lot of it on the internet. Of course, you should stay away from the things that bring you down. Exercise. Re-watch your favorite feel-good movies. Spend time with the people you love and who love you. Do the things you love. You love kicking your dog? Stop doing that. That’s animal cruelty. And you’ll be depressed once that dog fights back and bite you. Eat your favorite food, ones that always make you happy. Me, I love crunchy peanut butter. And yogurt. Potato chips. Kare-kare, sisig, palabok, sinig—stop! It will take me two days just to enumerate all my favorite food.

          And remember, stay away from tall buildings. And footbridges.

          Sadness is a terrible feeling.

UPDATE: I just deleted “Happy” from my playlist. I really  can’t stand listening to that trashy song, makes me irritable and makes my head ache.