The new shrink

I finally managed to come out of my depression closet and write something on my blog a few days back. Now, I took it another step forward. I met a new shrink.

The first sitting was rather remarkable. He must have asked me maybe eight or ten questions. I would just go on and about my past. The most that I talked about was my relationship with Vinokur and how it came to an end.

It felt telling a stranger about everything that affected me negatively from the past – from parental physical abuse, incestual sexual abuse, being looked down by my family almost throughout my childhood and adolescence, the hospital changing my perspective of life, why I came to Mumbai, to how I fell in and out of love and was broken into pieces – everything.

My shrink listened to me carefully. At the end of of our session, he offered me a comprehensive plan. New antidepressant (bupropion), slow tapering off of the cocktail, introduction to cognitive therapy, and regular physical exercise.

Although, I have been feeling much better in the last few days and I was even more content with myself that I finally took a measure toward getting out of the rut. Let’s see where this leads me.

The deep dark shades of masochistic depression

I have had a tough year last year when things went wrong almost calculatedly, and I went wrong almost as if I were on autopilot. Wrong would me a wrong word to describe the condition - inadaptable would perhaps better explain the condition. My life during this period could be compared to a set of dominoes which collapsed the exact opposite way they were meant to.

I, as a system that worked pretty efficiently in scaling all the hurdles that my previous life had presented me, capitulated to such an extent that I started picking up apparently ambivalent things (apart from the true negative phenomena) and conjured up ways to demonise them into the ultra-negativities, which were later incorporated into my life's realm. It was like how an evil force, a la comics and their fantastic story lines, would feed on all sources of energy, soul, and life, to enhance its own size, thus eventually causing an apocalypse.

This effect, unfortunately, is due to the fact that I'm, by default, hopeful and optimistic. By being so, I let negativity hurt me more that it should. I belive that this the big fat irony of hope and its resultant expectation. When you get stuck inside such a situation, you tend to wonder why such things happen to you. You have a strong feeling of righteousness and it seems that things/life are/is unfair. However, inside the mind of a depressive person, who might also be a tad masochistic, thoughts swarm up to find reasons for the apparent cruelty and the need to endure it for prolonged periods as if to 'suffer' for the 'sins' that must have been committed, albeit unknowingly!

This is why people like me resist help and go deeper and deeper into the proverbial shell. In my case however, thanks to Vinokur primarily, who orchestrated this marvelous heist of my mind with the help of two of my dear friends, the depressive spree has been halted and I'm now on therapy. Presently, I'm feeling much better. The negativity, instead of clinging on to, passes me by like it does for all others. I urge everyone who has had similar experiences to take that huge step, maybe with the help of your near and dear friends, to seek therapy!

I would like to quote my friend/musician/bandmate Sidd Coutto - "... make your own bubble of happiness, and stay in it!"

Stay happy!