Hi. I can empathise with your position. Just this morning I came up and out of a bout of depression that had been holding me under for the past 4-6 (ish?) wee

Hi. I can empathise with your position. Just this morning I came up and out of a bout of depression that had been holding me under for the past 4-6 (ish?) weeks - possibly the worst bout that I have had for the past few years. The feelings of loneliness were certainly there - as were the feelings of anxiety and uncertainty and chaos - there was a lot of cynicism and hatred also, almost entirely turned against myself, again, to the point where I too was starting to worry about my capacity for self harm. As a person who (at least nominally) values rationality, I found (and still find) the irrational and unpredictable ups and downs of my emotional brain to be immensely irritating and frustrating. Perhaps the most frustrating part of it all is that - even knowing perfectly well that the depression has no rational basis - we are unable to do anything meaningful about it. Indeed, it was not until this weekend just gone that I felt able to reach out to my family and ask for help - I needed to recover from the depression in order to ask for help recovering from the depression! fking stupid-a*s brain! Who designed this stupid thing, anyway! Funnily enough, reaching out to strangers is often easier than reaching out to those we know and love - particularly when the issues are as emotionally loaded as these. Personally, I found the Samaritans to be particularly helpful (email jo@samaritans.org for help). The usual advice that people give is pretty good: "don't suffer in silence", "reach out to your doctor to get help", "diet", "exercise" and so on, but you and I both know how difficult (impossible, more like) following that advice is in practice, and how mind-blowingly irritating it is to receive it when you are down in the dumps (so apologies for repeating the bleedin' obvious). Anyway, posting here was a good start, so kudos for that, anyhow. -Will