falling down the rabbit hole

Chris Rose, a columnist for the New Orleans Times-Picayune, has written a moving account of his own personal descent into post-Katrina depression:

For all of my adult life, when I gave it thought--which wasn't very often--I regarded the concepts of depression and anxiety as pretty much a load of hooey.

I never accorded any credibility to the idea that such conditions were medical in nature. Nothing scientific about it. You get sick, get fired, fall in love, get laid, buy a new pair of shoes, join a gym, get religion, seasons change--whatever; you go with the flow, dust yourself off, get back in the game. I thought anti-depressants were for desperate housewives and fragile poets.

I no longer feel that way. Not since I fell down the rabbit hole myself and enough hands reached down to pull me out.

One of those hands belonged to a psychiatrist holding a prescription for anti-depressants. I took it. And it changed my life.

Read the whole thing here. Yes, it's long, but it's well worth your time.

Via DK, who handles the weekend shift at Josh Marshall's Talking Points Memo.