I Want to Die but I Still Want to Eat Tteokbokki: Further Conversations with My Psychiatrist (I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki)

by Baek Se-hee

Psychiatrist:To make a habit of continuing things and getting things done is in itself an excellent development. When one thinks, ‘I am depressed,’ it makes them stay at home more and be helpless and meet fewer people and get cut off from society. In such cases, it is the habits we developed when we were not depressed that help us slough off that depression. One might say they’re doing a certain thing because they’re depressed, but such behaviour may be exacerbated by a habit of withdrawing from society. If we make a habit of doing a certain thing when our serotonin levels are high (when our condition is good), the possibility of creating more good days by trying to be the selves we were at that optimal state would be that much greater.