How Hard It Really Is: A Short, Honest Book About Depression

by J.S. Park

It's in sharing what we go through that we are empowered to make it through together.

Depression can feel like a solo sport. There's no team backing you up. It's like swimming or gymnastics; once you get going, it's up to you to make it to the other end of the pool or the mat.

How do you talk to your friend about it?

without an accurate description of our experiences, we're severely limited in sharing, consoling, and empathizing with our deepest wounds.

Depression thrives on its unrelenting invisibility, creating a fatal cycle in which its own camouflage is the very mechanism by which it destroys. It thrives by hiding. It feels silly to bring up depression, which is isolating—and to feel isolated often feeds into the isolation, which is depression's most insidious strategy.

It feels like you're constantly drowning but you just won't die.

A two ton weight that follows you around. It constantly holds up a mirror to the past. It keeps a log of all the abandonment,

pressure, loss, rage, and loneliness, and constantly tries to break the record. It always says you're not good enough.