Reminder: Depression is a hereditary disease
Posted on 03/23/2009 02:43 pm by kagranju
I’ve blogged before about the history of depression that runs in my own family. I want my children to understand that depression is an organic disease – no different than diabates or asthma – and that they shouldn’t ever feel shame or anxiety over asking for help if they experience symptoms of mental illness.
Today, with this sad story, I was reminded yet again of the genetic ties that bind depressive family histories together. The son of Ted Hughes (perhaps the worst husband in the history of the planet, but one of my favorite poets) and Sylvia Plath has committed suicide.
Heartbreaking.
Related to this, I also want to point your attention to a fantastic piece in Babble today from a mother who is living with depression. She really makes you understand what its like to try to parent small children while dealing with the disease, and she offers some very practical suggestions for other parents with depressive illnesses.
03/24/2009 at 11:37 pm
I was brokenhearted to learn of Nick’s death. It was eerie for me, as I am seeking solace and refuge yet again in The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath as I battle my own depressive demons for the umpteenth time.
I am bipolar, and I come from a long line of bipolars and depressives and obsessive compulsives. I am the first person in my family who actually took the time to get the proper diagnosis and medication.
I believe in the concept of a hell just for the sole purpose of mentally damning Ted Hughes to it again and again. His literary acumen should be forever ignored for his unthinkable crime of destroying Sylvia’s final two journals, simply because her indictments of him must have been so (rightfully) damning. I’m a writer; you’re a writer. Can you think of a fellow writer being so outright disrespectful to the craft? I don’t care how he attempted to redeem himself in his later years with that Birthday Letters nonsense. The world deserved to read those words. Plath’s words. It was not up to Ted Hughes to make that decision for the world.