Thursday, October 08, 2015

CHRONIC DEPRESSION


Recently I watched a couple of Youtube videos on the subject of Depression. Holy Mackerel! I realised that I know next to nothing about the subject. How many of us do?

Apparently the sexy subject these days is Manic Depression. Plain old run-of-the-mill Depression now appears so...yesterday. Maybe that's because the treatment for Depression is so standard now: anti-depressant pills plus maybe two years of therapy. The therapy is just to make sure you get in the habit of taking the pills. If you have Manic Depression add lithium to the list.

Anyway, through the videos I discovered that I'm in danger of getting some sort of depressive disorder.


 I'm moving to a part of the country where I'll likely have no cartoonist friends and where I'll probably have drastically reduced face-to-face contact. Recent studies show that this will put me in a high risk category for Depression.


Geez, I better enjoy Los Angeles while I still can.


People say that Skype is the remedy for isolation, but is it?  It's a futuristic technology and I love the idea, but it hasn't worked well for me in the past. I always run out of things to say, something that seldom happens when I'm face to face.



You could argue that the kind of depression you get from isolation is really just plain old everyday sadness. If my sad-inducing circumstances improved then my illness would vanish and with it my claim to a serious problem. That's a comforting thought if true, but the behaviorist in me can't help but wonder if the negative habits acquired in isolation can be shed so easily. I don't think they can.


Manic depression certainly is a lot more fun to think about. At least the manic people have times when they think they can do anything and are positively euphoric. The problem is that, according to one video, for some people it doesn't lead to anything positive at all. The ideas they get look silly the next day. They're just spinning their wheels. And besides, the depressive episodes of the disease last longer, and are more severe, than the manic ones.

That's all I have to say about this subject. I really don't know much about it. If I made a mistake I hope someone who knows better will correct it.



BTW: I noticed something called Borderline Personality Disorder on the sidebars of depression sites. BPDs are said to be impulsive, prone to mood swings, and lack empathy and a clear identity. Yikes! I've read that there's 140 kinds of personality disorder. That means an awful lot of us probably have a screw loose somewhere. It's scary!


11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Eddie, this is both an informative and entertaining way of learning more about bipolarity/manic depressive illness.

Stephen Fry: The Secret Life of a Manic Depressive Part 1

Eddie Fitzgerald said...

Steve: Thanks for the link! I'll give it a look!

nodnarB said...

I have to say, this post has a GREAT selection of pictures! Also an interesting subject. It almost seems like the modern world is designed to depress a mass amount of the population. Maybe it's just because most of us don't understand what makes us depressed. I hope you at least can find a local figure drawing group or some such thing where you are headed. Even small towns usually have at least a handful of local artists. If there isn't one already going, you could start a group and be a hero to the local artist community!

P.S. Eddie, I have been having a heck of a time with drawing clothing folds. Do you have any clothing/folds theories you have been dying to post about?

Eddie Fitzgerald said...

Nodnar: Thanks for the encouragement! About drawing folds: the best lessons on that subject that I know of are the ones in The Famous Artists Course. You can probably find them on the net.

Gravity and bend folds are the easiest to draw, but only half the folds in modern clothes are like that. Clothes are more tailored than they used to be and they develop creases that eminate from the stitching, or from where they're tucked in or crimped.

Sometimes you have to draw gravity folds where none exist because a more realistic treatment would be distracting and focus too much attention on the stitching.

Anonymous said...

I've suffered from depression most all of my life. I can remember being in 3rd grade and preoccupied with hopelessness and fixation of my own suicide. Things only got worse from there.

Drugs were the answer. It helped when I gave up drawing too.

Now I just kinda bum along in life. I'm looking forward to death, but I don't spend all day wishing I were dead. And I don't hate myself anymore, instead I am apathetic. Fun life indeed. >_<

Eddie Fitzgerald said...

Anon: Holy Cow! You've got it bad! I can make a philosophical comment. Most people who think a lot about suicide will never actually do it. If you're not going to do it, and the statistics say you probably won't, then you might as well definitively rule out the possibility, because thinking about it all the time robs you of your energy.

My thought is that you should fall deeply in love, even if it's with someone who has severe problems of their own. Make the commitment that even if the worst happens and you both have to sleep in cardboard boxes in an alley, that you'll make sure the other person has the best box attainable. The idea is that their life means more to you than your own. Believing that will enable you to escape from worrying about your own problems for a while. It'll be like taking a mental vacation. When your mind is a little more clear then you think about what to do next.

Otrembu said...

Hey Eddie! This might not be the right post to comment in or the right moment but I remembered this just now and I have something really important to tell you before I forget about it again for months! I'm really sorry if there's no structure to this post. It's somewhat rushed yet long and hard to read, but please, PLEASE read it!

I don't think you know me. I'm not a regular commenter on Theory Corner, in fact I think I've only commented once or twice (and you've replied btw! Thanks!), but I've been reading for a few months now and I absolutely love this place; the photo stories, astronomy posts, varied theories, lessons on eclectic topics I wouldn't have ever thought about reading about, and you post almost every day! Wow! This is quality writing. I hope you keep updating Theory Corner even after you move.

I'm a 19 year old guy, and I'm an aspiring cartoonist and animator. It's a long story about how I got up to this point, but basically: A year and a half ago I couldn't hold a pencil; then John's blog taught me what cartoons were really about, his course taught me how to draw, and then Theory Corner gave me all this diverse knowledge and ideas to think about and apply! You guys have taught me everything I know.

You've made me realize what animation is REALLY capable of. We've barely scraped the surface and I'm willing to get through the crust and to the very core.
Few people seem to get it; All the time when I'm drawing, watching cartoons, movies, or just looking at the real world happen, I'm constantly thinking up theories on what is a good cartoon and how animation as a whole could be improved, and nobody will listen, not even other artists!

You see, I'm making my own cartoon right now: it's gonna be short, to the point, crammed with jokes, as well as fully-animated and carefully crafted. I'm applying everything I've learned and then some. I've been working at a very leisurely pace as it's a personal project and I'm easily distracted, but as soon as I start layout I'm picking up the pace and going full throttle until the very end (I'm timing the animatic and editing right now).

It's making me mad that I got all these ideas in my head and nobody will listen! I live in a place with no cartoon culture whatsoever and my few artist friends think I'm crazy. I'm just alone all day with no one to talk to; I want cartoonist friends too!
So, I want to talk with you, Eddie! If it's not a problem, please tell me when and how, I'd love to have a conversation with you somehow through the internet! I promise I'm cool. I'm posting this with my Google account, I don't know how Blogger works but hopefully you can reply to me.

Anyway, have a great day/night, thanks in advance, and hopefully we'll keep on talking.

Best,
-H.

Eddie Fitzgerald said...

Otrmbu: Haw! Thanks for the good review! It's true enough that we've barely scraped the surface. World animation is in a creative funk right now but that's just the calm before the storm. New ideas are coming and they will prevail.

I'm reminded of the era when Sergio Leone made his groundbreaking westerns. Film industry vets thought he was crazy because in their opinion everything you could do with a Western had already been done and the genre had run out of gas. Then Sergio comes in and makes innovative films like "For a Few Dollars More" and "Good the Bad and the Ugly." The influence of those films is still with us today.

You're doing well by studying John K. If your goal is to make your own independent films then my my advice is to learn drawing and cartooning and spend a lot of time still-framing your favorite animation scenes. When you animate do a lot of colorless, five second ipad shorts which are more about a situation than a plot. Throw yourself recklessly into them and learn from your mistakes. Find out what kind of thing you have a knack for and do more of that and less of everything else.

I'm afraid I don't have time for internet correspondence, but if you follow the advice above you'll do okay.

nodnarB said...

Thanks for the advice on folds Eddie! Found that course on google, and it is really great no nonsense teaching. I've been learning from one of Hogarths books, and while he is a great artist, his writing is extremley hard to learn from.

Anonymous said...

Hey, it's Mr Super-Sad Anonymous again...haha.

It just struck me how surreal it was talking to you about my depression.. because you were inadvertently a big part of it!

You see, when I saw Ren and Stimpy for the first time it was a revelation. I suddenly realized how open the possibilities of art were. I worshiped R&S and Spumco. I wanted nothing more than to become an artist myself, so that I may bring my own fantasies into this world.

But there was a problem. I am very untalented, and I could never progress beyond a Matt Groening/Dilbert level of artistic achievement. Since my standards were so high (ie R&S and other excellent draftsman), my skills were completely inadequate - and thus I was completely inadequate. This, for over a decade, was the primary cause of my depression.

So you see how truly surreal it is to talk with you about this! What a life, huh?

I have decided to pursue ladies now. I'm 31, and I lost my virginity when I was 29. The last time I had sex I was 29. Women hate me; I'm the antithesis of what they desire.

But all hope is not lost. I'm working on getting in shape, and developing as a musical performer. Hopefully the old myth about rock 'n' rollers being irresistible to women is true. Given my history of failure, chances of my success seem statistically unlikely - but at least there is hope. ;-)

Any-hoo, thanks for reading. This is kinda cathartic in a ouroboros kinda way.

Eddie Fitzgerald said...

Anon: Haw! "I have decided to pursue ladies now" is a great conclusion, and is probably the answer for many of mankind's problems!