A-Z, Epilogue.

In R for Reputation you've got familiar with the car metaphor what happens with our brain during the depression and in the meantime in altogether 26 letters you've got to read a lot about me, my emotions, my struggles, my thoughts, everything that concerns my life in depression.

First and above all I've written those posts for myself. It's like my own documentation of my stay in the clinic and everything that was important for me. Second, I've written for my friends all over the world. The advantage of telling everything just once instead of repeating myself all over again. And third, maybe - really just maybe - there's somebody out there, who can read something out of my lines and speaks about his/her illness or the one's of a partner, family member, friend or colleague.

With breaking the silence and talking openly about depressions we have the easiest, but also most powerful weapon to help.

Go ahead and talk! Don't hesitate to ask!

read more

A-Z, Z for 3-2-1-Zero.

'Cos I've seen blue skies

through the tears in my eyes

and I realize 

I'm going home. 

From Rocky Horror Picture Show

read more

A-Z, Y for Yin Yang.

Hmm... in lack of any idea, what to write here with this wonderful catchword, let's better bring it to an end, what do you think?

read more

A-Z, X for X-Files.

X-File Depression: Closed (for now)!

read more

A-Z, W For Weapon.

First I thought about symptoms that could and did occur while depressions and other information, but that all was already wonderfully done in Wikipedia (->Depression).

Frankly speaking that idea for this post didn't go well off hand. I couldn't find the right words - again, maybe now coming to an end, I'm simply out of words. That for I decided to just leave it at that. Period.

Oh, maybe just one word to W for Weapon: Our most powerful weapon against prejudices and depression itself are wisdom and talking about it!

read more

A-Z, V For Victory.

Veni, Vidi, Vici. - I came, I saw, I played some games and I won - well, sometimes.

When you're feeling better - Thank God I do - you do almost everything for time to go by. Among others a spare time activity is playing games. I favor card games like 'Skip-Bo' and board games like 'Mensch Aergere Dich Nicht' (=Ludo/Parcheesi) or Rummy, which is a variation of Romme only with plastic bricks instead of cards.

Anyway, here you're in the lucky position that most of the time another player is around, you just have to knock on a door or two.

Interesting to know or better not know that I don't have the slightest glue, how games I played as a kid are named in English! Thanks to dict.cc!

read more

A-Z, U For Unique.

First I went for U for Universe in order to write about my dream/phantasy world versus the real world. I sat in front of my concept book and no words came out. Obviously it wasn't the right time to think about this topic. So, I decided to chose another catch word:

In J for Joker I've mentioned Art Therapy. Today I want to tell you a little more about it.

The room was just the way I imagine a place for being creative. Light and open, with lots of space for only a limited group of people. Shelves with art books and colors and pencils and everything you dream to use for your kind of art. Large tables if you wish to sit and work with clay and decorative art on the walls. Just wonderful!

My first lesson was on a Monday morning. Two others were also new. After introduction we were given a huge piece of paper (100x70 cm) clipped on a easel the way we felt better, I decided for landscape format.

Btw: I have to register that my art vocabulary is limited - a good reason to learn some new words!

Then we hat to chose one acrylic color. Does somebody wonder my choice was blue. After feeling the sheet of paper with our hands to get an idea for its dimensions, we had to close our eyes and paint something for 30 seconds. We were asked to step back and have a look if we 'see' something, which we could continue painting, plus adding other colors, too.

First I saw on the top right corner a cloud, but when I continued with the center it didn't fit in there anymore. It became just a monochrome (blue, black & white) mixture of shapes and forms. Have a look:

I also loved the second lesson, after finishing my painting. The art therapist gave me a collection of headlines, where I should chose one and do whatever comes into my mind. The first headline that got into my hands was 'The breathless beauty'. In the end my mind came up with a diary entry, where I reported about an imaginative morning in front of the Taj Mahal.

read more