“Was not their mistake once more bred of the life of slavery that they had been living?—a life which was always looking upon everything, except mankind, animate and inanimate—‘nature,’ as people used to call it—as one thing, and mankind as another, it was natural to people thinking in this way, that they should try to make ‘nature’ their slave, since they thought ‘nature’ was something outside them” — William Morris


Thursday, February 22, 2018

Antidepressants

Ever so sorry to have written a tweet that is causing upset. I’ve deleted it.

You’re welcome to suggest ways I can repair anything I’ve damaged if you wish. It’s an issue that is very close to my heart, and the last time I spoke with Mark it was about all this, and it included an exchange on Twitter where we discussed what had then just been released to the media, namely a report that claimed these sorts of medicine were no better than placebo.

One problem for me is, I’m still going through grief processes about Mark myself, and when someone I care about commits suicide I tend to go straight from shock to anger. But this doesn’t make it easy for others to receive my communications about it.

I’m very out about my own depression (same intensity level as Mark’s), and am determined to help people know they can get help, in various different ways.

The Lancet just published something that confirmed that antidepressants do work much better than placebo, and I think it’s important to talk about that. I’ll see if I can find ways of doing it that are less personal.

3 comments:

D. E.M. said...

I just saw the twitter thread. I read your initial post as a survivor's testimony. As communicating the necessity of anti-depressants for survival in your case.
This thread will stop soon. And you can block a lot of the assholes. Very satisfying.
I went through a twitter war over laptops in classrooms this summer. It was ugly. Over laptops FFS.
Everything gets ugly fast on Twitter.

Btw, your Hyperobjects pairs well with Moby-Dick, given your Jonah and ship references. My grad students are rocking it.

johneffay said...

Thanks for this. Everybody makes mistakes.

Renata Paz said...

Hi Timothy, how are you: I got aware of your existence visiting After the end of the World at CCCB, Barcelona. I appreciate it: you are an amazing thinker. I would love to approuch as a collegue and try to help with your depression. I promise you can count on me and I confess I have no suicede intentions - at least at the moment.
best wishes, Renata