Also, should anyone come upon the article because they are depressed and want someone to talk to, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline...

I do kind of get where she’s coming from. I’ve had times where I just stopped struggling and fell into depression and just let it engulf me, basically stopped doing stuff, that were beautiful. It felt like everything was soft and grey. That’s not to say that I haven’t had other times with depression that were anything…

My depression is very seasonal, so the first spring days where the sunlight seeps into my system and makes me feel warm and light and happy really are beautiful. I know most people love that sensation of warmer days arriving, but I don’t know if I’d appreciate them quite so much if they didn’t represent the top of the…

I came here to say this. As a non-white, non-rich woman who’s struggled with depression my whole life, I found this take shockingly petty and cruel. I understood exactly what she meant because I’d be dead today if I hadn’t found a way to make peace with (and yes, find beauty in) the unique way my brain processes the…

I agreed at first but I think a lot of the Justice’s criticism is of how the interviewer framed Johnson’s discussion of her depression, rather than of Johnson’s views of her own depression. I’m sure she said even more than that it’s beautiful, but the writer only chose to print that portion of her statement, as well…

But she’s talking about her experience - not anyone else’s. She shouldn’t have to validate how she feels about her own life. 

Yeah, that’s basically my experience as well. It’s part of who I am, the good, the bad, the ugly. I made this same point to someone else upthread - she’s basically just talking about self-acceptance and learning to live with how her brain is wired. And yet people feel the need to take an absolutely innocuous statement…

I’m glad she’s found a way to deal with her depression and find some value in it for her. For me, the most defining thing of every depressive episode is just how it sucks beauty out of things. It’s like that feeling of utter, desperate boredom I used to feel as a child on rainy Sundays, x 1000. And then, every…

*this*

But I’ve learned to find it beautiful because I feel the world,” she says.

Exactly, thank you!

Exactly. She’s basically talking about self-acceptance and learning to live - and even find the positive - in how her brain is wired. 

THANK YOU. I hadn’t scrolled down all the way but I’m flabbergasted to see how narrow-minded people are (especially ones that drip with self-congratulations about being the opposite) when it comes to who’s allowed to be mentally ill and who isn’t.

I got the impression that she was talking about her personal experience specifically.

Disappointed (but not surprised) in the lack of empathy shown by this piece and the commenters. Depression is a physiological condition that, like any other, is eased by status but certainly not nullified by it. Rich beautiful white woman can and do get and die from cancer. They can and do and get and die from…

She didn’t say depression is beautiful. She said she’s learned to find her own depression beautiful. Depression is different for everyone; I don’t see the harm in her trying to see the positive side of her mental illness.

I don’t know her depression, or your depression - I barely understand mine most days - but if that’s how she comes to grips with her experience, she should be allowed to speak to it.  She isn’t making a sweeping statement about Depression, just her own experience.

I realize that mental illness is indeed a credibility competition, but I completely understand what she’s saying. People get to feel how they want to feel about their own mental illnesses, for fuck’s sake.

I hate depression. I’ve struggled with it all my life, and feel it has taken so much more than it’s given me. It’s hard to think about what I might be without it. I do not think it’s beautiful, and generally bristle at any hint that it is.

YOU CAN’T TELL PEOPLE HOW TO FEEL THEIR EMOTIONS.