For much of my life I have struggled with clinical depression, and though the stigma around mental illness has lessened in recent years, that doesn’t make enduring depression any easier. I’ve tried talk therapy, psychiatry, and SSRIs, and while these approaches have mitigated my symptoms, the truth is there’s no real “cure” for depression.
At least that’s what I thought before I felt a cool breeze across my body and it literally fixed my brain.
Depression runs on both sides of my family, and for the longest time I thought depressive episodes were something I was genetically prone to that I’d have to cope with throughout my life. In fact, I was in one such episode just recently. Walking down the humid city street, I felt fatigued, hopeless; I hardly had the energy to take another step. Then, a single cool breeze whipped against my skin, and basically God reached Her hand inside of me and unshrunk the neurons in my hippocampus with two fingers like enlarging an emoji on the story that is my brain.
Some people will say, “Maybe feeling a gentle breeze made you feel good in that moment but it didn’t necessarily ‘cure’ your clinical depression.” And to that I say, fuck you — wrong. I am cured and now I feel chill all the time.
Since this incident I have ceased therapy and taking my medication as they are no longer necessary, and I have never felt better. I am not a medical professional, but I am a confident and happy person thanks to the breeze, which is why it is without reservation that I urge other mentally ill people to go off their meds and feel something that’s a little less than wind instead.
My depression was only cured 45 minutes ago, but I already feel like a different person, and am excited to never feel sad again. Now I just have to figure out how to never go inside!
