Deborah Does Navel-Gazing

Before my own depression was diagnosed, I dated a man who suffered from clinical depression and alcoholism. Of course, I wasn’t aware of this when I started dating him, or I never would have started. I don’t have a burning need to “fix” people. A couple of months after I started treatment for my depression, we split up. Although I think it was more or less mutual, I would not have stayed around for long in any case. I had gotten tired of trying to talk him into getting help for his depression. He had kept the alcoholism at bay by quitting drinking cold turkey, but the underlying problem, the depression, was still there. For some reason, he was dead set against any kind of treatment for his depression. He had had therapy when he was in his teens, and apparently it had done more harm than good.

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