Good afternoon.
Certain conditions lack that essential wow factor. Depression like dementia, is one of those conditions that just sort of only nearly exists in the consciousness of far too many people.
Of course, it’s easier to identify with something you can see. Probably why the RSPCA do such continuously brisk business. You can see from the ribs sticking out and the beaten look in its eyes that a dog has been abused.
Yet Granddad forgetting your daughter’s name is probably just down to him being overtired. Your brother’s reluctance to go to work is down to his bone idol gene which you first spotted when he was about fifteen.
Christoper Hitchens I mention for obvious reasons today to highlight that cancer is visable. One of the most wonderful polemicists and orators of my lifetime physically reduced to a speechless, balding wreck.
The shuffling and the dull thud you can now hear is me jumping on the depression bandwagon. Nothing duller of course than the woes of others so I’ll spare you the details. But this is why I’m running this. I’ve seen the look on the faces of my own family members who simply do not get it. The lethargy and blackness cannot be communicated. And when you’re next spotted in your ‘usual’ great form, it’s as if this somehow weakens your case…
Trying to convey the tangible nature of depression to anyone who hasn’t experienced it is neither straightforward or rewarding. Trying to explain how utterly miserable and cut off from absolutely everything in your life you feel is like trying to get someone to replicate a great work of art by describing it over the phone. ‘Err… It’s an oil painting of a bird with long black hair, a moody sort but with just the hint of a smile.’
Two recent tragedies triggered by depression to hit football have been well documented. In the instance of Dale Roberts, it was pretty obvious that his wife cheating on him with then Rushden & Diamonds team mate Paul Terry caused him kill himself. Gary Speed’s trigger to end his life has yet to be revealed.
Stan Collymore was unable to broadcast recently. There will be some who will struggle to sympathize. I mean no one was asking him to do a 12 hour split shift on minimum wage in particularly grueling working conditions. How ‘depressed’ would you have to be to find yourself unable to blather on about football for a couple of hours? If you read this far and are asking that class of question then you won’t find the answer reading the remainder of this page.
Depression Alliance UK strike me as decent folk. And Stan has stepped up and galvanized a quite staggering array of footballers and football related organizations into donating money cannot buy prizes to a truly incredible raffle to help DA UK.
Full details are HERE and the prizes include Sporting Bet offering Corporate Hospitality at White Hart Lane and Jermaine Defoe has donating a match worn shirt. There are PFA Awards tickets, Soccer AM tickets and much much more.
It’s a fiver to be in it.
I personally guarantee that most people know someone who or has had haemorrhoids themselves,but a Spurs site would be a strange place to bring it up,so I won’t.
Spurs footballer Jermain Defoe by my watch is still on the books of THFC.
This blog was to offer you the chance to enter a raffle.
Hope you, your friends and all their bottoms fare well.
HH just knowing about it is education. And these are the places people come to. Consider that support. :daumen:
That felt like a swipe at my comment. If I’m mistaken I apologise.
Whatever else us this blog usually talks about, this particular article had to do with a fundraising raffle to benefit an organisation that works to help sufferers of severe depression. In that context I thought my comment was rather relevent. Besides, you know as well as I do that about half of the comments on here typically have absolutely nothing to do with football. So what’s your beef with this particular comment?
There are still a lot of people out there who, through ignorance or naivete, don’t think depression is real. I find that frankly disgraceful. It’s one of those things where talking about it in public is really the only way to solve the problem (the naive people, not depression).
I’m passionate about Spurs, but I have a lot of other interests, too. This is one of them. A lot of other regulars here also have other interests.
I thought some people might find my post interesting. I thought it might be constructive for others to see this perspective.
So that’s why I posted it. Now, what is your reason for bitching about it?
Not bitching at you at all,and what you wrote I agree with in the main,sorry if you felt offended but as I said I still feel their is a time and place and I doubt any body will learn anything new about depression from these pages
Alright, well sorry about that. No offense taken. Tone of voice is tricky on the internet. I don’t think the point is for anyone to learn anything “new” as such. And maybe you’re right and nobody will get anything from this at all. But they might, in which case there is no wrong time or place. I happen to think it’s worth trying.
thought the haemorrhoids was the stadium where the arse try and play football.
The Gary Speed question is a tough one. According to what you read it was depression that was the reason but (again according to what you read) he showed no signs at all even to his best mates. I had an uncle who went the same way but even as a child you could see/feel something wasn’t right. In his case you could understand why as he had lost a leg in an accident as a young man. He found it hard to smile and even when he did you could see it slightly forced. I had a bad accident when I was 17 and now have arthritis in my ankle that has caused great pain and stopped me doing quite a few things. Sometimes I’ve felt down but I wouldn’t say I was depressed really. I’m not sure what I’m trying to say here but the Gary Speed thing made me think in that I have a physical problem but it doesn’t make me depressed.
Very well put H. Hopefully things like this will encourage people who suffer with depression to come forward and seek help. I had a good friend whos wife had to remove all the kitchen knives at the really bad times.
Nice one HH.
The thought that Frontwheel has difficulty relating to a discussion about depression on a Spurs blog has really cheered me up.
Being a Spurs fan is a roller coaster of fleeting moments of elation followed by months of depression interlaced with elusive torments of hope. Depression is endemic amongst Spurs fans and certainly needs talking about.
Have to say that failing in the Europa has strangely not led to depression, but more a slightly miffed feeling. More than numbness but not by much.
When you have a cold you probably think its swine flu
and it usually is…….