The following was messaged to me, but was so moving that I printed it and have it tacked up next to my desk. I had posted that I was overwhelmed by the double whammy of caring for and advocating for feral cats, and dealing with major depressive disorder. I wanted to share it with everyone out there who is struggling.
The message read :
My apologies for having sent this directly rather than answering inside your thread in the TCS Lounge.
Most recent and current research suggests that only an extremely small percentage of Clinical Depression is biologically induced. No - it's not impossible, but in most cases where depression is caused by the physical world, that cause can be found by modern medicine.
Your world - TNR, working with Humans at a zoological garden, and speaking up for those who cannot speak for themselves - is rooted in emotionalism - and even in cases when depression can be reduced to a lack of such monoamines as norepinephrine or serotonin, such deficiencies are seldom the whole root cause.
Look at your Life - you've spent it as an advocate for the unfortunate, the cast-off and for those born feral into a world which is decidedly unpleasant. Your stress level is doubtless higher than that of most of the people on the planet, because your "job" is in your head and your Heart as well as on the streets with your cats.
I know the whole of the local TNR community, and a good many others around the globe as well, and no medication - no psychoanalyst, psychiatrist nor medical Doctor - can change the connexion between your Heart and your Life's work.
The advice of a poor scholar who's likewise devoted much of his Life to feral cats? Have a chocolate bar now and again; listen more to your own Heart, and less - much, much less - to those who will not or cannot understand that Life - every single Life - is a precious gift. A woman or man of medicine will tell you that, "you cannot save them all." They don't understand that while we know this to be true, we must still try to save every one - and, "the trial is in the trying," to paraphrase Maimonides.
You're certainly welcome to respond, but your responce is neither presumed nor is it considered a necessity. Celebrate your Heart; to "solve" your 'depression' would require hardening that Heart to match the Heart of Everyman, and this would be the greatest of Sins.
עֲלֵיכֶם שָׁלוֹם
The message read :
My apologies for having sent this directly rather than answering inside your thread in the TCS Lounge.
Most recent and current research suggests that only an extremely small percentage of Clinical Depression is biologically induced. No - it's not impossible, but in most cases where depression is caused by the physical world, that cause can be found by modern medicine.
Your world - TNR, working with Humans at a zoological garden, and speaking up for those who cannot speak for themselves - is rooted in emotionalism - and even in cases when depression can be reduced to a lack of such monoamines as norepinephrine or serotonin, such deficiencies are seldom the whole root cause.
Look at your Life - you've spent it as an advocate for the unfortunate, the cast-off and for those born feral into a world which is decidedly unpleasant. Your stress level is doubtless higher than that of most of the people on the planet, because your "job" is in your head and your Heart as well as on the streets with your cats.
I know the whole of the local TNR community, and a good many others around the globe as well, and no medication - no psychoanalyst, psychiatrist nor medical Doctor - can change the connexion between your Heart and your Life's work.
The advice of a poor scholar who's likewise devoted much of his Life to feral cats? Have a chocolate bar now and again; listen more to your own Heart, and less - much, much less - to those who will not or cannot understand that Life - every single Life - is a precious gift. A woman or man of medicine will tell you that, "you cannot save them all." They don't understand that while we know this to be true, we must still try to save every one - and, "the trial is in the trying," to paraphrase Maimonides.
You're certainly welcome to respond, but your responce is neither presumed nor is it considered a necessity. Celebrate your Heart; to "solve" your 'depression' would require hardening that Heart to match the Heart of Everyman, and this would be the greatest of Sins.
עֲלֵיכֶם שָׁלוֹם