People are embarrassed to talk about it. I would never put anyone down [who] was in that kind of space. I think most human beings go through some sort of depression in their life—and if they don’t, I think that’s weird.
—Kirsten Dunst, in Flare Magazine.
Oh, Kirsten! I love her more every day.
And she’s right about the embarrassment thing. I think, in my own family, the word “depression” is never used. Never. (In fact, my great-grandmother always described her own condition as “melancholia.”) And it isn’t as if my family members would broach the subject anyway; there are some things we’ve been taught to keep quiet.
Most people will fight off bouts of depression at some point. Others will struggle with major depression. And Kirsten’s right: if it’s so widespread, why is it still so taboo to discuss?
Or maybe we’re just apathetic about depression. Does the ubiquity of mild depression keep us from acknowledging how serious clinical depression really is? Hmm.
I think I had a bout of melancholia a couple months ago.
I agree with her wholly. But god she looks gorgeous!
I believe most people aren’t very introspective. Without introspection, you can’t have empathy.
I would guess 100% of humans feel depressed at some time in their lives; but it is a human defense to “turn a blind eye” to things we’re afraid of. This is why most people will walk right by homeless people and the disabled. They don’t want to catch anything.
That isn’t to say that this is “wrong”, but a very valid social behavior. Just like bees, we tend to fringe and remove defective social units as dangerous.
Anyway, my babbling is to say:
1) People ignore it because depression makes them think about depression in themselves and they don’t want to do that.
2) people are naturally afraid or unnerved about anything outside their social norm.
Amen, AP.
if no one talks about it, how come i feel like i’ve heard this quote a thousand times before? maybe this is the artist in me but depression is so f***ing awful that it’s kind of inspiring. what a blah statement!
It’s funny that melancholia is being mentioned as that’s the name of Kirsten’s new film…ha.