“I can’t, because of my hand. My hand hurts so much. Life sucks because of this hand.”
“You should go to a doctor to show your hand”
“No! It won’t help anything! And it costs money. And I don’t know how to or want to anyway.”
I’ve seen that too, where the person doesn’t want to actually even try to help themselves.
And when the doctor decides you’re an attention seeking malingerer and refuses to help, what then?
If it is the first doctor to say that, I’d seek another opinion. If it’s the second or third, well maybe…
Let me guess, you’re a man? A most likely white, cis and straight, man.
How am I doing?
Notice how the “friends” are completely dismissive of the hand? If they actually thought it was cause for concern, that would be an improvement.
We don’t know how long this has been going on. If it’s been years and years of this, I get it.
If encouraging him to see a doctor were something they were doing, the comic would have shown that.
Which of course is a symptom.
“My leg is broken” “Then walk to the hospital, duh” “I can’t, my leg is broken” “Why are you choosing to live in pain?!”
“Well you could call a taxi”
“I don’t know how to besides it costs money and time…”
“Well fine, I could drive you”
“No I got other stuff to do.”
“Just give me a time and I’ll do it”
“I don’t know when ugh…”
At that point people will just stop trying since it’s always the same wall.
But they saw it was a serious matter and tried. The people in the comic haven’t even reached that point yet.
The fun thing about depression is that the others are technically right. It’s all in your head. And it’s easy to fix if you wanted.
But you won’t. Because you think you deserve it.
I never wish bad for someone. However, I would wish for you, that you experience for some time, what a depression feels like.
You then would never write stuff like this.
It is all in your head, but it’s not at all easy to fix. The brain’s perception of reality is all we have, and when that perception is skewed it can be very hard to find something to help un-skew it.
That’s what he is saying in a bad way. The people in the comic are technically right, but since you think you deserve the punishment, you are stuck. If you manage to get away from that negative thinking, you’ve done the biggest part of getting out of depression, and from there it is easier to do the rest without the destructive self esteem.
He should’ve used more words.
That’s what he is saying in a bad way.
Just because half the people here don’t understand it doesn’t mean irony’s bad.
Others should have used more brain.
I don’t get it…
P.S.: no reason to downvoting me, though…
I get the metaphor this is making, but I can’t help but view this as everyone being passive aggressive because the character refuses to actually see a doctor about their hand lol.
Finding a doctor, making an appointment, keeping that appointment, trying who knows how many medications until you find one that helps, etc. is not the easiest thing in the world when you have trouble just getting out of bed in the morning.
But you still have to take steps to do it or your hand will never get better. Granted it’s easier if people give you support but depending on where you are at in life that can’t necessarily be something you can count on. So you have to break it down into a manageable step and attack it at that point. If you’re having trouble getting out bed, focus on just getting out of bed. Or don’t, just call a doctor from bed and do telemedicine there if possible. Whatever works.
It sounds callous to someone that’s deep in it but the reality of the situation is that excuses won’t alleviate your situation. You have to find what you can do, if you can’t do something then it is what it is but you also have to accept that the world does not exist without consequence and you will probably have to accept the consequences of that action (people being frustrated with you for flaking, trouble at work, etc). Pursue accommodations when possible to alleviate the burden but also recognize that depression is a mix of neurochemical and behavioral components. You have a degree of control over severity of the behavioral part and it is about the choices you make with what how you spend your time
The point is you shouldn’t be telling the depressed person how to deal with their illness.
The author of this comic is trying to say that the problem is not the depressed person, the problem is everyone else telling him how to treat his illness.
You’ve got some good advice but you seem to fundamentally misunderstand the point this artist is trying to make.
All of those points are things that depression actively disrupts. It’s akin to asking an American, living hand to mouth, to just pay out of pocket. It’s not a case of not going on an extra holiday. It’s a case of not making rent payments to do it.
Depression can leave you without enough mental resources to even maintain basic functionality. An upfront cost, for a payout potential years down the line, is simply more than many can afford.
The worst part is that you are correct. However, it’s the same correctness as telling someone about to lose their house to “just make more money”. Technically correct, but useless and callous in practice.
this, big time. The amount of times where I had migraine with the vision impairment on the day of an appointment, unable to drive and farther away than I could safely get to on my own by any means if I could manage to fumble through any to begin with, and nobody able to bring me.
then just remembering which meds go to my elderly birds, elderly grandparents, and which go to me
I’m unclear on which one I’m supposed to eat, but I think I’m just going to go for it!
What about affording any of that? OR a home… or getting time off work for the 100th time this year.
Life is often unkind to those who need a bit of kindness the most.
Visually misread the middle panel guy as a doctor and not some douche in a white jacket at first which almost felt like a different type of joke.
Wow. This really blew up.
Stupid Tasteless Gross Joke
Just like that guy’s hand!