It’s All Relative: A Family Story of Depression
As a child, I viewed my mother’s depression in very simplistic terms. She was moody, unreasonable, inconsistent and easily irritated. As I look back and “psychoanalyze”, I look at her depression as more of an empty hole. My mother did an amazing job at giving us great life experiences and adventures and a happy life. We went on vacations almost yearly. As a single mom, she couldn’t afford big trips by plane, so it was car trips. We went to Wisconsin to visit family, California to go to Disneyland, Calgary and Edmonton and the Black Hills for an annual reunion with the Wisconsin family. Home was filled with laughter during game nights and movie nights. In addition to giving us these experiences, I wonder if these things filled the hole, so that she wasn’t left feeling empty.
