Thursday, October 27, 2005

Honest Abe: William Styron's contribution

"The novelist William Styron has likened his depression to a storm in his brain, punctuated by thunderclaps of thought- self-critical, fearful, despairing." (p. 56)

I believe I've described this to at least one of my loyal readers as not being able to "turn my brain off."

When I am "well" it's actually kind of exciting! My creativity seems to have no limits, optimism abounds, and I wish I had the power to make my thoughts real.

When I'm depressed, I feel like I have multiple runaway "trains of thought" at the same time, all of them ready to hurtle off the tracks at any moment.*


*HA! It didn't even dawn on me until I finished the sentence that I, the Conductor of the Brain Train had just used the railroad metaphor again!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Recognizing the multiple runaway trains is half the battle...the other half is allowing the conductor the time and space to slowly and methodicolgy put each individual train back on its course. This healing should never be viewed a required task but rather as a never ending process of personal growth and development. P.S. - sharing helps!