I found getting better from depression was a lot like climbing a mountain, something I hate doing. It seems pretty much undoable, but you plug away at it and eventually… you get a few metres further on than the place you started. Then the sun comes out and you think:
wow, it really is a lot nicer up here, those people were right to encourage me to keep climbing. Then you turn round and realise how big the mountain is and how far away the people on the top seem to be and you start thinking you’ll never get there. Then it starts raining and you slip in the mud and find yourself back at the bottom again.
wow, it really is a lot nicer up here, those people were right to encourage me to keep climbing. Then you turn round and realise how big the mountain is and how far away the people on the top seem to be and you start thinking you’ll never get there. Then it starts raining and you slip in the mud and find yourself back at the bottom again.
But because you’ve seen the sunshine, you decide to try and climb the bloody thing again. And next time, you get a bit higher up, and maybe one day you make it to a clearing and have a nice picnic and decide this hill-climbing thing isn’t so bad after all, and you meet some like-minded fellow hikers and it’s all just very jolly.
Then you fall down the hill again and lose all your belief in your ability to get to the summit and who even wants to get to the top of a mountain anyway? It’s not so bad down here, in the mud, and the rain, surrounded by everyone else’s swirling litter.
And you have a little rest, but then you start climbing again.
The joke is that you’ll never really get to the top of the mountain, because it’s a never-ending mountain. But with each bit of progress that you make, things do get better. Sometimes it’s hard to notice how much better things are, but then you catch a glimpse of someone struggling in the foothills, where you used to be, and you think, actually, I am better now, aren’t I? Still a really long way to go to the summit, but it’s definitely nicer up here.
And as you climb, the people seem to get nicer too, and your body seems to get better at climbing, and before you know it you are bounding over long stretches of rock when you used to inch cautiously over a small bump. You call out enthusiastically to the mountain- climbers beneath you in the dark: keep going my friends! The view from up here is truly glorious!
That’s when you know you’ve really got good at mountain climbing. That’s also when you need to shut up and let your fellow climbers tackle the mountain at their own pace. Just you worry about your own mountain, my friend, there’s plenty more still to climb.
And the view does get better and better.
Then you fall down the hill again and lose all your belief in your ability to get to the summit and who even wants to get to the top of a mountain anyway? It’s not so bad down here, in the mud, and the rain, surrounded by everyone else’s swirling litter.
And you have a little rest, but then you start climbing again.
The joke is that you’ll never really get to the top of the mountain, because it’s a never-ending mountain. But with each bit of progress that you make, things do get better. Sometimes it’s hard to notice how much better things are, but then you catch a glimpse of someone struggling in the foothills, where you used to be, and you think, actually, I am better now, aren’t I? Still a really long way to go to the summit, but it’s definitely nicer up here.
And as you climb, the people seem to get nicer too, and your body seems to get better at climbing, and before you know it you are bounding over long stretches of rock when you used to inch cautiously over a small bump. You call out enthusiastically to the mountain- climbers beneath you in the dark: keep going my friends! The view from up here is truly glorious!
That’s when you know you’ve really got good at mountain climbing. That’s also when you need to shut up and let your fellow climbers tackle the mountain at their own pace. Just you worry about your own mountain, my friend, there’s plenty more still to climb.
And the view does get better and better.