Depressed?

Have you ever tried to convince yourself that you are not depressed? Such a loaded question. . .Obviously I have been depressed, so by admitting that, I may deny my own ability to recognize the condition in myself. Mental illness, you know. "Those" people do not always have all of their faculties intact, to loosely and badly quote J.D. Salinger. There is the conundrum. I begin to feel eerily drawn into Yossarian's world in Catch 22. And I detect a theme of not being able to win, no matter what (see June 5 below).

But I do not feel the inability to feel that accompanies depression. I am alternately sad, angry, stuck, even happy. Therefore, I declare myself not depressed. Now to work on that stuck thing, I need to motivate myself. Which should I choose, the carrot or the stick?

Some may jump to the conclusion that I am schizophrenic with so much talking to and about myself, but of course that diagnosis would be wrong on two counts. First of all, multiple personalities do not equate to schizophrenia. It was once called MPD for multiple personality disorder, but the latest label is Dissociative Identity Disorder. Secondly, I do not have more than one distinct personality. I have known people who have, and I am not that interesting.