The language of “mental health” pretends to an authority and a scientific exactitude it does not deserve and never earned.And, this language rarely offers much help when it comes to really understanding our pain, making sense of how we got here, and even less when it comes to finding ways we can heal and support others in their healing.

We give this language more power over us than it deserves and more power than is good for us.

Q. What if we choose different language ?

The diagnostic manual is concerned with categories

not pain.

Jim Carrey here, taking an idea from Jeff Foster and talking about framing experiences we call “depression” as a call for deep rest.

“People talk about depression all the time.
The difference between depression and sadness is sadness is just from happenstance
—whatever happened or didn’t happen for you, or grief, or whatever it is.

Depression is your body saying f*ck you,
I don’t want to be this character anymore,
I don’t want to hold up this avatar that you’ve created in the world.
It’s too much for me.

What if we think of the word ‘depressed’ as ‘deep rest’ ?

Your body needs to be depressed.
It needs deep rest from the character
that you’ve been trying to play.”