I started reading the two bestsellers by Johann Hari (Chasing the Scream and Lost Connections, about the war on drugs and about the modern epidemic of depression, respectively) after hearing him on Sam Harris’s Waking Up podcast. They’re powerful and well-written books, though reading them can be quite upsetting, as they both deal with issues that have profoundly affected my life.
As may be obvious to anyone who’s read this blog much, I’ve had a lifelong struggle with depression, which is often quite severe. I say lifelong; it really began in my early teens, and I think in my case it may be more endogenous than reactive. Thus, I might be a slight outlier in Hari’s thesis on the illness (but I haven’t finished the books yet, so I may be wrong in this). Nevertheless, Hari’s point about missing connections and support is one that resonates with me. Continue reading “Screams and disconnections”
Iterations of Zero 