"If you're just well enough to drag yourself to your place of employment (your thoughts still a sound cloud of distress, but the volume on low), or if your depression takes the form more of an itchy sweater than a leaden dentist's apron (which is to say, anxiety), you are forever and always performing your okayness."
— Senior, Jennifer
Author
Date
November 14, 2019
Metaphor
"If you're just well enough to drag yourself to your place of employment (your thoughts still a sound cloud of distress, but the volume on low), or if your depression takes the form more of an itchy sweater than a leaden dentist's apron (which is to say, anxiety), you are forever and always performing your okayness."
Metaphor in Context
This observation should ring true to almost any functional depressive. It's work to seem fine. If you're just well enough to drag yourself to your place of employment (your thoughts still a sound cloud of distress, but the volume on low), or if your depression takes the form more of an itchy sweater than a leaden dentist's apron (which is to say, anxiety), you are forever and always performing your okayness. Every depressed person has a clandestine self.
Provenance
Reading
Citation
Jennifer Senior, "Comedian Hospitalized for Depression. Hilarity Ensues," The New York Times (November 14, 2019). <'Link to NYTimes.com>
Date of Entry
11/18/2019
