DrCrypt

Yeah. I'm the author, so I'm obviously biased, but I wouldn't say the TL;DR here is about ECT either.

That's ME John, not my Dad's friend John. But yes, changing now to be clearer! Thank you!

Thank you so much for your kind words. I'm glad you found my Dad's story moving.

Like a lot of things with mental illness, I think the truth about whether depression is beatable or not is more complicated than many people's narratives let it be. It's proven that depression is cased by a combination of environmental and chemical factors, but who can say where the one begins, and the other ends?

When I was growing up, my parents were really worried about me inheriting my Dad's disease. Then, once I hit my early 20s, and started doing a bunch of things that would have been impossible for my Dad--traveling, moving abroad, earning a living as a writer, having lots of friends and girlfriends, being generally extroverted and having a good career--they started referring to me as having "dodged my Dad's genetic bullet."

But I live every day with depression. I suffer from it enough to have a regular prescription of Zoloft, and have filled out more than a handful of single-digit scoring depression screening tests over the years. There have been entire months where I have felt utterly hopeless, looking in the mirror and hating what I see.How much did I dodge a genetic bullet here? My depression is very real to me, and very hard for me to fight at times. At the same time, it's macho bullshit to say that I am "tougher" than my Dad, just because depression hasn't ruined my life. I think it's probably fairer to say that we're both right, and I'm not as depressed as my Dad, but I've also--with him as an example--set up much better habits for myself.

Treating depression isn't zero sum. You can't beat depression just by taking pills, but nor can you beat it just by riding bikes, doing yoga, or having a balanced life. You have to try everything, and maybe in trying everything, you'll find what works for you. So I think the most hope I can give on this question is this: if your depression is beatable, you can beat it. But was my Dad's depression beatable? I don't think so.

No apologies necessary! I understand that the opening of the essay has some powerful imagery that might be triggering to people with first-hand knowledge of domestic abuse. I just wanted to make sure to set the record straight, that my Dad was the victim there every bit as much as we were.

I am the author. There is no undercurrent of domestic violence, glossed over or otherwise, in the article.

My father had a psychotic episode once, due to a 1-in-a-million reaction he had to a misprescribed medication. My memory of this incident opens "My Father The Werewolf." During that episode, he was utterly terrified, and not in control of himself; in fact, he didn't even know who he was, or who we were. He gets a pass for it, as surely as he would get a pass if he had a stroke while driving, and consequently killed someone with his car.

Other than that one instance, my father never raised his hand to me, and I never once saw him so much as raise his voice to my mother. I even called my mom upon reading your comment and asked her if he ever touched her: she was offended by the notion.

My father was many things, not all of them good, but he was absolutely not a domestic abuser. He was the gentlest man I've ever known.

Just to add some context to this post: "My Father The Werewolf" was published on PillPack's in-house web magazine, Folks, which aims to tell humanist stories about people with health conditions. Folks publishes one story a day, fighting the stigma around being 'sick' by showing that managing health conditions is universal. We're fully sponsored by PillPack, which views reducing stigma around health conditions as part of its mission, but besides the mention of our parent company in the site logo (Folks, a PillPack Magazine), we don't advertise PillPack at all on our site.

I'm the editor of Folks, as well as the author of "My Father The Werewolf." Thanks to everyone who is reading the article! I'm really glad my Dad's story is moving so many people.