Job Search Depression. Read This. Pass It On.

Job Search Depression. Read This. Pass It On. I dont know why Ive had this on my mind lately. Maybe because of things Ive personally been working through. But it keeps getting in front of me, again and again and again. So it must be a message I need to put out there. Hopefully this post will save someones life. Isnt that an overly egoistic thing to write?  That a post Im writing today might be a lifesaver for someone? How crass of me to even write that. Except for one thing: I lived through my own deep, dark depression (even though I didnt recognize it, and wouldnt have admitted it).  I wrote about it on my post Depression Clouds Everything, which at this time has 524 comments (my most-commented post). I thought NO ONE would comment.  But many did, along with private emails, saying I thought I was alone, feeling this way. No, you are not alone.  And when you are depressed, others sense it. They usually dont know how to help, and worse, they are reluctant to help in your job search (see this post: I Smell Blood!) Alison Doyle, of About.com, pointed me to this fantastic post: Top 8 Tips for Living with Depression.  This is an absolute must-read.  Print it out.  Share it.  Re-read it.  Go to the links that each of the 8 Tips have.  Dont disregard any of the 8 as oh, I tried that.  Didnt work.  This is real stuff that can have real impact. Then, browsing Facebook this morning I saw a share by Pam Slim, of Escape from Cubicle Nation, who shared a post from Jenny Lawson (aka, The Bloggess), about her battles and victories with depression. The post is titled The fight goes on. It has 2 parts the first part is a letter that she wrote after a successful round battling her depression.  And then the second part where she gets more into the nitty gritty of what depression is.  She talks candidly about the battle.  About self-harm.  Yes, that kind of self-harm. She ends with this line: I havent hurt myself in 3 days.  What have you done in the last 3 days?  Celebrated a new year, enjoyed the victories of last year, and thought about what youll accomplish this year? For every person how enjoys and celebrates and remembers, I wonder how many Jennys there are out there who are hurting so bad that a 3-day victory is a major accomplishment. They are in your life you might not know about them.  I hope they can have their own 3-day victory.  And I hope we can somehow be an inspiration, or a channel to help/success, for them. This is such a relevant topic.  It affects those who are experiencing failure and success, good and bad please, keep them in mind, and help them with a smile, or an act of kindness, or a non-judging gesture. And share these links, which just might provide the support or tools or ideas to help them make it one more day: Depression Clouds Everything (my story, my post) Top 8 Tips for Living with Depression The fight goes on, by Jenny Lawson The Call song which Jenny Lawson says helps her Just one more day. Job Search Depression. Read This. Pass It On. I dont know why Ive had this on my mind lately. Maybe because of things Ive personally been working through. But it keeps getting in front of me, again and again and again. So it must be a message I need to put out there. Hopefully this post will save someones life. Isnt that an overly egoistic thing to write?  That a post Im writing today might be a lifesaver for someone? How crass of me to even write that. Except for one thing: I lived through my own deep, dark depression (even though I didnt recognize it, and wouldnt have admitted it).  I wrote about it on my post Depression Clouds Everything, which at this time has 524 comments (my most-commented post). I thought NO ONE would comment.  But many did, along with private emails, saying I thought I was alone, feeling this way. No, you are not alone.  And when you are depressed, others sense it. They usually dont know how to help, and worse, they are reluctant to help in your job search (see this post: I Smell Blood!) Alison Doyle, of About.com, pointed me to this fantastic post: Top 8 Tips for Living with Depression.  This is an absolute must-read.  Print it out.  Share it.  Re-read it.  Go to the links that each of the 8 Tips have.  Dont disregard any of the 8 as oh, I tried that.  Didnt work.  This is real stuff that can have real impact. Then, browsing Facebook this morning I saw a share by Pam Slim, of Escape from Cubicle Nation, who shared a post from Jenny Lawson (aka, The Bloggess), about her battles and victories with depression. The post is titled The fight goes on. It has 2 parts the first part is a letter that she wrote after a successful round battling her depression.  And then the second part where she gets more into the nitty gritty of what depression is.  She talks candidly about the battle.  About self-harm.  Yes, that kind of self-harm. She ends with this line: I havent hurt myself in 3 days.  What have you done in the last 3 days?  Celebrated a new year, enjoyed the victories of last year, and thought about what youll accomplish this year? For every person how enjoys and celebrates and remembers, I wonder how many Jennys there are out there who are hurting so bad that a 3-day victory is a major accomplishment. They are in your life you might not know about them.  I hope they can have their own 3-day victory.  And I hope we can somehow be an inspiration, or a channel to help/success, for them. This is such a relevant topic.  It affects those who are experiencing failure and success, good and bad please, keep them in mind, and help them with a smile, or an act of kindness, or a non-judging gesture. And share these links, which just might provide the support or tools or ideas to help them make it one more day: Depression Clouds Everything (my story, my post) Top 8 Tips for Living with Depression The fight goes on, by Jenny Lawson The Call song which Jenny Lawson says helps her Just one more day. Job Search Depression. Read This. Pass It On. I dont know why Ive had this on my mind lately. Maybe because of things Ive personally been working through. But it keeps getting in front of me, again and again and again. So it must be a message I need to put out there. Hopefully this post will save someones life. Isnt that an overly egoistic thing to write?  That a post Im writing today might be a lifesaver for someone? How crass of me to even write that. Except for one thing: I lived through my own deep, dark depression (even though I didnt recognize it, and wouldnt have admitted it).  I wrote about it on my post Depression Clouds Everything, which at this time has 524 comments (my most-commented post). I thought NO ONE would comment.  But many did, along with private emails, saying I thought I was alone, feeling this way. No, you are not alone.  And when you are depressed, others sense it. They usually dont know how to help, and worse, they are reluctant to help in your job search (see this post: I Smell Blood!) Alison Doyle, of About.com, pointed me to this fantastic post: Top 8 Tips for Living with Depression.  This is an absolute must-read.  Print it out.  Share it.  Re-read it.  Go to the links that each of the 8 Tips have.  Dont disregard any of the 8 as oh, I tried that.  Didnt work.  This is real stuff that can have real impact. Then, browsing Facebook this morning I saw a share by Pam Slim, of Escape from Cubicle Nation, who shared a post from Jenny Lawson (aka, The Bloggess), about her battles and victories with depression. The post is titled The fight goes on. It has 2 parts the first part is a letter that she wrote after a successful round battling her depression.  And then the second part where she gets more into the nitty gritty of what depression is.  She talks candidly about the battle.  About self-harm.  Yes, that kind of self-harm. She ends with this line: I havent hurt myself in 3 days.  What have you done in the last 3 days?  Celebrated a new year, enjoyed the victories of last year, and thought about what youll accomplish this year? For every person how enjoys and celebrates and remembers, I wonder how many Jennys there are out there who are hurting so bad that a 3-day victory is a major accomplishment. They are in your life you might not know about them.  I hope they can have their own 3-day victory.  And I hope we can somehow be an inspiration, or a channel to help/success, for them. This is such a relevant topic.  It affects those who are experiencing failure and success, good and bad please, keep them in mind, and help them with a smile, or an act of kindness, or a non-judging gesture. And share these links, which just might provide the support or tools or ideas to help them make it one more day: Depression Clouds Everything (my story, my post) Top 8 Tips for Living with Depression The fight goes on, by Jenny Lawson The Call song which Jenny Lawson says helps her Just one more day.