If your depression were a physical creature, what would it be?

[aidjm]

I started thinking about this a few weeks back, and I wanted to get some other people's insights. I've done a bit of writing just for something to do, and I was thinking about writing a story about a person whose depression manifests itself as a physical being.

For me, I kind of pictured it as a big black lizard-thing that sits on my shoulders and digs in with its claws, and doesn't want to let go.

What about you guys?

[Aminta]

Interesting. Yep I can picture it as a lizard with claws like you described. I'd say some sort of demon like creature, a devil on the shoulder. It's horrible and ugly.

[Neil_1]

Hi there AIDJM (or I might call you DJ for short)  🙂

Awesome concept for a thread.

Big black lizard-thing with big claws.   Yep, I can definitely dig that - can even see it.

I have a tattoo (actually, I have a number of tattoos), but this one that I'm going to describe is on my left forearm.

It starts on the back of my left palm with a chain (that appears to be breaking), and the chain wraps around under my wrist, loops back over the forearm and finishes on the inner (under side) of my left forearm.

The chain disappears into a kennel.  Or what I call, the Kennel From Hell.  The doorway of the kennel is blacked out and in the middle of the black are two RED evil eyes, looking back out.

This is my tattoo tribute to my fight with depression.  What's inside the kennel??  Well, judging from the fiery red eyes and the evil looking kennel that it sits in, it's something hideous.

I'm not quite sure what it is - but if pushed, I would say it's similar to one of those evil looking dogs that were on the Ghostbusters movie.  Perhaps.

Great thread though.

Neil

[Girl_Anachronism]

A squid.  A big black squid, surrounded by clouds of shadows which consume all that it touches and whose tendrils wrap around every part of me.

[nursepiggy]

I would imagine myself to be a slug.

[Bluedaze]

I reckon it would simply be a tiny beige /skin colored bug or mite sitting on your .. yes neck.

Harmless minding its own business, blending in, invisible, unnoticed.

Then it's multiplying, massively multiplying, over the years, all grown all over you.

You too have become beige, invisible.  

Personalty I would love to be invisible, would be a novelty, wouldn't have to face the world.  Awesome.

[BigBunny]

that's easy, from 'The Lord of the Rings' & 'The Hobbit', Gollum/Smeagol. if you've seen the 2nd film 'The Two Towers' his suffering captures depression well. although I'm not obsessed with a golden ring... precioussss >=;)

[Chibam]

I think it'd be best likened to Monstro the whale from Pinnochio. Does anybody remember those internal scenes where we see that he is really just this big empty void with nothing (except Jepetto's boat) inside?

My depression I guess could be defined much in similar terms. Essentially just a state of absolute emptiness. 

[Asche]

It is my shadow. It dogs me with every step, clinging ceaselessly to my heels, weighing each foot with guilt and regret.

It is a child's shadow. The ghost of a child, made material, physical. Myself, at 8, when I fell into its grasp for the first time. A symbol of everything lost and the future forsaken in my grief. It smiles mockingly, knowing full well that I cannot. It's lips crack open, revealing a blistered throat clogged with ash.

A dark hand reaches up to grasp mine, its skin littered in thorns. Its' fingers are tipped with talons. They glisten wetly for my benefit; it knows that I cannot appreciate their true malefic horror in total darkness.

But beneath it all, it is hollow. It is fragile. Its' skin is made of porcelain, cracked and chipped away in places so you can just peer into the chasm within.

It is cold. 

It is lonely.

It was me.

Is me.

And it may yet be.

But he is not all of me. He and I are inseparable, yes. I can remove him no more than I can cut my shadow. He defined, defines, will define so much of who I was, am and will be. So much of what I have done, do, and will do.

But I am a child no longer. My legs are longer and my arms, stronger. He may kick, scream and wail, but I will drag him forward, carrying him if I must. He may be heavy, he may weigh me down. But he will stop me no more.

[BigBunny]

Winston Churchill called it the Black Dog. a Welsh band called The Manic Street Preachers have a song called 'Black Dog On My Shoulder' and one of the lyrics is "there's a black dog on my shoulder again, licking my neck and saying it's my friend". 

for everyone battling depression, try not to let the black dog pull you by it's leash. get help by getting referred to a psychiatrist or psychologist and more than likely medication can help. it doesn't get rid of the depression but can keep the black dog at a distance. exercise is also very important >=:)