Today I got a phone call from an old friend. She and I are still pretty tight, although we don't talk much. She's been going through some depression for a while now. She called, very upset, to talk about her recent visit to the psychiatrist. As she talked, I couldn't help but wonder if she was actually trying to get better. Seems to me that maybe she is buying into her own hype and believing she is a lost cause. I have never been severely depressed so I hesitate to pass judgement. In my opinion, I think being forcibly removed from her safe shell will "shake her up" a bit and she can see what she is going through from a new perspective. Got me thinking though, about how people need to take some ownership in the treatment of their own problems. You take an alcohol abuser, a smoker, someone overweight. No one is going to get magically cured in spite of themselves. You can't put down the bottle or melt the pounds off with absolutely no effort on your part. I was reading a fitness mag earlier and every other page was an advertisement for some new miracle pill, promising to shrink your body while you ate chocolate cake or were sleeping. I think (I hope) that we can see those ads for what they are, but I also think that the same attitude applies to other points in life. Why work for something when you can get something/someone to do it for you? I worry for her, but mostly I'm sad for her. It's heartbreaking to see someone lose their sense of self and lose the will to take it back.