I came up with a new quote the other day. “Depression is like running a marathon in which you don’t know where the finish line is.” I came up with this 20 years after getting my bipolar disorder diagnosis, and it popped up randomly from the recesses of my brain. Now, this quote might sound bleak, but it isn’t really. It just resets our expectations. If depression is a sprint and you have a clear end date, life would be different. You would put everything on hold, waiting for the finish line when you can ‘restart’ life. In contrast, a hidden finish line means you don’t bother ‘waiting’ because you don’t know how long that will take. Instead, you’ll accept the ‘now’ and go about making each day a bit more bearable. Maybe you’ll start meditating, eating healthier, exercising, or talking to a therapist. Whatever you can do at whatever intensity you can take. The point is that running a sprint might seem easier and more understandable, but marathons aren’t all that bad when you know how to run them.
