Yesterday in my Three Good Things post, I touched on an analogy I had worked out about depression, and mentioned that I’d be discussing it more in depth here.

The analogy compared depression to color blindness. From what I understand, those who suffer from color blindness can see everything, but their perception of the true colors of the world they see are muted to the point that many colors look similar, and it’s hard to tell one shade along an axis (usually red-green) from another.

Depression is somewhat like that, in that we experience the same emotions that those without depression experience, only our perception of that emotion is so dulled that it’s hard to tell one emotion from another. Our happy is so muted that we barely smile, our sadness is almost imperceptible from our joy. It all feels the same, no matter what we do.

This analogy isn’t meant to demean either the color blind or those who suffer from depression. It’s meant to illustrate what depression can be like to those who’ve never experienced it. Like color blindness, depression isn’t something that a person can just “get over” or “try not having.” It’s a real ailment, with real consequences, and like color blindness it affects everything we experience.

For those that follow my blog that suffer from depression, do you feel this is an accurate depiction of your experiences? For those that don’t, does this perhaps clarify your understanding of what depression is like?

I’d really like to hear your impressions in the comments.