Battle the blues

“Your column on duality gave me a jolt, a sharp kick. I suddenly understood what I have been doing for a year. I need to get out of this vicious cycle of elation and depression.” — A 22-year-old girl, trying to get a job after college. Elation and depression is the most common duality we all experience. It’s the high and low, the white and blue, the ups and downs of everyday life. It happens a bit to everybody who cares to admit, and a lot more to those who don’t. Some people wake up in the morning feeling depressed, and as the day wears on they start to feel better. In the afternoon they hit a peak — which can’t be called “elation” but does enable them to laugh, to crack a joke, hum a song or write something wacko on their wall. By late evening the cycle turns and depression starts to hit again — demanding a drug of some kind to make it go away. So the girls eat more sugar while the guys drink more alcohol. Sleep brings tossing dreams until the body out of sheer exhaustion goes rigid for a few hours. The Morning Blues belongs to people who are bugged by society. Guys who can’t pay their EMIs, who are out of a job, who have broken up with girlfriends, found their boyfriends are swinging around — and stuff like that. Others wake up feeling good and charged, with hope and energy. As the day wears on they hit a deep blue by afternoon, when their imagination finally collides with grim reality and a voice inside tells them it’s all a losing battle. By evening however their internal spin doctors have taken over and psyched them out of it. Hope returns. It’s only late at night, just before they hit the sleep button that the uneasy feeling comes back. They too toss and turn with chasing dreams where they just miss getting whatever they were chasing. The Noon Blues belong to guys who are holding on to something that is slowly but surely slipping out of their grasp. These are the strugglers, the fighters who hope against hope, who still feel they have an outside chance, guys who were cheerful optimists not long ago, before they got tangled in their personal web of progressively deepening chaos. What’s the cure In one grim sense there’s none. You can’t change the world, you can’t change yourself beyond a point. So whatever you do or don’t do, you’re back to square one in the morning. But look beyond the obvious. It’s possible to detach yourself from the vicious duality of elation and depression. The link between a skipped EMI and several skipped heartbeats isn’t a foregone conclusion. A firewall can be built. It’s really a shame if you let the world drag you around and toss you about like a raggedy doll every day of your life. You honestly want to move further from this point Well then. Buckle up. Look out for this space next week.