Upgrading the Crazy Eddie Drive

[Crazy Eddie]

I don't think so. A clinically depressed person can't just "cheer up." A person with ADHD can't just decide to start paying better attention. These are medical conditions that require treatment the same as arthritis or thyroid problems or asthma do.

The confusing thing is that you can, but only for a little while. If you're under the gun, you can pay lots of attention... but it's exhausting, and once the pressure is taken away, you can't do a damn thing for quite a while afterward. And if you keep up the pressure long enough, you still get to where you can't keep going even though you know disaster will follow. I got to that point where I'd go to work and be unable to force myself to even open a project for days or weeks at a time even though I knew things were overdue. I tried and tried and couldn't do it any longer, no matter how much pressure was applied. I knew my only options for supporting my family over the long term would end up being either get treatment or commit suicide and leave them the life insurance. At that point, getting treatment is a no-brainer.

And in any event, there's no way to apply this to long-term responsibilities. You can be pressured to "take care of the finances" for a few hours or days, then when the pressure is gone (who's going to keep up pressure on you to stay on top of finances for months at a time? Not that pressure would even work that long without exhaustion setting in), you'll put it off and forget about it and bills come overdue and you'll get afraid to even look at it and the next thing you know the faucets don't work. There really is no way to force yourself to do it well for such a long period of time without alleviating the underlying problem.

But someone can pressure you to shape up for a few hours, or a few days, and then they say "See? You can do it if you really want to!" and you even believe them because you know you can do it if you really want to, and then you go back to not being able to force yourself to do it, and you get really frustrated and confused. And everyone around you gets frustrated and confused, because they think you can do it and you just don't care enough about them to keep it up.

There is no shame in getting medical treatment, of any kind, if you need it.

Nope. The shame is in avoiding medical treatment and letting people down who are depending on you and who you've promised to take care of, and missing out on your own chances to achieve your goals and know true happiness.