Reply #40: I have gone back and re-read this thread pretty thoroughly trying to

[IdaBriggs]

understand just where you are coming from, and I think you are possibly reading more about your own life (and viewpoints) into my comments than you are reading the reality of my life.

I do not suffer from clinical depression. Heck, I don't even have post partum depression, although I did have a minor meltdown last week when both babies were crying at the same time, and I couldn't figure out how to fix their problems simultaneously. The problem was exacerbated by the fact I was on a minimal amount of sleep, and when I anxiously questioned the doctor about it (as an infertility patient, I have an 80% chance of doing the post partum thing, so I'm trying to be very aware), she said it sounded more like exhaustion than depression. I think she is/was right, and am now trying to schedule adequate naps with "helpers" into my world. (Its a lot harder than you would think!)

I do not consider the world a hopeless place. I consider this administration to be hopelessly corrupt, and I occasionally (currently) despair that we can get it fixed anytime soon. I am becoming cynically convinced that it is viewed as NORMAL -- and that at some level, its time to start getting on with life and stop stressing about it. As another poster has already put it so eloquently, I'm tired of being outraged....

My children are the joy of my life. It was EIGHT YEARS of struggle to get them, and your comment just rubbed me the wrong way. Frankly, your attitude continues to do so, but its a public message board, and part of why we are here is to share diverse opinions. I find yours to be odd -- I reserve charges of child abuse for much more heinous crimes than being born -- but, if you are someone who suffers from a mental illness, then you may have had to make a challenging decision about your own progeny or potential progeny, and you may have come to a different decision than I did. Again, most "depressive" periods of my life have been situational in nature, and I can count my lucky stars about that! When I think of some of the darkest moments, and then contemplate having to deal with that DAILY -- SHUDDER!!! I don't know where folks with these problems find the courage to go on all the time, and sadly, I know that not all do. There, but for the grace of a higher power, go I....

I am not a Psy Ops person for the Republican Party. They do not pay me to be publicly Angry or Depressed about the state of this nation. I am a fellow human being who is really starting to wonder what the point of paying attention to politics really is because I don't feel like I'm making a difference, and its starting to feel like a complete waste of time when more important things (diapers and crying babies) are competing for my limited attention.

I went away for a period of time when the babies were born due to being hospitalized/getting pre-eclampsia/emergency c-section/etc. and you know something? The folks in Washington didn't notice. Nothing changed. I think there were at least two or three manufactured crises during that period, and some rich woman who posed naked for a magazine and then married an old geezer for his money died.

Yawn.

Anyway, the babies are starting to stir, and I'm tired. Go in peace. We aren't talking about the same thing, so there isn't anything to argue about. Good luck in future endeavors, and I hope you have a career that takes advantage of your speedy typing skills! :)