I am sure it has become obvious to readers that I am using my blog as a substitute for talk therapy to address my mild depression. I was alerted to the phrase (but it was familiar to me beforehand) when I read an article in the UK Guardian newspaper about doctors beginning to use ECT (electro-convulsive therapy) for serious clinical depression. Included in the article was a short paragraph concerning mild depression, for which diet, exercise, talk therapy and then perhaps medication were the recommended treatments, obviously not ECT, which I would not take anyway!
There have been no blog entries from me for three weeks, but I have been exercising my talk therapy elsewhere. Below is a link to one of my endeavors where my username is Mathsteach2 if anyone wants to read the whole thread, which is in a discussion forum in the Times Education Supplement (TES) in the UK. However, in this present blog entry, I have cut and pasted the OP from my thread. My reference to Tolstoy indicates my connection with his anarchism, and his account of the beatings is in his book entitled "The Kingdom of God is Within You". Tolstoy also called ordinary soldiers "cannon fodder" for the ruling classes. I trust no-one sees this as an attempt to proselytize, I am merely writing down my thoughts. In my thread in TES one poster suggests that if a person was not religious and does not pray then to write thoughts down can be helpful. Ah well, I'm doing both! My OP in the TES Forum "Personal", the thread is entitled "What are we doing about man's inhumanity to man?", is the following:
"During my depression I am becoming fixated by man's inhumanity to man. I have to put it out of my mind and think about more pleasant things. However, most here seem not to bother, they must either pretend it does not happen, its not their concern, or feel there is nothing they can do about it.
"I will briefly list some of my thoughts. I realize this is a symptom of my depression, but I wonder how those of you not suffering from clinical depression manage to get through the day without allowing these thoughts to become obsessive. The only time I ever reacted to something was in my early teaching career when I was a member of S.T.O.P.P. (Society of Teachers Opposed to Physical Punishment) and we were successful in getting it banned by the UK Parliament. I was not depressed, I was rational and purposeful. If I was young now I think I might either opt out altogether and apply to join an intentional community (see Wiki), or pick up a gun and try to start a revolution.
"1. Corporal punishment, of adults as well as children. Tolstoy describes the severity of the beatings administered to peasants in Russia, and in public to keep the people from rebelling.
"2. Physical torture, the mere notion of it distresses me greatly.
"3. Capital punishment and murder.
4. The horrors of road accidents, caused mainly through bad driving.
"5. The horrors of war.
"That's enough, I am getting depressed. Perhaps I should just listen to an opera, comic rather than tragic, and join the rest of you pretending these things do not happen."
What are we doing about man's inhamanity to man? | TES Community
There have been no blog entries from me for three weeks, but I have been exercising my talk therapy elsewhere. Below is a link to one of my endeavors where my username is Mathsteach2 if anyone wants to read the whole thread, which is in a discussion forum in the Times Education Supplement (TES) in the UK. However, in this present blog entry, I have cut and pasted the OP from my thread. My reference to Tolstoy indicates my connection with his anarchism, and his account of the beatings is in his book entitled "The Kingdom of God is Within You". Tolstoy also called ordinary soldiers "cannon fodder" for the ruling classes. I trust no-one sees this as an attempt to proselytize, I am merely writing down my thoughts. In my thread in TES one poster suggests that if a person was not religious and does not pray then to write thoughts down can be helpful. Ah well, I'm doing both! My OP in the TES Forum "Personal", the thread is entitled "What are we doing about man's inhumanity to man?", is the following:
"During my depression I am becoming fixated by man's inhumanity to man. I have to put it out of my mind and think about more pleasant things. However, most here seem not to bother, they must either pretend it does not happen, its not their concern, or feel there is nothing they can do about it.
"I will briefly list some of my thoughts. I realize this is a symptom of my depression, but I wonder how those of you not suffering from clinical depression manage to get through the day without allowing these thoughts to become obsessive. The only time I ever reacted to something was in my early teaching career when I was a member of S.T.O.P.P. (Society of Teachers Opposed to Physical Punishment) and we were successful in getting it banned by the UK Parliament. I was not depressed, I was rational and purposeful. If I was young now I think I might either opt out altogether and apply to join an intentional community (see Wiki), or pick up a gun and try to start a revolution.
"1. Corporal punishment, of adults as well as children. Tolstoy describes the severity of the beatings administered to peasants in Russia, and in public to keep the people from rebelling.
"2. Physical torture, the mere notion of it distresses me greatly.
"3. Capital punishment and murder.
4. The horrors of road accidents, caused mainly through bad driving.
"5. The horrors of war.
"That's enough, I am getting depressed. Perhaps I should just listen to an opera, comic rather than tragic, and join the rest of you pretending these things do not happen."
What are we doing about man's inhamanity to man? | TES Community
