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From: Esther
Category: Category 1
Date: 8/19/03
Time: 2:27:06 AM
Remote Name: 24.71.223.142
My family is still in denial that my mother is depressed. My mom cries for hours at a time about how she hates my dad, how she's wasted her life, and hopeless the future is. She wakes up screaming regularly from nightmares, she jokes about killing herself, and say that she enjoys nothing.
My father says: Mom's not depressed. She just complains a lot. All Chinese women complain a lot. This is normal. There is nothing to worry about. Everything is fine.
My brother says: Mom just tends to exaggerate. Just ignore it. She's just overbearing and you can't take any of it seriously.
I think the turning point for me was that after 12 years, I was starting to become seriously depressed. I would wake up in the morning, finally see the world as my mom saw it, start crying, say 'why bother?' and go back to bed.
Then I started reading all these articles about depression and depressed parents, and I think I understand better what has happened now. It took an insightful friend to point out something was wrong with me, before I realized what was wrong with my mother.