You are not your work. You are so much more. Stay strong.
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Edit:
Fred Wilson speaks more eloquently here:
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Edit:
Fred Wilson speaks more eloquently here:
Everyone goes through troubled times at least 10% of the time. (yes, that's 4 hours of a typical work week) Learning to handle those is very tough, but achievable. If the best you can do is tread water until it passes, that's good enough.
And it's also okay for people to see us in our non-optimal states. It humanizes us to one another and actually makes us trust each other more than it "tarnishes" our reputation of excellence.
Just as most people aren't depressed and thus can influence their own happiness and can take responsibility for their own emotions (depression is a disease which robs a person of this control), I believe most of us are responsible for our willpower and strength.
Through meditation, or reflection, or any number of ways, we can center ourselves, we can strengthen ourselves, we can be better.
I understand that if you have a disease like depression you cannot take control of your happiness, but that doesn't absolve the rest of us of our responsibility for both mental health and physical health.
Just as we work out our bodies we must "work out" our minds, and stay strong is a message to the 95% of us who have control of ourselves to stay on our path to mental and physical health and the benefits it provides.
People typically use the phrase when they really don't know what else to say. For the most part, its not to be mean or just tell you to be normal, its they don't know the words to say since they have never had to deal with a clinically depressed person is going through. You can rage at them, but it won't help either person.
We don't deal well with mental health in the US. There is a political legacy from both parties and their interactions, and when an event comes along that is clearly a mental health issue we blame some inconsequential symbol to fight as opposed to doing the hard work. I get the feeling living in a hashtag-protest world is not going to improve the situation for mental health issues.