Sunday, April 29, 2012

Just Wondering

What's up with Allie Brosh of Hyperbole and a Half? She last posted 10/27/2011 on depression. Her last tweet was a "promo" for her blog post. Her Facebook page is empty, and her Google+ page last activity was in August of 2011. Anyone hear?
Posted by Jeffro at 4:43 PM
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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

4260 comments to an exhibitionist post about her bout of depression?

no, really, Americans are screwed up by psychotherapy on genetic level.

5:49 PM
LeeAnn said...

A mystery. Also a mystery why anyone would be dickish about her post.
The world is just a mysterious place, I guess.

6:33 PM
Anonymous said...

To answer your question: of course, I just learned from your post of Allie's existence and I know nothing of her predilections - but let's assume the positive, i.e. reason for her silence is that she broke online dependency and lives happily ever after in a real world, not wasting time on pointless navel-gazing and constant updates on her mental condition to the crowd of strange gawkers.

8:01 PM
Jeffro said...

As I recall, this post was a confession that she did suffer from depression. Her earlier and infrequent posts were far more humor oriented accompanied by her illustrations. That kinda made me wonder - that last post was quite a change. So, Tatyana, your assumption that she was constantly updating her mental condition is mostly false - if one considers that she was usually talking about awkward situations in life and how she reacted to them, perhaps that could be construed to include her mental condition.

Personally, I can relate: I was diagnosed with depression some years back and was prescribed Celexa. I discovered I was dependent on it, and I didn't like how it made me feel - I felt about half stoned - just enough to "smooth" out the edges. Well, after my checkered past with recreational drugs, and having successfully quit that crap - I wanted no more.

I do not talk about it much, and most of the time I don't even think about it. But there are days I cannot help it, and I can relate to someone who is having problems navigating this old world.

And really, all of us who blog are seeking approval in the form of comments, are we not? Most of the circle of online blogs I'm in have nowhere near the traffic she did, and perhaps there might have been an addiction for approval beyond what our limited traffic can support. I don't know what was going on there, and was just curious and concerned considering the change in the tenor of her last post.

8:16 PM
Anonymous said...

There is sharing and sharing. There are boundaries. I think it is indelicate, impolite towards other people to talk about very personal things, especially ugly things, like diseases, symptoms, how they make one feel etc.
When I see someone bearing his undies like that I think (s)he either:
-needy;
-asking for pity
-have no shame
-have no pride
-had too much psychotherapy and lost all sense of decorum
-all of the above: may be a sign of emotional manipulator

I will think twice (and more) before I tell my friends of my illnesses; sometimes I don't share even with closest family. Are people completely out of self-respect? Disgusting.

As to traffic...it's a cheap trick, to generate traffic by exhibiting self. Of course there will be thousands of gawkers. It's in human nature, to stare with a jaw dropped at other people's ill fortune. That's why "housewife shows" with ...whatstheirnames...never could remember. Or like actual road traffic when drivers slow down for mile to gawk at someone who had an accident.

You said you don't talk of it [your depression] much: that's normal. If you did, I would have less respect for you - and I doubt I would have read you as much as I do.

7:31 PM

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