'Just go for a run': testing everyday advice for my depression | Martha Mills

If you say you're depressed, people are quick to dispense wisdom on how to deal with it. Martha Mills decided to take them literally, and try them out for herself

So, it turns out I'm getting better at depression. That isn't to say I've stopped suffering it, or that it is any less debilitating when it sneaks up after a two-year hiatus and pile-drives me into a blistering agony of mental carpet burns topped with a patronising tousle of the bed-hair, like a nostalgic school bully. No, what's "better" about me is spotting it and moving quicker through the self-blame method of diagnosis.

We all have down days, and that's what you hope these are. Only they stopped being a day or two of feeling blue that can be whiled away with the distraction of a conspiratorial sofa and questionable DVD collection, and have merged into weeks since you were last able to feel anything but disappointment on waking up, and the choice between showering or just smelling like a tramp's undercarriage has gone beyond struggle into pure resignation.