# Depression is a brick, not an umbrella!
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depression-is-a-brick-not-an-umbrella/633890
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [September 6, 2012, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depression-is-a-brick-not-an-umbrella/633890 "2012-09-06T19:13:04Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2012, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depression-is-a-brick-not-an-umbrella/633890/1 "2012-09-06T19:13:04Z")
Who the hell thought depression as an umbrella makes sense? The people who made that abilify ad thats who!
Depression is weighing you down, it is something you have to carry with you like a pointless burden, it just makes everything in life harder. It is a brick or weight, not a lightweight helpful object that protects you from the rain!
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### Author:  [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2012, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depression-is-a-brick-not-an-umbrella/633890/2 "2012-09-06T19:22:22Z")
The umbrella is supposed to be a cutesy way of portraying a black cloud, I think.
Instead, it’s just annoying.
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### Author:  [@Blaster\_Master](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blaster_Master)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2012, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depression-is-a-brick-not-an-umbrella/633890/3 "2012-09-06T19:26:25Z")
I do have to say that I find those commercials a bit odd. The person with depression has an umbrella in one add and a robe in another ad? Those aren’t exactly images that really seem express depression very well, in fact, I think most people will tend to have good feelings associated with those objects. Maybe they just didn’t want to make the commercial itself too depressing so they tried to pick softer imagery.
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### Author:  [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2012, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depression-is-a-brick-not-an-umbrella/633890/4 "2012-09-06T20:17:21Z")
Umbrella doesn’t make much sense, but the robe actually really does.
I’ve found really bad episodes to be almost addictive–the mood, although remarkably unpleasant, feels so appropriate that I just want to give in to it and wrap myself up in it and just be miserable because no other way seems right. But that’s probably not what the commercial folks had in mind.
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### Author:  [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2012, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depression-is-a-brick-not-an-umbrella/633890/5 "2012-09-06T20:22:15Z")
> [@Inigo\_Montoya](#):
>
> I’ve found really bad episodes to be almost addictive–the mood, although remarkably unpleasant, feels so appropriate that I just want to give in to it and wrap myself up in it and just be miserable because no other way seems right.
I can relate to that.
Just the other day I was thinking that depression is like a crate. So small compared to everything else, but when you’re trapped inside of it, it becomes your whole world.
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2012, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depression-is-a-brick-not-an-umbrella/633890/6 "2012-09-06T20:41:42Z")
Not a brick, an anvil, dropped from a height. Any links to those commercials? I haven’t noticed them.
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### Author:  [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2012, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depression-is-a-brick-not-an-umbrella/633890/7 "2012-09-06T21:52:56Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#):
>
> The umbrella is supposed to be a cutesy way of portraying a black cloud, I think.
>
> Instead, it’s just annoying.
So, depression is the Monster in the Darkness in the Order of the Stick webstrip. [Who, I will note, is invariably of cheerful disposition.]
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### Author:  [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2012, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depression-is-a-brick-not-an-umbrella/633890/8 "2012-09-06T22:43:47Z")
Why can’t they bring back that [adorable little depressed egg guy](http://postimage.org/image/6ppp3n6cb/) from old Zoloft commercials in the '90s? I always wanted to hug him. He was a much more cute and lovable mascot than an actual depressed person. I would totally buy a sad egg plushie.
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### Author:  [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2012, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depression-is-a-brick-not-an-umbrella/633890/9 "2012-09-06T23:40:16Z")
> [@John\_DiFool](#):
>
> So, depression is the Monster in the Darkness in the Order of the Stick webstrip. [Who, I will note, is invariably of cheerful disposition.]
If you mean after he’s already devoured you—watch out Red Cloak!—then yeah. A lot of the time with mine, I feel like Mr. Stiffly, and he’s propping me up for his tea party, or whatever else he has planned.
(Not that I’ve anywhere near O-Chul’s endurance; rather the opposite.)
I like, for depression, the metaphor of how Sagan described the surface of Venus: a searing black calm, stifling every move one makes with the equivalent of 3000 feet of water ovehead, and ultimately unendurable. A giant wet blanket that immobilizes you.
The umbrella commercials pissed me off too.
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### Author:  [@Silver\_Tyger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silver_Tyger)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2012, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depression-is-a-brick-not-an-umbrella/633890/10 "2012-09-06T23:53:07Z")
> [@Gray\_Ghost](#):
>
> I like, for depression, the metaphor of how Sagan described the surface of Venus: a searing black calm, stifling every move one makes with the equivalent of 3000 feet of water ovehead, and ultimately unendurable. A giant wet blanket that immobilizes you.
See, now that’s a perfect description, at least for me.
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### Author:  [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2012, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depression-is-a-brick-not-an-umbrella/633890/11 "2012-09-07T00:20:24Z")
> [@Rachellelogram](#):
>
> Why can’t they bring back that [adorable little depressed egg guy](http://postimage.org/image/6ppp3n6cb/) from old Zoloft commercials in the '90s? I always wanted to hug him. He was a much more cute and lovable mascot than an actual depressed person. I would totally buy a sad egg plushie
Me too! I just want to love him and take care of him the same way I want to do with Eyore.
Also, the robe makes perfect sense to me. Some of those commercials are so realistic as to be cringe-inducing. Like that one with the woman in her sweatpants sitting on the couch, and it looks like it hurts her to move. Yeah, been there. I also thought that one was the most realistic of the ads because it showed her shopping for clothes and a bunch of other mundane things which is pretty much a huge deal when you’ve been struggling to function on a basic level.
Yay, depression. ☹
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### Author:  [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2012, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depression-is-a-brick-not-an-umbrella/633890/12 "2012-09-07T00:49:17Z")
> [@Rachellelogram](#):
>
> Why can’t they bring back that [adorable little depressed egg guy](http://postimage.org/image/6ppp3n6cb/) from old Zoloft commercials in the '90s? I always wanted to hug him. He was a much more cute and lovable mascot than an actual depressed person. I would totally buy a sad egg plushie.
Never thought of Zoloft guy as an egg. Looked to me more like a bread roll (since he sort of bounced). But yes, was a very appealing mascot.
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### Author:  [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2012, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depression-is-a-brick-not-an-umbrella/633890/13 "2012-09-07T01:48:06Z")
I used to describe my depression like wearing a cloak made out of those lead aprons they put over you at the dentist.
I like the little Zoloft guy, too. I thought he looked like a sad, hairless tribble. And what would be sadder than a hairless tribble?
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### Author:  [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2012, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depression-is-a-brick-not-an-umbrella/633890/14 "2012-09-07T02:05:12Z")
Depression is an umbrella made of bricks. You hump that weight or you get wet. Every. God. Damn. Day. Because it is always raining.
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### Author:  [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)
#### Post date: [September 11, 2012, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depression-is-a-brick-not-an-umbrella/633890/15 "2012-09-11T13:51:15Z")
Too many people confuse self pity wth depression.
Nobody enjoys any aspect about depression EVER.
But many people get a perverse enjoyment from feeling sorry for themselves.
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### Author:  [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)
#### Post date: [September 11, 2012, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depression-is-a-brick-not-an-umbrella/633890/16 "2012-09-11T14:02:13Z")
Churchill referred to depression as “the black dog”.
I suppose a drug company could use this imagery in an ad, but then they’d get PETA on their ass.
Besides, when I think of my black Labrador I just end up smiling. They’d need a grim cartoon Cerberus or something.
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### Author:  [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)
#### Post date: [September 11, 2012, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depression-is-a-brick-not-an-umbrella/633890/17 "2012-09-11T14:25:50Z")
I’m interested in how you guys feel depression. Not as a metaphor like a blanket or a brick, but what is the physical sensation in your body?
It’s very possible that you don’t know, because you’ve never really thought about it before.
For me, I feel it in my cheeks. They feel heavy. And sometimes there’s a blockage in my throat.
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### Author:  [@Poysyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poysyn)
#### Post date: [September 11, 2012, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depression-is-a-brick-not-an-umbrella/633890/18 "2012-09-11T14:43:41Z")
I think it changes a lot - sometimes it’s a hazy bubble, keeping you from feeling the joy and life around you, sometimes it’s an anchor or weight around you, keeping you from doing anything or going anywhere and sometimes a blanket, covering you with exhaustion and pain.
At least, that’s what it was like for me.
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### Author:  [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)
#### Post date: [September 11, 2012, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depression-is-a-brick-not-an-umbrella/633890/19 "2012-09-11T16:44:46Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#):
>
> Churchill referred to depression as “the black dog”.
>
> I suppose a drug company could use this imagery in an ad, but then they’d get PETA on their ass.
>
> Besides, when I think of my black Labrador I just end up smiling. They’d need a grim cartoon Cerberus or something.
They could use something like [this](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dtS7ClEF2fU/Tk_kctnRAbI/AAAAAAAAARI/SeuxqE1lEcI/s320/Neapolitan+Mastiff+%252870%2529.jpg). Or [this](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dgCaomnR1Jo/Tk_kdvS33MI/AAAAAAAAARM/0t24PdRVeWk/s320/Neapolitan+Mastiff+%252861%2529.jpg). (The last thing a burglar ever sees.) They’re more gray than black, so imagine it’s dark out…
But yeah, a Black Lab, with their cable-like tail going, “Phwap! Phwap! Phwap!”, whenever they see you: that’s kinda’ like the opposite of feeling depressed.
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### Author:  [@Imago](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Imago)
#### Post date: [September 11, 2012, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/depression-is-a-brick-not-an-umbrella/633890/20 "2012-09-11T17:27:25Z")
I tend to depict depression as a giant squid which tangles its tentacles around you and is really strong, so you have to wrestle like a sumbitch to move at all. Like squid skin, it’s cold, slimey, unpleasant, and somewhere along the line this evolved into Sid the Sadness Squid on another forum I frequent.
I also talk about “being swallowed by the Stressmonster”.
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