We Don't Live Under Normal Conditions
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Why Dharma: Having suffered from depression since college, but having slowly climbed out of that hole over the decades intervening through spiritual insights I came into from a variety of sources, I currently look upon the present day view that depression just means you need a pill as something quite horrible. This movie is a 'voice in the wilderness' trying to jog people into seeing there is much more behind the onslaught of depression, mental pain and anguish we are experiencing in our society these days than individual problems of brain chemistry.[1]
If we lived in a world without wars, poverty, racism and sexism, dramatic disparities in material conditions, political deception and so on, would there be people who suffer from clinical depression, depressive disorders or other "mental disorders." Would over 30,000 people still commit suicide each year? These questions about clinical depression and suicide are raised by the title of the film we don't live under NORMAL CONDITIONS.
A number of years ago, suffering from depression and thoughts of suicide myself, and angry that all the books and articles on depression at that time trumpeted biological causes, I decided to make a film that looked at the broader social issues that I knew caused me a great deal of despair. So I brought together six people from different walks of life who suffered from depression or despair. I sequestered them away for three days and asked them to talk about society and despair.
The result is a gripping, and at times painful, documentary that is also, not so surprisingly, inspiring. Suffering in silence only worsens depression. Trying to put on a good face, when inside you're in pain, feeds depression. Talking about your depression, in a group with others who have shared the experience, is healing. Talking about some of the causes of depression, that exist outside of our brain chemistry, can be empowering. Empowering, because we can change our relationship to things outside of ourselves. We can change our attitudes. We can come to accept things that we can't control. And become active in changing those things we can.[2]
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