I thought at first that I would write this account--which will definitely not be consistent--as therapy for myself. It really isn't that important to me that other people read this; after all, I don't particularly like to read my own work, so why would anybody else? But then I realized that truth really is stranger than fiction; that the best things in life are free; and that you really can't make this stuff up. There, that should cover my full allotment of cliches for the month! At any rate, Someone may find these things amusing in some way. I'm not, mind you, trying to imply that another person's suffering is funny; it definitely has not been funny to me over the last eight years. I have learned, though, that you have to take your levity where you can find it. If you don't, you almost have no choice but to end up in worse shape than the person you are trying to help.
That entire paragraph, I suppose, implies that you know what I'm talking about. I shouldn't assume; if you aren't one of my friends or family, you don't know, and it's unfair of me to fail to explain. So allow me. My name is Charles (Chuck, to those who know me), and I am thirty-one years old. My wife, Stephanie, has been suffering from depression for at least four years, and I suspect that it is in fact longer than that. We have two children: Emma, age four, and Ethan, nearly three. Stephanie's first diagnosis came not long after Emma was born, and has been repeated at least three times since then.
In writing here, I don't want to embarass anyone, especially Stephanie. I know that nothing on the Internet is truly private, and even though there is only a slim chance that she will ever read this herself, it could easily get back to her by way of someone who knows us. Just the fact that this blog has a link to my email address is enough to identify me to those who know me, of course. So, I will do everything I can to not say anything that is personal, or offensive to anyone, or too revealing. All I really want to do is chronicle the way I feel about helping Stephanie through her problems, and hopefully make some sense of it for myself and for others.
So, here we go.
Well, maybe not tonight.
