Depression and the Impossible Task (from the viral Twitter post)

I'm not sure of you heard about it, the Twitter post by @mollybackes, where she shines the light on depression and the Impossible Task. That simple mundane thing that shouldn't be difficult to do, but becomes impossible for the person suffering from depression.

My husband sent me the article by Bloom Joy Collective on her posts. Here's the link: https://readbloomjoy.com/2018/08/31/the-impossible-task/ It's a really great read.

My husband suffers from severe anxiety, depression, PTSD and dependent personality disorder - all of which pretty much came on over night after a transient ischemic attack (TIA). For those who don't know what it is (I didn't before it happened to him), a TIA has stroke-like symptoms that are supposed to go away within about 48 hours. His didn't. And then they morphed into something all together different, changing everything pretty much over night. We're still working with doctors to figure it out.

He often has a difficult time articulating what's happening inside his mind, and this article gave him a way to explain at least part of it. From the bevy of responses to the posts, he's not the only one. The Impossible Task is something many are fighting to conquer on a daily basis.

To make it worse, the Impossible Task is an elusive little bugger. It changes from day to day. For my husband, it can be sending a text message, putting away dishes or choosing between chicken and beef for supper.

I understood the big challenges for him, like answering the door, putting out the garbage or leaving the house, because those are things that trigger the severe anxiety. That made sense to me. But it was these little things that didn't add up. This article made all the difference.

Now, I can simply ask him if this thing that he's having difficulty doing is the Impossible Task of the day (or the hour). It makes it easier for me to offer help and understand what's going on. That makes it better for both of us.

I'm grateful to @mollybackes for putting into words what doctors, therapists and other people suffering with depression were not able to do. It gives so much more clarity to the issue for me, and I hope it does for you as well.

This is something people need to hear. Please share it with others, so we can help them make sense of it too.

Thank you!

Andrea