Depression Treatment in a Snap

“I watched them take my father into the ambulance on a stretcher, and it was then I realized that my mother didn’t make it.”  The TV was blaring as I entered the room for my session with Grace, who was being treated for depression.

“WHAT are you listening to?” I asked Grace incredulously, feeling my mood dip from 30 seconds of viewing the show.

“It was on,” she replied.

“Grace, you’ve got to be careful.  I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but living in a nursing home can be a little bit depressing.”  She smiled at my intentional understatement.  “You’ve got to balance life here with happy things.  I never watch shows like this because they make me depressed.  Although…there was the time when I was feeling sad after the breakup of a long relationship and I rented the movie Alive.  You know, the one where the airplane crashes and the people have to eat each other to survive.”

Grace nodded.  “I remember.”

“Yeah, I figured, by comparison, my life was going great.”

Graces’s laughter filled the room, and I shut off the TV to take it in.