East vs West

 I've been seeing my Korean accupuncturist weekly for needles, massage and wisdom. As she attempted to knead all the heavy lifting and unnatural bending out of my sacrum, she informed me that depression is considered a normal part of life in the East.  Only in the West do we label it, medicate it and call Lifeline from the garden at 4am whilst drinking hot toddy, smoking cigarettes and deciding which tree branch is low enough to hook a rope from.

  Of course, the down side of the East, is that a lot of seriously fucked up people end up swinging from said rope having been told the Korean, Japanese or Cantonese equivalent of "harden up". The down side here out West is that we take anti-depressants when good girlfriends, exercise and regular naps might do the trick. 

I don't want to die, but I could do with the rest.  And if, like me, you're prone to smashing your fists against a wall because the dogs dropped leaves all over your newly swept floor...wouldn't it be nice for your husband to say "You've been up breast feeding all night. Go and get some sleep"?   But it's..."Fuck off angry woman! Come back when you're medicated!"

Ironically the Japanese, much like our babies, used sleep deprivation as a form of torture.  Regardless, I wouldn't mind being part of a culture that sends me to bed instead of therapy.