I'll be 30 in November. As I approach my next birthday I find myself revisiting the same thought that I have had in the previous five years: I've done absolutely nothing of significance with my life. I've had opportunities but I simply don't have the nerve or the motivation to move forward. The last few months combined with re-visiting the events of 2005 led me to explore a little more deeply into my mental illness. My particular brand of depression is called dysthymia or persistent depressive disorder. It affects somewhere between 3%-6% of the population. It's a low-grade depression and it's less intense compared to major depression but not any less harmful. Major depression can last weeks or several months and is usually associated with a traumatic event, i.e. divorce, death in the family, etc. Dysthymia goes on for years, ebbing and flowing and rarely ever disappearing completely. There were a few stated symptoms and characteristics common to each of the ...