The Effect

The effect - a play by Lucy Prebble - was on in Rosenheim and proved again that good theatre is indeed being shown here!

Not only was the play really interesting, the actors were also really good.

A woman and a man are taking part in a study that is testing the effect of a new anti-depressant.
They fall in love.
But is it real? Is it entirely due to the influence of the drug? And does that make it less real? Are our feelings not the results of various chemicals in our brain anyway?

Then it turns out that the man is actually on a placebo.
Or so they think for a little while.
If he was, what would that mean as a consequence?

And the general question of how we see depression.
On the one hand, there's a movement to de-stigmatize it. For people to regard depression as an illness, the way we look at other physical ailments.
On the other hand, if we look at it primarily as a chemical imbalance in the brain, do we automatically conclude that it should be treated with drugs? And are we therefore missing the point, the actual trigger of the depression?
Are we using it as an 'excuse' to blame depression on something external to us?
And where does depression start and sadness end?
And how much are we conditioned that we mustn't feel sad and how does that impact on the way we deal with our supposedly 'negative' feelings like sadness, anger, or disappointment? Trying to get rid of them, instead of examining them and healing them.

I for one will admit that for most of my life, I have been trying to avoid feeling those feelings. I don't like it. And when something has popped up, I would try to push it away from me. I think there was probably a worry that I might end up wallowing in self-pity, getting caught up in a negative downwards spirale.
When this is not an either-or situation. I can feel the feelings and still move on with my life. Feeling sad is not the equivalent of self-pity at all.

If you have the chance, check out the play!