#this is also exactly why i have so many feelings about the way pentiment handles the topics of depression/suicidality

[astriiformes]

I remember the spring of my freshman year of college, when I was seriously suicidally depressed, I was taking an Ancient Egyptian literature course and ended up being assigned a short presentation the week we were discussing "The Man Who Was Weary of Life," which is this Middle Kingdom text where a man argues with his ba (one of the parts of the soul in Egyptian cosmology) about suicide and how difficult it is to cope with life's hardships.

It's very "To be or not to be", except more like 4,000 years old instead of 400, and it did something permanent to my brain chemistry to think about people that long ago struggling in the same way I was. Ultimately I got a great grade on it from a TA that should maybe have been a little more worried about my analysis being so insightful, but it was also weirdly heartening to think I was that not alone in human history in having such an awful time coping with life.

But also. Other things that could go in the DSM maybe.