By Josh Pendergrass

 “It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a sick society.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti

I have a secret that I usually keep locked up inside of myself, hidden from even those who know me well: I suffer from depression. At times it is a deep, bottomless depression, an intense loneliness, serious end-of-the-world-thoughts depression.

Admitting to this is tough, but it comes with another admission: I reject the idea that there is something wrong with me or that my depression is a disease. In fact, I think that the whole framework of looking at mental illness solely as individual pathology is misguided. I don’t say this to minimize the pain of those who suffer from mental conditions, but rather as part of an attempt to re-examine mental health from a perspective that is more humanistic, taking into account the interconnectedness of human…