About 15 years ago, when I first started publishing Ask The Headhunter online, I met a fellow that I’ve stayed in touch with on and off. Recently we renewed our acquaintance — and I encouraged him to start a blog.

He prefers to remain anonymous. He calls his blog Unemployed and Clinically Depressed in the Midwest. I’ll call him UCD. Though his medical diagnosis is “clinically depressed,” what’s notable about UCD is his candor and forthright perspective on who he is, what he’s been through, and where he’s going. He minces no words. UCD doesn’t feel sorry for himself. He reveals both his confidence in his future, and his fears about the things that confront his confidence.

Unemployment exacerbated UDC’s depression, and his story quickly pulls us into a realm that none of us want to look into.

There are a lot of people unemployed. Some get depressed as a result. Some suffered from depression to begin with, and the agony of unemployment has pushed them to the edge. Some jump. Some find the courage to turn around and take a new direction in their lives. Some, like UCD, find strength and power in teaching others — and in learning more about who they are. UCD has taken control of his next steps.

UCD has written a an anti-suicide note to the world. It’s his story, blunt and direct, honest and hopeful. It’s one of the most inspiring things I’ve read: Suicide. It’s about getting up from the down side of job hunting.

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4 Comments
  1. Very candid. Suicide is a choice that requires action, sometimes significant action. Many people are too depressed to act – they just want to go to sleep and not wake up. A lot of things can push one over the edge but unemployment is a biggie, particularly for men brought to believe that ‘providing’ is what gives them value.
    His blog needs to reach as wide an audience as possible.

  2. I like how it ends with a happy beginning. That’s the kind of perspective we need more in the world. Those that can see things in a way that may be seen literally as kind of funny but are actually rather profound and insightful once looks past some humor.

  3. I’m worried that the so-called “conventional” job-hunting methods exacerbate this. Sure, they have the advantage of being easy and don’t immediately require you to face rejection, but when they don’t work it’s so easy to think that it’s you that’s the problem.

    I know someone who is, I think, starting to spiral into depression for this reason. Getting them to understand that maybe they need to use another method seems to be just about impossible. It’s almost as though they’ve been hypnotised into believing that the “conventional” way is the only way.

    I’ve encountered this on several occasions with different people, and it’s frustrating.

  4. thank you, everyone, for your kind comments

    to Jane A, you are totally right about your perception. this is the key reason I fell into mental illness. 20 years ago, this would not have happened to me–the conventional way still worked. it took me 8 months of therapy, 5 of them on meds, until I could regain my confidence. encourage your friends to click onto ATH and help them find a work search support group (not a “job club”)to help them put networking into practice. were it not for these two things, my psychotherapist would have had to work a lot harder a lot longer to pull me out of the hell I fell into because I couldn’t accept the new world.