Notes

To start off the speakers of Coleridge's poems have more of a result of depression in a way. In "Dejection: An Ode" Coleridge has depression because he believed he was so un happy. He would addresses his Lady, telling her that although some things are inevitable in life and controlled by nature, a person must still be an active agent in creating his or her own happiness. He was suffering from a broken heart. In "The Pains of Sleep" Coleridge he had more of a substance abuse. Thats when knocked out and had a strange dream about a guy named Kubla Khan. Coleridge dreamed that he was actually writing a poem in his sleep and when he woke up after a few hours he tried writing down what he dreamed about. He meant to write a plethora of things down but he was interrupted by someone who had come to see him about business. When he came back to his writing he had forgotten the rest. The writings he did manage to write down turned into one of the most famous and enduring poems in English literary history. I feel like the poems treat these issues by giving each character an effect. Like in the case of thomas he was a moderate user of opium which caused him to start having symptoms of stomach pains. After that started happening he became an addict taking it every single day. The effect of this was he had nightmares. So at the end of the story depression and substance abuse lead to greater things such as feeling un happy and loney, to having bad memory and weird dreams, and having really bad nightmares.
The image these writers use to characterize the problems of depression and substace abuse were things like bad dreams and seeing things. also feeling empty inside. To me all the topics are relavant today. There are so many prime examples of people who have depression that start feeling very sick and want to kill themseleves o do crazy things. Like the shootings up north or many suicides. Also I feel like the drug abuse is relevant because now a day many teens and adults run to drugs as a problem solver and little do they know it they are addicted and suffering consequences from. As far as a personal expierence I can only relate to coleridge and his depression. But not me personally one of my good friends. They both have basically the same stories. My friends girlfriend left and he started becoming very depressed, he wouldnt sleep, eat or do anything outside. He would baisically stay in his room all day and not even want to talk to anyone. Fortunetly after months of talking to him and giving him a little bit of advice he came out of that dark shell he was in. Of course advice came from everyone and not just me but, we were all just very thankful that he did not run to any drugs. Yet depression and substance abuse are very dangerous and can be deadly individually or combined.