Melancholy, Low Mood, Depression

Life no longer pleases you. You see everything in shades of grey — as if someone had put a dull lens over you that extinguishes every colour. Getting up in the morning takes effort. People irritate you. Conversations exhaust you. Even things that used to interest you produce nothing more than a tired shrug. In the background runs a quiet, persistent question: what is any of this actually for?

Some call it melancholy. Some call it low mood. Medically it becomes depression. But if you look closely, you notice: the grey is not empty, it is full — full of things you have long refused to touch. Anger you swallowed. Disappointments you did not want to name. Silent judgments about people who hurt you. All neatly put away. But not gone.