Depression ... in OotP

[delwynmarch]

No: HPFGUIDX 110726


Psyche wrote :
"I think the difference between them boils down to this: Cho is more 
obviously upset, so *seems* to have taken it worse, because she is 
more comfortable expressing her emotions. Harry seems extremely 
uncomfortable showing emotion. 
(snip)
For this reason, while Cho *looks* like a worse case, I think she's
healing just fine - crying is a coping mechanism after all. But Harry
is supressing, not dealing."

Del replies :
We could get into a girl/boy discussion over this, with the stereotype
of girls coping better by talking and being over-emotional and boys
coping better by acting and keeping silent.

But what I really want to object to is when you say that Cho is
healing just fine. I'm not so sure. Almost everything she does
throughout the year shows that she's completely off-balance. When
Hermione says that she keeps falling apart all over the place, it
seems obvious to me that she's reached a point where her depression is
preventing her from functioning properly. It's even interfering with
her usually pleasurable activities, such as Quidditch : she's always
been a rather good player, but Hermione says that lately she's been
playing so badly that she's afraid of being thrown out of the team.
And Hermione says that around Christmas, 6 months after Cedric's
death. A depression that lasts that long in a teenager is dangerous.
And we see no sign that Cho gets better later. So really I would say
that Cho is coping much worse than Harry.

Del