Sirius and the Great Black Dog (was:Debatable ethical issues...)

[nrenka]

No: HPFGUIDX 142413

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Steve" <bboyminn at y...> wrote:

> The thing people are forgetting though is that there are several kinds
> of depression; like situational depression vs bio-chemical depression.
> 
> When you are in a depressing situation, depression is exactly the
> appropraite response. If Sirius had been happy and jolly all the time,
> slapping everyone on the back and making grand toasts, THEN I would
> have seriously worried about his sanity. As it was, he was in a
> depressing and frustrating situation, and as a result was depressed
> and frustrated, which is exactly the appropriate response.

There's another factor in here which I think may be under-rated:

Depression based on circumstances and the more elusive biological 
factors often form a feedback loop.  You feel awful and you don't know 
why, and it impacts your daily life; bad things are happening to you, 
and they make you feel awful.  An extended state in this period is 
particularly hard to get out of, because it has such lingering anad 
profound effects.

People who are under a lot of stress for a significant period of time 
suffer physical effects from it, including decreased functioning of any 
number of body systems.  It's much the same thing with depression; 
staying in a depressed state damages the body's neurochemistry.  (So 
does abuse of things like Ecstacy, because they screw with the 
serotonin transmitters, and can eventually burn them out.)

Now, think of being in a place where intense depression is being 
forcibly imposed on everyone there, by outside and horrifying factors.  
Twelve years of that (as opposed to the one of Barty, and unshielded by 
his fanaticism).  That's going to leave some pretty screwed up mental 
chemistry, and I think that contributes to Sirius' situational 
volitility.  He's up and on the run and being useful: it's easier to 
keep at bay, although I bet he had some dark nights of the soul.  
Cooped up in the house, chained by his own sense of honor and 
obligation (as I think has been ably demonstrated), and not able to 
take action...he's going to bounce like a bungee jumper.  Everything 
positive means much more than it would otherwise, but everything 
negative is even worse, too.

If wizards are human, this obtains.

-Nora yawns and wakes up for class