“Rigor Mortis Sets in Prior to Death”   Pencil on Paper

This drawing was done while I was recovering from depression. It describes the physical aspect of my depression. As the depression worsened, my muscles tightened and stiffened, and the effect was worst in my face. I developed TMJ and as a result, I have had thousands of dollars worth of dental work done over the years due to the damage caused by grinding my teeth. It made a morbid kind of sense. I reasoned that I was dead inside, my spirit was dead and rigir mortis was setting in while I was still alive. Why didn’t I die? My continued existence on this earth was an obsenity, I felt, because dead people should not walk the earth.

I tried different approaches to allievate the stiffness, such as progessive muscle relaxation exersizes, self hypnosis, and and working out, but these methods failed to bring lasting relief.  Fortunately, the antidepressants allieviated this problem for me.