Please Do Not Ask Me Why I Am Depressed - Audio EssayPlease Do Not Ask Me Why I Am Depressed - Audio Essay
Eggshell Transformations with Imi Lo
Imi Lo offers an audio essay on why questions like "why are you depressed?" can feel painful and invalidating for those living with chronic, existential sadness. The piece reflects on energy, conditional belonging, unhelpful advice and the quiet strength required to keep going.
14:30•31 Oct 2026
Please Do Not Ask Me Why I Am Depressed: An Honest Audio Essay by Imi Lo
Episode Overview
- Asking someone "why are you depressed?" can feel reductive and push them to justify a pain that has no simple cause.
- People with chronic depression often ration limited emotional energy, making everyday tasks and conversations feel costly.
- Highly sensitive individuals may learn to compress and dilute their true feelings to stay acceptable to others.
- Toxic positivity and quick-fix advice can deepen despair when depression is persistent and not easily changed.
- There is a quiet, resilient strength in continuing to live with depression without performing recovery for other people's comfort.
“Your sadness as it lingers in deep depression has no starting point, no single cause and no event you can isolate and hand over as an answer.”
Curious about how others navigate their sobriety journey? This audio essay shifts the focus from alcohol to a broader, aching question many people with depression face: "Please do not ask me why I am depressed." Imi Lo speaks directly to those who are intensely sensitive, deeply feeling and exhausted by having to justify their pain. Across the essay, Imi unpacks how a simple, well-meant question like "Why are you depressed?" can feel brutal.
It asks for a neat cause where there often isn’t one. As she explains, "Your sadness as it lingers in deep depression has no starting point, no single cause and no event you can isolate and hand over as an answer." For anyone living with chronic or existential depression, every basic task is a calculation of limited energy, and being pushed to explain that weight can add to the burden.
You’ll hear how people who are used to being the strong, empathic one in the room often feel they must shrink their inner world to stay lovable. Imi describes the emotional cost of compressing your true experience into something "lukewarm" enough for polite conversation, and how questions like "what happened?" quietly demand that compression all over again.
The essay also takes aim at toxic positivity and quick-fix self-help, highlighting how suggestions like a walk in the park or a bit of mindfulness can feel like subtle accusations when the darkness doesn’t lift. Instead of fixing, Imi imagines a gentler response: people simply sitting with you and your despair, without asking it to explain itself or be smaller. Though nothing is sugar-coated, there’s a quiet thread of hope.
Imi reminds you that your strength might be invisible, but it has carried you through every previous wave of depression. It doesn’t need to look impressive or satisfy anyone else’s idea of recovery. Have you ever wished someone would just sit with your pain, instead of asking you to explain it?
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