Contagious

I have a cough still and I suppose somebody else might catch it from me.  Yawns are contagious too.  Apparently even if you imagine somebody else yawning you have a high chance of yawning as well.  Go ahead try it.  It worked for me.  Twice.

Emotions can also be contagious.  You see somebody cry and you immediately become sad for them.  Somebody skips down the hall with a grin on their face and minutes later you are whistling away.  Whether it is by imitation or empathy I do not know, but everything seems to catch on very quick in my sort of society.

Depression is something I really don't like catching from others and yet it seems to be highly contagious whenever I notice it.  People can really put me in a low mood for a very long time if they are stressed or hurtful or depressed themselves.  And the worst part is this usually happens because I can't help them.  Which means it is the same type of depression I get where I can't help myself.

So how do you get out of an emotional rut?  There is no medication to fix depression.  Oh wait scratch that, there are pills for that now I believe.  But, a quote my father uses often is "I would rather stop the disease than the symptoms" and that is true for me too.  I guess the only way is to keep it to yourself, to stop the spread, but then it will never be fixed.  That's a tough one.  Put it in quarantine or risk being exposed for a chance at ridding somebody of it?