in ourselves anything as formal or as dramatic-sounding as 'reasons to live.' We simply assume

在我們自己身上，有任何形式上的或聽起來很戲劇化的 "生存理由"。我們只是假設

that we like life itself and that it must be natural and inevitable to do so. And yet

我們喜歡生活本身，這一定是自然而然的，也是不可避免的。然而

a broad appetite for life is, on close inspection, never simply that; our apparently general

仔細觀察，我們對生活的廣泛渴望絕不是簡單的渴望；我們表面上的普遍的

buoyancy must covertly rest on a range of specific elements that, while we may not bother

浮力必須隱蔽地建立在一系列特定的因素上，雖然我們可能不會去管它

to itemise them, have their own and distinct identities nevertheless.

將它們逐項列出，但卻有自己獨特的身份。

It's only when a crisis hits and our mood starts to drop that we may for the first time

只有當危機來臨，我們的情緒開始下降時，我們才可能第一次

start to feel, with acute sorrow, what these 'reasons to live' might have been all

開始感慨，這些 "活著的理由 "可能都是什麼？

along; it's as we lose our reasons that we understand them with uncommon clarity.

一路走來；當我們失去了理由，我們才會無比清晰地理解它們。

We realise why we have for years bothered to rise out of bed with energy and relative

我們意識到，為什麼多年來我們費力地從床上爬起來，精力充沛，相對的

good humour, put up with inconveniences, struggled to get ourselves across to others and looked

幽默風趣，忍辱負重，努力向別人表達自己的想法，看起來很有面子

forward to tomorrow - and wonder in dismay how we will from now on ever have the will

and courage to continue.

和繼續的勇氣。

Our engagement with life might have been bound up with, the enjoyment of work or of reputation,

我們對生活的參與可能已經與，工作或名譽的享受捆綁在一起。

the companionship of a child or of a friend, the agility of our bodies or the creativity

孩子或朋友的陪伴，我們身體的靈活性或創造力。

of our minds. Denied such advantages, we don't merely miss out on an aspect of life, the

的思想。被剝奪了這樣的優勢，我們不僅錯過了生活的一個方面，還錯過了

whole of it loses its purpose. Secondary satisfactions - whether from a holiday or a book, a dinner

整個就失去了它的目的。次要的滿足--無論是從一個假期還是一本書、一頓晚餐中得到的

with old acquaintances or a hobby - cannot compensate. The hedonic scaffolding of our

與老熟人或興趣愛好--無法彌補。我們的享樂腳手架

lives disintegrates. We may not actively try to kill ourselves, but we can't count as

生活瓦解了。我們可能不會主動嘗試自殺，但我們不能算作是

quite alive either. We are going through the motions; living corpses following a script

也不是很活。我們是在走過場，是按照劇本走的活屍。

drained of meaning.

枯燥的意義。

When we say that someone has fallen mentally ill, what we are frequently pointing to is

當我們說某人患了精神病時，我們經常指向的是......。

the loss of long-established reasons to remain alive. And so the task ahead is to make a

喪失了長期存在的生存理由。是以，今後的任務是使

series of interventions, as what counts.

一系列的干預措施，作為最重要的。

We may need

我們可能需要

to forgive ourselves for a fearsome degree of idiocy, give up on a need to feel exceptional,

寬恕我們自己可怕的白痴程度，放棄了感覺自己與眾不同的需要。

surrender worldly ambitions and cease once and for all to imagine that our minds could

放棄世俗的野心，徹底停止想象，我們的思想可以。

be as logical or as reliable as we had hoped. We may continue to live simply because every

邏輯性或可靠性，正如我們所希望的。我們可能會繼續生活，只是因為每一個

human deserves understanding - and because we are trying our best in the only way we

人類應該得到理解--因為我們正在盡我們最大的努力，以我們唯一的方式。

know how.

懂得。

If there is any advantage to going through a mental crisis of the worst kind, it is that

如果說經歷最嚴重的精神危機有什麼好處的話，那就是... ...

- on the other side of it - we will have ended up choosing life rather than merely assuming

- 在它的另一邊--我們將最終選擇生活，而不僅僅是假設。

it to be the unremarkable norm. We, the ones who have crawled back from the darkness, may

它是不起眼的常態。我們這些從黑暗中爬回來的人，可能會...

be disadvantaged in a hundred ways, but at least we will have had to find, rather than

雖有百般不利，但至少我們將不得不尋找，而不是。

assumed or inherited, some reasons why we are here. Every day we continue will be a

假設或繼承，我們在這裡的一些原因。我們繼續的每一天都將是一個

day earned back from death and our satisfactions will be all the more more intense and our

掙回死亡的日子，我們的滿足感會更加強烈，我們的幸福感也會更加強烈。

gratitude more profound for having been consciously arrived at.

感恩更深刻，因為已經自覺到了。

The challenge from the present sickness can be mapped out in its essential form: one day

從目前的病症中可以映射出挑戰的本質形式：有一天。

to reach a small but robust and persuasive list of reasons to continue

達成一個小而有力的、有說服力的理由清單，以繼續進行

to be.

要。