How Do We Defeat Depression?
Depression is a liar.
When you suffer from depression, you often deal with a ton of conflicting feelings and emotions that seem completely illogical, and can leave you feeling worthless, lost, and even unloved.
YOU ARE NOT ALONE. If you cope with depression, this may seem untrue, but it is important for me to tell you that. Even when it is at its worst, making you feel just awful, you are not alone.
I have struggled with depression for most of my life. I have used multiple methods to work with it, including therapy, psychopharmacology, tons of self-help books and audiobooks, meditation, and numerous other methods.
Those who do not battle depression do not understand a few things about it. For starters, it is almost impossible to be completely rid of depression. Like cancer, it can go into a form of remission, where you are not suffering from it, possibly forever…but then, it might just come back and rear its ugly head.
Depression effects everyone differently. Some people get angry, some get weepy. I know people who utterly and completely withdraw when feeling depressed. There are people who eat their feelings. I know a couple people who just want to sleep all the time when depressed. Some people do combinations of all of these, and it can be very disconcerting to both them, and those observing them.
This is the second thing those who do not suffer from depression tend to not understand. Depression will manifest itself in a lot of different ways, even in a single individual. It can take one form this week, and a wholly different form in a month. Or a day.
The third thing people don’t understand is that there is no single quick-fix solution. This is particularly challenging in our modern, instant gratification society.
Depression is not who I am.
One of the other major issues those who suffer from depression face is that it feels as though it becomes you. This is who I am, this mopey/angry/sleepy/hungry/negative person. Except that this is NOT who you are. Hence why I am telling you, and reminding myself here, that depression is a liar.
I know when I am facing a bout with depression, it feels like this is my punishment for whatever thing I am doing wrong. Because I don’t have a traditional job, because I am not living up my parents’ expectations of whom I should be, because of some mistake or lapse in judgement along the way…all of it adds up to feeling as though I am getting what I deserve.
This is not the truth. It feels like it, but that is depression lying to me. I am only human, and I am perfectly imperfect like everyone else. Being depressed is not who I am, it is a state of being that I need to work with.
After years of exploration, even before I began Pathwalking and striving to use my consciousness to create realty, I began to realize that one of the bigger issues with depression is that we seldom own it. There is, despite a great deal of change to the approach over the years, a stigma attached to depression. Like all mental illnesses, it is treated as something of an abomination. In a society that has a lot of backwards, false, and otherwise skewed standards, the imperfection of one who is depressed carries a taint with it.
Do you have any idea just how many people suffer from one form of depression or another? Temporary, clinical, manic or whatever, we are so, so not alone in living with this.
Depression may win a battle or two, but it will never win the war if you don’t let it.
A long time ago I determined not to blame anyone or anything for my mental state today. For the most part, I am really good at this. At least, I think I am. Deep, deep down in my subconscious, there are still things I hold onto from past wrongs, slights, mistakes, and so on. I do blame someone for a lot this. I blame myself.
There is a subtle difference between being accountable and being to blame. When I am accountable, I am acknowledging whatever matter is at hand, and taking responsibility for it. When I am to blame, however, I am seeing what happened, but not taking responsibility for it. What does that mean? That means that I am probably letting it fester, and take up residence in my psyche, where it serves as fuel for depression.
And this is one of the biggest issues anyone who deals with being depressed has to face. Because it’s such a liar, and can often feel as though that is who you are, it’s really easy to be a victim.
When you are a victim, you are not able to be accountable, and far more likely to draw more proof that this is who you are. Consciousness creates reality, like attracts like. If I get focused on being depressed, and all the lies it tells me, it only gets harder and harder to resist it.
I am not alone in this fight. Every single one of us battling depression share this. No matter the form it takes for you, no matter how it manifests, you are not alone. I know it feels like you are on your own, and that nobody understands…and while, maybe they don’t…I do. So do many others fighting this fight.
Arm yourself for the battles.
I claim to be an optimist. My wife pointed out to me this morning, after chuckling at my statement, that I have not been optimistic since Trump won the Presidency. As I have thought about this, I realized how right she is. No wonder I have been so depressed recently. I have lost my optimism.
For me, having that outside perspective opens me up to more tools for this fight. The weapons in my arsenal may be different from yours, but we all are able to beat this monster. What’s more, none of us have to do this alone.
This blog is one of the weapons in my arsenal. I also use meditation, and am taking an anti-depressant. I recognize I need to use more weapons in my arsenal, such as exercise, being more conscious of the level of confidence I am projecting, and take better control over my diet. There is no doubt in my mind that I have other weapons I can employ, but since each battle is different, it’s just good to know they are there.
Please remember that you are not alone, and that depression is a liar. Together, we can win the war against it. That’s why I am sharing this with you today. We can do this.
As always, thanking for crossing the bridges between my worlds with me.
This is the seventy-sixth entry of my personal journey, the Crossing the Bridges series. My collectively published writing can be found here.
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