on DEPRESSION

 

Depression is arguably an overused word these days. Many people use it as a stand-in for words like "sadness" or "disappointment" or other routine (if difficult) human emotions that come and then go. Depression is not really that. Depending on how bad it gets, it can mean not being able to get out of bed, having suicidal thoughts, not looking forward to much (to anything!), etc. and it can put a serious damper on your life's trajectory. Everything can feel "too hard" and you can't find the energy to actively take part in what life offers. In response to urges to create, to engage, to aspire, the voice of depression says, "Why bother... what's the point?"  

 

It may be a chemical imbalance, helped by medicine. Sometimes (not always) depression points to a specific time and place inside us where we gave up hope and decided we were never going to get our needs met, our anger out, our voice heard - indeed, that the physics of the system itself were such that we'd been written out oif the equation... Like life is Hell - and you're the snowball. 

 

I personally believe that the (Universe) doesn't really work that way, mechanically. In the most desperate of places, with people who have literally lost everything, hope can be found, rebirth can be found - but always painfully... and by way of Grief. A counselor can be a kind of "midwife" for such a rebirth. You have to do the pushing, of course, but it helps when someone's sitting with you.  TB