BEING HUMAN CAN BE CONFUSED WITH HAVING DEPRESSION ! Part of being human is experiencing discomfort and pain, both physical and emotional. it is all part of our opportunity to evolve and grow. Unfortunately, many of us have been conditioned to believe that feeling deeply, including the discomfort and pain, is inherently wrong. Often sensitive people feel chronic pain just because they believe they are wrong for feeling deeply. This can lead to depressive symptoms and a suite of coping mechanisms. Depression is chronic psychological pain that distortedly appears to have no end, which makes people feel powerless and hopeless. There are reasons why one in five people will have the experience of being depressed in their lives but what is important to remember is that this does not necessarily mean they are depressed. In working with many sensitive people who have had depressive symptoms (plus having had them in the past myself), I’ve realized that there are several things I wish people would understand about depression. 1. Our Society doesn’t talk about the pain of being human. Our society teaches us to act and feel in certain ways that may not be true to us. We’re taught, for example, that crying is inappropriate, when really its a natural mechanism for our body to release emotion. 2. You can try to stifle your pain, but the body doesnt lie. People are designed to express and release the experience of being human. Trying to stifle pain can cause the body to reveal the reality of the pain through a constellation of symptoms we refer to clinically and culturally as depression. or if not that dis-ease of the body. 3. Depression can stem from the shame of being human. Even though its natural to feel pain and to want to express it, many of us have told ourselves that we “cannot” or should not release the pain in our daily lives. That somehow we are weak if we share that we feel. This leaves us feeling hopeless and closed off, especially when facing depressive symptoms. This also leaves us with an opportunity to shift the paradigm. It starts with acknowledging we are human and it begins with talking about it shamelessly. We are supposed to feel we just need to allow ourselves to express it. 4. Depression is really a communication vehicle. Your body is functioning well (even though it may not feel comfortable) by prompting you to respond to emotions such as sadness. Your body is telling you to take a close look at how you are relating to your environment, how you may be living, and how you are (or are not) caring for yourself. 5. You have the power. You can reduce pain in every moment of every day through your thoughts. Our thoughts today create tomorrows reality. You can be taught how to do this with a great therapist but you can also learn to acknowledge it in yourself. If you’ve already perceived pain along the way or if you experience it in your daily life, it’s important to release it. Feeling is your body’s way of telling you that you not only need to express yourself but that you need to address yourself, ASAP. 6. Depression is also about love. Our cultural norms have made it seem shameful to express many emotions, including love. Our untrained subconscious thinks that if we share our love for someone (romantic, friendship, family) and don’t receive the equivalent, expected return of love, we must feel rejected or unsafe in some way. In this love exchange paradigm, shame and vulnerability can compound into more pain when we dont receive the expected return on our love investment. We must learn that love is about who we are regardless of whom we get it back from. 7. Depression can be caused by searching for love outside ourselves. When we believe that we have to behave a certain way to get love instead of allowing it to flow from ourselves, we are setting ourselves up for profound disappointment, we are also letting others take control. It is no one elses responsibility to make us feel whole. Love your Self first and foremost instead of outsourcing love to someone else. 8. Depression is not an identity. You may have depressive symptoms. Your identity is not as a depressed person. You are not depression. You are a someone who has developed a constellation of depressive symptoms. There is a difference. 9. Depression is a symptom of a root cause. There is a reason for your depression, and it exists deep within you. There are most likely layers of reasoning, biases and evidence that you’ve built around the cause to keep a specific belief going. You are not defective: you simply have built evidence to believe something deep within you. 10. The emotion of depression is related to our chemistry, but the “depression gene” doesn’t exist. Neurotransmitters and hormones are involved with the symptoms of depression, but they dont necessarily cause depression. It’s a “chicken or the egg” conundrum. Neurotransmitters like serotonin, norepinephrine and dopamine influence the mood of human beings, but it’s hard to say which came first — the neurotransmitters influencing the mood, or the (pain response) chronically influencing our chemistry. The feeling of being in constant fear and/or stressed releases cortisol, which shifts your neuropathways. Medication is not the sole answer, but a therapys and perhaps medication for a short period of time can direct you to the feelings and to the root. There is however much more we can do ourselves if we notice the signs early enough and find our own sources of inner peace. 13. You can heal If treatment isn’t reducing depressive symptoms, you need a more holistic approach to your needs (emotional, behavioral, physiological, and spiritual). Just because a treatment (or several) doesnt work for you, that doesnt mean you cant move past your depression. There is an answer out there for everyone its just a question of finding the right one for you 14. The prevention of multigenerational depression is possible. “Depression” has become a story of defectiveness rather than about discovery of the reasons the human being experiences such profound and sometimes fatal symptoms. Let’s start a revolution that’s about looking at depression as a symptom of a functioning person and support depression recovery and prevention by addressing the root cause. There is always a root its just a question of getting to it and unravelling it layer by layer. Being human can be tough at times but it does not mean we cannot feel love, joy and sadness and it does not mean we need to be labelled or lose our own power. Learn to listen to your inner compass and find the things that make your soul sing and you will find step by step you own your thoughts, emotions and feelings, and your life is a much healthier and smoother path. And remember sometimes we are too quick to label ourselves with something when all we are doing is being human.
Posted on: Fri, 22 Aug 2014 06:44:49 +0000
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