What is Depression? According to Merriam-Webster, depression is: a state of being sad, a serious medical condition where a person feels very sad, hopeless, and unable to live a normal life. What jumps out in this definition and others I have found, is the word “normal”. We all have the ability to see patterns in everyday day life, patterns help us, patterns bring us security by their predictability, and we call this normal. When a pattern is broken, that was once very consistent, we have learned to say that it is not normal and I would not disagree with the observational evidence of a disrupted pattern. However, the subjective manner in which we condition or fabricate what is normal, especially in western culture, is chaotic and unpredictable from the outside looking in. I was reading a few articles on a Shaman’s perspective on depression and how western culture views it and treats it. He was shocked to see how we take these individuals that are not “normal”, medicate them, lock them up, and constrains them. What if they are just sensitive souls, portals of new perspectives, that are not choosing to be a burden to your chaotic system of success and normalcy, but, they are here to bring about change and shed new light on our lifestyles? The Shaman says that these “depressed” people and other mental illnesses, is just outward frustration with energy coming in and trying to be communicated out. Frustration, who hasn’t ever felt frustrated? It would be hard to find someone who has never felt this when trying to get a point across, communicating emotions or feelings. In our materialistic world, I have seen frustration in the store, when an outfit doesn’t look like it should. Think about that last example, we are raised in a culture that can get so frustrated with keeping up with fashion fads, and we diagnose those who are not acting “normal” with depression or another mental illness. The Shaman’s way of dealing with these individuals who seem to be acting out of frustration, as gifts, and attempts to help them release, communicate, the energy bottling up inside them. I am not saying you should go out tomorrow and act like you have a mental illness or that those who have been diagnosed with a mental disorder are better. But, I would like to believe, in every society around the world, we could start to see each as all unique, beautiful pieces of fabric in what we call life. If we valued everyone as we value ourselves, maybe frustration would become less and depression wouldn’t be something we all just accept, medicate, put a sheet over it, move on from and just toss them with the other “crazies”. From the very beginning of a child’s life, they are taught to reach goals, do your best, be the best and are given a template, a mold to fill, to finally reach that point of “success”. The systematic problem with this manufacturing of children, we teach them that success is always progression in material gain and collection of resources. In a way, the child’s soul is no longer allowed to freely establish its own identity and interaction. The child is given a template, a mold to fill or fit into, disregarding their natural state of being, abilities, gifts and talents. Webster’s other definition of depression is: a period of time where there is little economic activity and many people do not have jobs. Think about that definition, it actually comes third in line of definitions when you look up depression, but, it seems to me that, in every tribe, to every nation, it has a monopoly on depression. Like hamsters in a cage, our manufactured children are taught to morph their gifts and talents, their identity, into the bottle of water hanging down in the cage for them to nibble at. We tell them “If you find a career or job you love, you will never work a day in your life!” Really? Does anybody really love the fact that they have to drink water and take time out of their day to eat, just to sustain their life? And, if that old saying is true, how many of these “career lover’s” would be doing their job without monetary compensation or outside reward. Who are we raising, teaching our children to really work for? And, if all our bodies need to survive is food, water, and in some climates shelter, abundance just looks like greed, a wasting of necessary resources and that bring success. If we started living out of necessity and not out of cultural insecurity, maybe would find that there is more time for us to help and listen to each other. So when we think about these depressed people or those with mental disorders, most loving friends and family want to help, but what if what is being communicated does not fit into our preconceived view of normal? What if your child just wants to detach from the world around him altogether? What if your spouse, friend, family member no longer wants to work for a paycheck? What if this depressed person could not care less about their retirement, overgrown yard, or going out to the next prominent social gathering? Well, that person is not acting normal and you are right, it is not normal in today’s western culture to feel that way. You think to yourself, “I can’t help them. I don’t know what to do. Maybe there is something wrong with them.” And you tell everyone else, “I have tried all I can do to get them to go back to work, take care of their yard, and come out with me tonight.” You are experiencing frustration because you can’t bring that depressed person back to normalcy. Then again, what is normal? What is more depressing, the person who is depressed, or a culture who cast aside a person who can’t keep up and doesn’t want to be a manufactured hamster, nibbling at the nipple that dispenses water. I will changed my very first question, what is depressing?
Posted on: Mon, 15 Sep 2014 14:05:19 +0000
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