One heck of a lot of people only see their depression as being a bad thing. Well I for one wouldn't be the enlightened person I am today if it were not for my depression. My depression actually got me out of bed one morning (after many many years of suffering) and inspired me to re-examine and understand not only my entire life --- from a premature birth, to why a mother who suffered post natal depression and couldn't care for her baby, to a little boy abused, to a primary school kid left at home on his own, to a suicidal teenager with alcohol poisoning, to a young man experiencing 5 workplace redundancies in a row, to someone with brain trauma and so confused that nothing in life mattered ---- and why these events in my life had made me the individual I was.
Through my depression I discovered that all life's experiences permanently impact the brain of the individual ... whether they be from what is called our "nature" experience (DNA - genetic - ethnicity, eye/hair colour, sex, height, disabilities etc) or our "nurture" experience (parenting/family influences, peer group influences, religion/atheist, schooling, friends, accident/injuries impacts etc). And because no one else (not even identical twins) shares the exact same "nature/nurture" experience (with identical twins perceiving even the exact same events through unique and very separate eyes and even a slightly different physical location), I worked out why I was different to everyone else and why they were different to me. I found the very reason why some people succeed and some fail. Those who succeed simply had a totally different "nature/nurture" experience to me ... and if I had had their same experience I would have succeeded in the exact same manner. They were neither better, nor more able, nor more "superior" to myself. They were simply lucky. Which meant that I wasn't.
Some of you might find that depressing. I don't. Why? Because through my depression I discovered who I was and why I was who I was. And surprising as this might sound ... not that many people on this planet actually know why they are who they are ---- with the classic Zen Buddhist question being "Who are you?"
So who are you? Your name -no! Ethnicity - no! Religion - no! Occupation - no! Qualification - no! Financial or marital status - no! Disability or abilities - no! And yet my depression was able to answer that question for me.
