The warmest of welcomes to you at a time in your life where you fear not being able to make your way out of depression. While episodic depression comes with its own challenges, long term depression can definitely come with a whole stack of other challenges including that understandable fear.
If there's one thing I've discovered over the years when it comes to my experience with depression (both long term and episodic) it's that there's always a reason for it. The challenge becomes about finding the reason/s. Once finding the reason or reasons, it become a matter of 'No wonder I feel depressed, it makes complete sense'. Up until then, it can feel like more of a matter of 'What's wrong with me? Why can't I ever be happy?'.
I've found it definitely pays to rephrase things at times. Turning 'What's wrong with me?' into 'What am I feeling the depressing side effects of?' points to our ability to feel the depressing side effects of something. So, what is that something? If we have some sense of what it could be and a sense of when we first felt our self in that depression or felt ourself teetering on the brink of it, these are a couple of really good clues. When it comes to looking for more clues, how successful we are can depend of who we're going to employ to help us get to the bottom of things. We could employ the help of a GP, a psychologist, a psychiatrist, a pathologist or someone along those lines. If the depression we're experiencing feels more like a soul destroying thing, we might even consider employing the help of a psycho-spiritual counselor or someone along the lines of more soulful assistance. In some cases, it can be fitting to employ the help of someone who knows us better than we know ourself, like a family member or friend. Plenty of potential detectives out there. As a 55yo gal who's managed the ins and outs of depression since my late teens, I've learned to never settle for not knowing why I'm depressed. I have to know why, so that I can manage in the most effective ways.
While we can experience a combination of reasons for being in a depression or one specific or key reason for each depression we find ourself in, it's not enough to hear someone say 'You have depression'. I much prefer to hear 'You are in a depression and I can tell you exactly what's led you down into it'. The best detectives and the greatest revelations hold the potential to raise us.❤️
