Personal Vindication : Depression

How many of us get depressed? The answer to that question is obvious, everyone does. How many people, everyday "have to swallow a pill in order to cope? I believe in chemical imbalances. I also believe in serious mental illness. The question I propose is more holistic on the subject matter of balance and healing. Is it possible that we can overcome our mental anguish through personalized systems of balance? Can we abolish mental disabilities by coordinating our lives around personalized systems of diet, exercise, meditation, and other elemental combinations of the entities we need to survive?

The trivial pursuit of coping with the world is one that prevails upon everyone. The way pharmaceutical companies create and promote new drugs through doctors does have an influence on us all. We question our sanity because when we see these drug advertisements, and then we begin to doubt our state of function. When we are hit with stress, the message sent out to us that "we might be mentally debilitated" provokes us to question ourselves asking, "am I okay" and "can I do this". The thought of taking that pill weakens our coping skills, and diminishes our strength to deal. I watch a friend of mine everyday swallow multiple anti-depressants, anxiety medicines, ADD medication. When I watch my friend ingest these medications in such a way, I often wonder if something is wrong with me. Do I need to be taking these pills to be fully functional? Or, is my life okay without med.’s that condition my sense of reality to seeming "normal"? Do I need to be able to be like super-woman who can work three jobs, attend college, stay out all night, and never sleep? Our fast-paced world is only getting faster. The speedier things get, the more rushed we become inducing a rise in our stress levels. I see myself day to day handling the chores of life. I am not always on time, but for the most part I arrive on the dot. I don't always have "good" days, but my days are not all bad, I am not always happy with myself, but I do enjoy me for me.

So, when I come to terms with all everything, I put into perspective some of the things I do that drag me down in the world. I consider carefully and more closely all of the little things that make up my daily life. Who did I surround myself with all day? Were they pessimistic, optimistic, self-destructive, motivated? They say happiness is contagious; well, so is everything else, like moods and behaviors. I look at the foods I eat; did I ingest preserved and packaged balls of sodium and MSG? I know that I prefer and enjoy eating salads, they make me feel good; however sometimes we all fall for advertising, or we just don't think about the effects of the food we eat upon our mental and physical states. Everything we do affects our sense of being. Focusing on partaking in a more active life helps us to constitute a more active state of being. Take the amount of sunlight and outside time you give yourself. Being outside is much more important than most realize it to be in our day to day lives. I now try to walk instead of getting into my car when I do not have far to go. My time and space outside allows my mind to wander and dissolve the contingencies of my problems. Even if for only a moment my issues evaporate, I still carry the peace and enjoyment from that time spent walking with me all day. I then revive those memories for the rest of the twenty-four hour cycle I spend living. The positive energy I collected in that moment, (whether I know it or not) will subliminally provide a stronger sense of well being within me.

I myself suffer from depression. I hate the fact that I have to take a pill every single day, of every single week, every month, all year long. "Why?" I ask myself. A pill is no bid deal. Yet, I want to live "normally" without having to swallow this pill. I have studied healing practices like ayurveda, yoga, meditation, and the blood science diet. I have found that you can change your life-style to create balance. Unless one is willing to change everything and endow the choice to stick to your new way of life like glue. The sacrifices you make to attain, and maintain this wholesome state of being, will not prove to be worthy of one's efforts. Unless you are fully prepared to marry your healing, you might as well just take the pill and deal. I believe these things can make you feel better, and that they do provide positive enhancement to ones life. The nature of order is disorder according to Newton’s Theories, therefore, are we really depressed? Or are we really "normal" people just trying to "deal" in a chaotic world. The choice is up to you to decide what you need. However, you can also choose to look more closely at all that you do to and begin to define whom and what it is which makes you feel good or bad. From there it is up to you to filter out the bad and re-iterate the good. Good Luck!