I have been prone to depressive bouts from time to time, but I wouldn't call myself depressed or mentally ill. I
do refer to my sometimes erratic emotional stability as depression because I don't really want to get into labels and the ensuing imagery that it projects as well as the baggage that it brings along in casual conversation... I just don't have the energy nor the will.
I don't believe that depression is a disease like diabetes or polio. I don't believe that drugs and therapy help very much at all. If someone tells me that they are on anti-depressives and see a therapist, I am out of there so fast, it ain't even funny. Depression exists in the brain, the brain is part of the bodies physicality, so most people and the medical community assume that the answer in treating it lays in the same medical practices one would use to treat other physical problems.
Go and get some drugs and see a professional doctor.
The drugs are dangerous and have MASSIVE side effects. The most of which, the medical community doesn't even know about or are suppressing the public knowledge of.
I am well aware that a lot of folks in this world are not born perfect. Some have inherited genes that produce less serotonin or dopamine or have problems in metabolizing these substances... that is a fact, I am not disputing this. I just personally believe that the answer is in our thoughts.
Everything starts with a thought, it is what we choose to think about that influences our brain physiology is my personal belief. I do not think that I am helpless to this disease... I am not a victim of depression, I am a victim of my own damn thoughts. It is my thoughts that lead to depressive states of consciousness.
A depressed state of consciousness is just that, you are fucking almost unconscious with your body running amok doing what it thinks is right. Since most of my old daily thoughts used to be depressed ones... voila, I was depressed! We always have the ability to choose peace, it's just that most of us do not know how to think properly and allow our monkey mind to run the big show. Force yourself to think positively... you know... the ol' glass is half full, not half empty, they are both identical, but one viewer chooses peace and the other chooses disharmony.
CHOOSE PEACE NOT DISHARMONY, LEARN TO LOVE YOURSELF PROPERLY, DEPRESSION IS SIMPLY A STATE OF ZERO SELF LOVE. THE ANSWER IS IN YOUR INNER CHILD, GET IN TOUCH WITH IT.
Don't get in touch with the inner child that was abused, mistreated, or neglected... get in touch with the one that loves to pet puppies and cats, the one that loves to play in the dirt, the one that is happy sitting there and just reading your favorite book or listening to your favorite song... in fact, seek refuge in truly meaningful music. Great music and literature is usually divinely created and are imbued with great power.
Throw away the pills and fire your therapist if you really want to get better. Of course, if you are so far gone that you are a danger to yourself or others, then stay on the medication and keep the therapist. Just understand that the drugs are prolonging your depressive state and are just treating the physical symptoms of depression rather than the underlying wayward thought processes that got you into that state in the first place. The drugs are also sedating your mind a bit and creating a sort of fog that you will have to climb out of before you can gain more consciousness, which is what is needed to be more peaceful.
Most therapists do nothing to encourage a new way of thinking and are usually looking for something that they cannot possibly find. It is like the drunk looking under the streetlight outside of the bar for his car keys. You walk up to him and ask, "Well, where did you lose them?" He replies, "In the bar." You then ask, "Well, why aren't you looking inside for your keys?" He just shrugs and says, "I dunno... the light is better out here."
And just to reiterate my answer to your question.
I will run screaming into the woods if a women tells me that she takes anti-depressants and or goes through therapy, because I know that she will be just as depressed and maybe even more so a year or two later.
If a women confides in me that she gets depressed from time to time and has been working on her outlook and has sought refuge in God or the Universe, then I am all ears with a smile on my face, because I know that she is on th road to wellness. :smile: