Look very closely, look deep within, you'll find resistance. Look outwards you'll find there are no miracles out there. You beat cancer Y, the miracles lie within you.
Bi-polar schizophrenic is quite a different condition from depression. Most cases of depression can be treated with the right support and guidance, bi-polar needs medication to keep it under control.
They can't, so why resist them? Why want to be something you're not, why want to be somewhere you're not? Why do you want something to be other than it is? This is the cause of suffering, resistance to what is. This is not to suggest that you give in to a situation if it's bad, but first accept totally the situation and if you can, change it. But if nothing can be done, accept it fully, then see what happens.
Sometime we feel uneasy with new ways of looking at things, but new ways can soon become taken for granted. The science of the mind is moving on fast right now, a new understanding and awareness is fast growing. Depression in the world will soon become an illness of the past, of that I'm sure.
Acceptance of what is. As soon as you allow total acceptance to your situation, stop resisting and allow things to be as they are, a new form of consciousness takes over. This frees you from becoming stuck in repetitive negative thought patterns and allows new ways of thinking. With the right support, most people will benefit from acceptance and surrender...much more so than resorting to mind numbing medication that does not address the cause, just suppress the symptoms. Like I said, not easy, but depression is not an easy illness to deal with.
Thoughts gather momentum if we allow them to. If we are constantly troubled by negative thoughts, the brain becomes hard wired and stuck in that mode. Re-training, which actually starts with acceptance can, and usually does break the pattern. Of course this is not easy, good quality counseling, cbt and good support helps tremendously, but sometimes we have to suffer in order to find our true selves. How many times have you heard people say they came out of depression a better person? This is because from suffering we grow, from suffering we find strength, from suffering we learn to accept. Until we accept what is, suffering will continue. It's ultimately our choice.
Do we choose our thoughts? Of course not. If we could we would never choose negative thoughts. It's choosing to believe our thoughts as fact instead of fantasy that can cause suffering. Most forms of depression and anxiety (no one has mentioned anxiety, even though it often comes hand in hand with depression,) are created by endless negative thoughts creating fear and anxiety. With situational depression it's continuous resistance to what is that fuels the depression. Resistance always causes suffering, acceptance transmutes suffering and so ends suffering. This is what I mean by "self created." Depression cannot exist where there is total and complete surrender to what is.
There is a difference between sadness, grieving and depression. It's how a person reacts to life's tragedies that determines their capacity to move on. Not everyone who suffers trauma in their lives will develop depression, yet some people can become depressed for no one particular reason. And you're right, depression can arise for good reason...to point them onto a path of discovery and awakening. A person can suffer so much that eventually they decide they've suffered enough, they then look beyond the suffering and maybe find the truth.
Try watching your thoughts as a detached observer. Don't judge them, label them or question them, just observe. They will begin to slow down, notice the space in between your thoughts, with practice the gaps of no thought will become longer. Slowing down your mind in this way is a very rewarding thing to do.
Of course there are varying degrees of depression, but almost always (except for the more rare condition of clinical depression) emotions (fed by thoughts) are at the source of the condition. Thoughts become feelings and the experience of feeling physically unwell due to an underlying depressive condition is always fueled by thoughts, without exception. The body reacts to what the mind is telling it. There is now strong opinion that many types of illness can be attributed to the way we think...depression is self created, in being so it can also be self defeated.
Happiness is a state of mind, as is depression, they are in fact polar opposites. Both are transitory, unless of course if you are able to be happy for no particular reason...a pure state of mind.
My experience in 'poor' countries doe s not back that up. It seems to, on the face of it at least, there are far more smiling faces in poor countries than rich countries. Interestingly I recently read a book by Francois Lelord titled, Hector and the Search for Happiness, (just been released as a film also.) One of his conclusions on his worldwide trip to find what makes people happy was....it's easier for a poor person to be happy in a poor country than it is for a poor person to be happy in a rich country. I think he got that just about right.
I'd love to discuss this further jac, but I'm off out right now. But I would urge anyone who has an interest in the topic to watch this video, (or some of it.) It's almost three hours long, but quite an eye opener.
Indeed, mainly a Western epidemic, depression is almost entirely confined to rich countries. Rich pickings for the drug companies feeding off damaged ego's and failed expectations. Those who live a simple life with low expectations have little height to fall from and rarely need saving.
Yes they do appear to work for some people, but whether or not they do is something of a lottery. It's even stated with this kind of medication, one of the side effects are suicidal feelings, hardly a side effect imo. If you do a little research, you will find the figures for those who have committed suicide whilst on SSRI's quite alarming. Even more alarming, the amount of cases where people have committed suicide or harmed themselves or others whilst trying to come off these drugs. The medical profession claim SSRI's are not addictive, which is true, if you go by their definition of addictive. That is...needing more of the same drug to get the same effect. Non addictive maybe, but in reality leading to high dependence and extremely difficult to come off. Of course, the drug companies who push these drugs onto gp's will not tell you that.
Depression is caused by one thing and one thing only...your thoughts. Distraction from toxic thoughts (if only for a few minutes) will transcend the depression completely and immediately. Anyone who has suffered depression will have experienced moments in their day when something happens that distracts them from negative thoughts and will have experienced a temporary cessation from depression. It is the thoughts you have that cause depression, you could say to yourself, "the thoughts I am thinking right now are making me unhappy." You will not be far from the truth. Positive distractions are the key, along with real attempts to change your thought patterns can be the best way to deal with depression. Of course, easier said than done, but far better than going along the unreliable at best and downright suicidal at worst, path of medication such as SSRI's.
During the 18th century, the price of admission to an English zoo was three half-pence, or you could bring a cat or dog as payment. They were fed to the lions.
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RE: Donations top $900,000 after UK dogs' home fire
He's in mourning...