Depression – When you are at the bottom of the pit
Depression-Depression-Depression- Depression
It is generally known that there are basically four types of depression. These are:-
1. Topography – A hollow or sunken part e.g. a pit.
2. Weather – A low barometric pressure surrounded by higher pressures.
3. Economy – A decline in business activity accompanied by unemployment and lowering of income. [This can often give rise to the type of depression described in 4.]
4. Personal – A lowering of vitality or functional activity or the state of being below par in physical or mental vitality.
The medical profession further catagorizes item 4 into into a number of groups and sub-groups that you can read about in the book Understanding and Curing Depression.
When people suffer from depression [4.], amongst other things, they often say that they feel lost, in a fog, overwhelmed, anxious, or at the bottom of a pit.
The good thing about this is that if you are at the bottom of a pit the only direction left to go is up and out of the pit. 🙂
If you manage to find yourself at the bottom of a pit because you lost your way in the darkness or in a fog, or you were overwhelmed and pushed over the side, or slid to the bottom as a result of slippery or crumbling sides, do not give up hope. You should be able to manage to walk or climb out of the pit, especially when the dust settles, or the fog lifts and you can see better.
Should the sides still be slippery or crumbling then you may occasionally slip back a little, or even right to the botttom again. However, as you are now aware of the problem, you can take more care and preventative action, or even take a different route. You can even call for help. Quite often help is closer than you think.
Help could take the form of the end of a rope thrown to you, or a ladder lowered to you. However, you will still have to do some work yourself. This includes, tying the rope around your waist and climbing the sides with the rope to steady you, or you may have to climb the ladder with, or without the security of a rope around your waist.
If you managed to injure yourself during your descent to the bottom of the pit and could not contribute to your rescue, help may be needed in the form of a rescue team to recover you.
We can use the information above as a parable for overcoming depression. Then the pit would be the depression, and the feelings of being lost, in a fog, overwhelmed etc would be the symptons associated with depression. The rope and ladder would be the counseling to assist you, and the physical act of climbing out yourself would be what YOU do to help yourself to recover and prevent problems in the future. Should the situation be dire enough for you need a rescue team, this may equate to the need for you to take a trip to hospital. Hopefully, this will not be required.
I liken the need for counseling to receiving a laceration to the forearm, hand, or hip as a result of a nail protruding from something that you pass by frequently. You will probably need to disinfect the wound and place a dressing, such as a bandage on it to protect the wound whilst the body repairs itself. You may even need a suture or two if the wound is large. Then you would need to take action to prevent similar problems in the future. This could involve hammering the nail flush with it’s surrounds or removing it altogether.
If you treat only the wound and not the cause of the wound you can expect more problems. I recommend undertaking counseling for depression and working on yourself to prevent problems in future. This is what I did to assist in my recovery from depression.
I shall be discussing ways and means of beating your depression, without the need to resort to taking anti-depressants, in future posts. I have found from experience, discussions with other sufferers, and in-depth reading to determine what causes the imbalance of chemicals that medical practitioners say causes depression, that it is quite possible that anti-depressant medication can cause more problems than they remedy. This will be discussed in much more detail in future posts and in great depth in my book when it is completed.
When you were at the bottom of the pit you may have experienced some anxiety. This is often related to depression and is a combination of fear and worry. Should you find yourself being anxious, try to remember that FEAR is an acronym for False Evidence Appearing Real, and worry is like being in a rocking chair – it gives you something to do but gets you nowhere.
You can learn more about how to cure anxiety and panic attacks here. This gives solutions, other than medication, to cure anxiety and panic attacks and much of this can be applied to beating depression as they are all closely associated.