Depression can be an opportunity for growth in disguise, it can be short lived or progressively intense for longer periods of time, but one thing we should try to avoid is medicating it without first trying to discover what it symbolizes.
In much of today’s modern and Westernized culture we look for solutions. We isolate and classify every bit of information we encounter rather than looking at things in terms of a larger perspective. When it comes to physical, emotional or mental discomfort this has come to mean looking for simple solutions to whatever ails us. If you get a headache, take some aspirin. If you get depressed, go to the doctor and he/she will give you some ‘anti-depressants’.
Treating symptoms rather than looking deeper to root causes or at the image of whole mind-body health tends to… treat symptoms and little else. Symptoms are the body’s way of telling us that it needs something it’s not getting, that it’s getting too much of something, or that it’s fighting off an infection, in which case symptoms can help us determine what it is that will assist the body in its fight.
When we get the flu or a cold we sometimes find that we suddenly begin craving juice and things with vitamin C. Sometimes when we’re ill we lose our appetites in order to be able to focus all the body’s energy on fighting the infection. We use a huge amount of resources during food digestion. Lack of appetite is a very effective way to redirect the body’s natural defensive powers.
Depression is also a sign, a sign that we’re not happy. That’s pretty obvious, but think about it for a moment. If some deeper layer of ourselves is trying to make us realize that we’re unhappy is it likelier that taking some happy pills is going to make us truly happy, or taking the time to reconsider just what it is that makes us feel satisfied? In this way depression can be very much the hidden opportunity for growth. When we’re forced to reconsider our life choices, daily activities and the like we’re apt to discover or revisit different ways of thinking and experiences that fit better with the person we are today.
With the exception of extreme cases where individuals truly feel they might harm themselves –where anti-depressant drug therapy may help give some extra ‘space’ to tackle depression in manageable packets—depression should be seen as the heralding of a burst of change. Change, after all, is the only constant. We feel death pangs as we outgrow old perspectives and ways of living; just as night unfolds to the next day, depression always yields the birth of new happiness, fresh ideas about what is satisfying and how to manifest these inspirations in our lives. In the meantime go ahead and let yourself feel bummed or downright crushed and hollow. These are the ‘little deaths’ that signal our personal evolutionary milestones.
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