The Irony Of Hope (Part 1)

Depression is certainly a thing that one should not dismiss easily. With over 50 million in America suffering from depression and over 50% of them committing suicide, the threat of depression is real.
The purpose of my writing today is not to talk about how one can manage depression, as there are many articles out there talking about it but rather, providing a different perspective to depression through logical reasoning and explanation.
The story as to how I started looking at depression from a different light came from the observations between the correlation of highly ambitious, successful, and motivated individuals with poor mental health. I then made a suggestion in an annual sharing event where I said:
“I believe that everyone should go through depression”
The responses as you would have expected is full of shock, confusion, and disgust.
How could someone wish for everyone to have depression? Is he sick? Does he need help? Is he a psychopath?
No, No, and No. Let me explain.
I believe there are 2 main ways for someone to have depression :
1.Enforced — Due to external pressures exerted on him unwillingly
and,
2. Induced — Due to internal ambitions/character/personality
Enforced depression, in my opinion, serves no tangible benefit at all.It is the act of placing someone who is unready nor willing in a situation where he is unable to understand, much less make use of it. In this case, it is of absolute importance for the person to self-realize and seeks help from professional therapists and psychiatrists.
Induced depression on the other hand, is a choice made by an individual consciously in an attempt to achieve things that may or may not be within his reach. Putting things into perspective, I’m not implying that going through depression is necessary in order to achieve greater ambitions
But rather,
Suggesting a perspective that whenever we strive for greater heights, we are already risking the fact that our disappointments from our failures may one day exceed our hopes and beliefs, causing us to fall into this terrible abyss of darkness where negativity seems to be the only thing that exists.
With this perspective if mind, is it wrong for me to say that the origin of such disappointments is due to the presence of hope, as hope spurs us to move forward innately, making us face the obstacles inevitably? And if that’s the case, is hope the true cause of depression?
It is of general consensuses that “hope” is the solution for depression. A quick google search online will provide you with hundreds of different hope-providing strategies to people who are suffering from depression. However, if the above factors stand true, how can “hope” be the solution to depression? Will it instead create more bad than good in the long run?
Therefore, I believe that there must be a different solution to depression and the alternative is in the way we perceive depression, not as a weakness but as a leverage —( “Depression As A Leverage (Part 2))
Thank you
Ryan.A