This is How I Handle My Depression.
World is not a Disney Land. Things happen when we make them happen
Depression, like cancer, has also become a dreadful monster for medical science, but before I talk about others, let me clarify my own situation on the subject. I have been a cancer patient for the last four years and would not deny that this is a long enough time for anybody to slide into severe depression, but I deal with it with a very disciplined life, whenever possible, by getting up early in the morning (yeah, I know this is the toughest thing when in depression!), doing meditation, taking up regular walking, having sufficient sun exposure, writing; learning art, music, astrology; and other such things, which I always wanted to do but could not. I have a daughter who already has depressive traits and sees a therapist. She has always been a high achiever and perfectionist, and that is her problem, according to her therapist, (so you should avoid being both these things! Lol!). A smallest failure pushes her into depression, which she does not want to deal with the way I do. Because of my cancer and my daughter’s condition, you can easily understand my wife’s situation. Plainly speaking, she does not have the luxury of slipping into depression! She has to work hard to make both ends meet. Of course, it’s obvious she also is depressed.
So, moving forward, not denying the fact that a few pathetic unfavorable events in life can seriously cause depression such as childhood abuse, physical and mental abuse, criminality, etc., which should be handled by a psychiatrist or psychologist, but there are some less critical or common cases of depression or sadness and anxiety, which nowadays are also given the name of depression. If your sadness, anxiety and lack of pleasure exceed a fortnight, you may be depressed! Come on! In this severe materialistic world with complicated lifestyles – unfortunately for which we only are responsible – temporary depression, anxiety, hopelessness, increased wants and needs, pressure of achievement etc. are very common and can be dealt with at our own level and with our own inbuilt tools.
In my opinion, only robots cannot have depression! (Soon, scientists would come up with research that even robots can have depression. Certainly, as they move closer to becoming like human beings, they definitely will have it. Even some movies have shown this!) So, all my fellow humans on this planet who have been diagnosed with or have been suspected to suffer from depression — “Hail to Thee!” — you are a perfectly normal human being! And since no human being on this earth is perfect or absolutely mechanical, we all are likely to get depressed at one point in time or another.
Now relax, we have inbuilt capabilities of coming out of it on our own too. Wherever there is a component of emotional stress such as loss, damage, fear, anxiety, change of any unfavorable kind, physical ailments, etc., there will be a factor of depression. In such situations, even a lot of animals plunge into depression. Here also, there is a difference in the degree of depression between pets and beasts. Notably, wherever human traits will come into play more strongly, the disease will exhibit itself more prominently. In jungles, animals cannot have the luxury of getting depressed. Even if they do, it is only for a very short period of time.
Crude, cruel, and more practical realities of life do not allow that where hunting and being hunted, killing and being killed, chasing and being chased for survival are the basic animal instincts. But then, there is a difference between so-called highly evolved humans, and animals. Ironically, when animals come in human contact for a sizable amount of time, they get affected by our emotional traits, their animal instincts weaken, and they start behaving like more or less humans (yeah, most of the times humans are more bestial than those poor animals, I agree!), hence get depressed. So, what we need is to put them back into their natural habitats instead of making them pets and administering antidepressants to them just because we either love their look, their activities, or just because they are quite useful to us.
Coming back to our species, Homo sapiens, the human brain is very complex, and much more complex are human emotions. Science is better at discovering a disease and naming it than curing and eliminating it. Science is better at surgically removing a cancerous tumor than preventing it from occurring in the first place. Science is better at producing devastating bacteria than making an anti-bacterial vaccination (we are still not sure of the vaccinations we have developed against COVID-19, mind it!). Coming to the human brain, we are still groping in the dark, still have vacillating information regarding what percentage of one’s brain a normal human being uses generally (ten-amazing-facts-about-our-brain kind of bullshits, you see!). The point is straight — we are not sure and we will never be, because every day is scientifically a new day.
Now, the following statement may probably irk the whole western community of psychotherapists, psychiatrists and the scientists behind naming depression as a disease (of course, I know that when you are not at ease, you have a dis-ease, true!). But guys, when are you going to be at ease, by the way? Only when your desires, lust, needs, and want for more are content and limited, otherwise you are constantly dealing with a disease, right! And India has been teaching the art of containing one’s wants and needs to the world for the last maybe five thousand years at least. Of course, a large part of this country has also been spoiled by the materialistic culture of the west in the name of progress, I agree! Bur now you can see, the west has also started adopting yoga and meditation as the biggest tool of keeping depression at bay.
Undeniably, modern medical science truly provides great services to mankind, but at the same time it also cannot be denied that it has become a big industry too. In the name of progress in medical science, depression has become a huge business. Just like cancer has become a trillion dollar industry alone in the USA, and it has already captured all the big markets of the world. Chemotherapy and radiation kill patients more than cancer itself. It is unthinkable that anytime it would ever allow any new, traditional or innovative research to come up and devastate such a big market.
What can we do?
Depression has also been given a bigger hype than it really deserves, not denying the fact that it does happen in some cases to a serious extent and should be dealt with by medical treatment. But in most of the cases (e.g. in the case of my daughter), it can be handled with commonsensical behavioral changes, dietary changes, sleep patterns, using more natural products, avoiding drug and stimulant usages, yoga and meditations. However, most important of these are talking and listening — talking to someone more sensitive, caring, empathetic, dependable and understanding, also listening to them and following their suggestions. This someone may be anybody, our close friends, relatives, family members. Of course, family members have the most important role to play here, which unfortunately does not always happen. But, ultimately it is we who are going to make a difference after all. We are the sufferer, we are the doer, so we only will be the achiever. If we don’t initiate any change, change will never occur. Mind it! So, let us talk about the situation, try to follow the suggestions provided by the trustworthy people, get into doing and learning something creative, doing whatever gives us pleasure and satisfaction. Try to understand our own mind instead of letting someone else get into it and handle it. Never forget that it’s our body, our brain, our mind, our heart and soul, and we are the best judge of our needs.
