Depression is a treacherous but treatable illness .I myself have made a huge recovery over the past couple of years after living in major depression for over 7 years. Implementing positive thinking, creative visualization among other techniques have caused me to heal. Whenever I feel it trying to creep up I’ve been able to immediately realize it now and prevent it and I believe you can do the same.

Causes of Depression

Sometimes a childhood based on fear, abandonment, and unstableness can lead to the lack of skills needed to deal with the illness and even make you more prone to it. Dealing with depression is definitely a learned technique and after you have been through it bad enough you will know when it’s trying to rear its ugly head again. Through self reflection and realization of what you need to do to deal with it yourself and implementing this –I believe you can beat it.

Depression can also be triggered by an underlying medical condition such as diabetes, sleep apnea, hormonal disorder, and heart disease. In these cases proper treatment of the illness is necessary to treat the symptoms of depression. Drugs have also been known to cause depression-even prescription drugs.

My Experience-

Depression was once so bad in my life that I hit rock bottom. I felt like I couldn’t control it and at the time I was so engulfed in it that I couldn’t. I have realized since then that I allowed myself to get there. For years I allowed an unhealthy mental mindset to grip my life. Just like feeding your body a big mac  everyday –I was feeding negativity into my mind. I had allowed negativity to surround me in my relationships, mindset, and thought process. Instead of implementing positive thoughts and self therapy , I ignored it and went on in life without ever stopping to address my problem. I could have stopped it in the beginning stages and altered my mind then and tried to nip it in the bud. Instead I just kept doing what I always did. My thoughts were allowed to be on autopilot.I hadn’t yet learned that  the hard times are when one needs to control their thoughts the most.

After years of doing this and allowing my thought patterns of negativity to be on autopilot for so long-I crashed. I went from being a great person that seemed like I had everything together to not being able to handle even the slightest irritation in life.It affected all of my relationships, my job, my beliefs and led to a severe breakdown. I remember not being able to get out of bed for 3 full days. My body wouldn’t let me. I would try to get up and something just weighed me down.Other days I remember going to sleep and not waking up til 28 hours later with no drugs alcohol or anything in my system.My body was worn out.I also remember  not eating for a full seven days and losing 30 pounds in one month without trying to diet.

 For most of my life I have experienced it in waves off and on. Then when I reached about 18 I spiraled so deep into a depression that it lasted for all of 7 years. There wasn’t a night  I didn’t pray for God to take me. I had a lot of advice back then from people that just didn’t know where I was at –from people who thought in the black and white. There are too many complex facets in life for anyone to have a black and white mindset.

I sought help everywhere. I thought if this situation or that situation were different, then I would find happiness. The defining moment for me was when I went to my friends room in college one night to have the usual spill of my woes. She looked at me and said, “When you want to get out of this-you will.” I looked at her in disbelief. Did she really think I wanted to be in this? But it didn’t take long for her words to sink in and for me to realize I was the only one that could change my life. The only one who could get me out of this was myself. It didn’t happen overnight but the first step to my recovery was realizing I could change it.

 We really do choose how we respond to situations in our life. By us responding in the wrong way is how we learn to respond right. It takes a determination and I admit while you are dealing with the hopelessness, the despair its hard to find the willpower to get through this. It takes a lot of fighting. I was just so desperate to get out of it, so ready to live life again. And that is where I think every person has to get to get over this nasty illness. Then I think once you’ve made this first step of independence-you will heal just enough to be able to find the right help for yourself. Once one victory is won-you realize it is possible to live a life that isn’t clouded with this.

Depression Can Seem like an Unstoppable Force

Depression can seem like an unstoppable force. It is a devastating illness.It robs people of their energy, their sleep, their memory, their concentration, their vitality, their joy, their ability to love and work and play, and-sometimes-even their will to live.For young people that haven’t lived with it long enough to know how to deal with this monster-it can be crushing.Even with all this I still believe without a doubt that depression is beatable.For those serious about beating this illness I would suggest the book The Depression cure.

 How Can I Beat IT?

• Have Self Awareness

By  responding to life circumstances  in the wrong way and seeing the negative consequences ,we learn to respond right the next time( we need a self awareness)

In order to learn how to deal with situations effectively in our lives we have to have an attitude of self awareness and self reflection. We need to analyze our behaviors and determine whether or not they are worthy to continue. A lot of future mistakes can be handled in the present by just learning what we did wrong in the past. It isn’t always easy to look ourselves in the mirror and blame the person who really has control of our lives-us! But I promise it is well worth it in the long run to create a habit of self awareness .It will help you to be the very best you can be in all areas of life.

• Change Your Thought Patterns

I believe depression can be prevented by how we deal with things in our lives. Even with people needing medication for medical imbalances ,can be greatly helped with a change of attitude. We hold the power in our hands of what we choose to think or not. A lot of times our thoughts are on autopilot. We don’t even realize the amount of negativity we are letting in. It is possible to change your thought patterns and therefore change your life.

• Fight For Your Recovery

You are going through pain no matter what -whether you decide to fight the illness or to stay in it. I would rather be a conqueror by getting through it, but you have to make your own decision. And it’s a big decision to make.

 For me its been a battle and one that I’ve won several times. The first time I got through it was the war-I hope I don’t ever have to go through that again. After that it seems easier –it seems to be just little battles. Me deciding that no matter what the situation I’m going to accept it and not make it worse with negative thoughts. Me deciding to use visualization techniques, leaning on my spiritual consciousness, and taking care of myself physically right has caused me to prevent it. The funny thing about depression is the more you fall into  depression the more prone you are for it to come over you wihtoiut reason at all .Your body is used to it.But once you recover its as though you never had it and you can fight it .

• Deciding to Love Oneself

I think in a way the decision to fight for it stems for a love of oneself and I realize not everyone has that. I wanted a better life for myself. I wanted to live without it.I was tired of wanting to die. I was tired of not succeeding. I had to pick up the pieces and be the one telling myself that everything was going to be okay. I had to tell myself that someday my life was going to be beautiful and it is now.

• Realize the Value of Life

Back during this time in my life, I didn’t realize the value of my life. I never walked out side smelled the flowers and enjoyed a sunny day. I didn’t realize the worth of my existence-I thought if I wasn’t achieving something great I wasn’t worth anything. I didn’t realize that maybe the purpose in life could be just enjoying yourself and making yourself the best you can be. This life  is a learning stop .

•  Stop making Excuses

I am a firm believer that our thoughts and beliefs cause us to fall into depression. When we are younger its harder to realize this.

You may have to change things on step at a time

Stop making excuses as to why you are depressed or why you are sad about something. Are you depressed because of a bad marriage, a loss of a job. Maybe you need to seriously evaluate this. In order to get out of a depression-you need to realize exactly where you are at, I know it hurts, but realize what you need to let go of that may be poisoning you and what you need to hold on to.Maybe there are many situations causing you despresssion.If this is the case I would suggest an action plan.You may have to deal with one thing at a time.

For me I wasn’t really sure why I was depressed other than the loss of someone I really loved.But even with that shoul it have lasted that long?I dk all I know is that Im over that part of my life now.

• Forgive Yourself- Allow yourself to make mistakes instead of dwelling on them.Instead of letting feelings of failure overtake you try to think abotu how you will do better next time.Forgive yourself for the mistakes you make.
• Be your own advocate.

If you don’t love yourself-who is going to ? The tough truth about life is you have to be your own advocate .No one is going to help you but yourself because no one can until you do. So stop looking to other people to fulfill you and find a way to fulfill yourself. Find a way to take a life that is shattered with broken dreams and pick up the pieces. Be easy on yourself. Don’t be the critic of your own self. Be the one that encourages you. Be the one that believes in you.

The thing about people is-they will never understand where you came from or what you are going through. They see things through their eyes and not yours. This is why you have to be your own best advocate.You have to believe in what you know and think is best for yourself.

•  Connect Spiritually

 Some people can think logically and with personal perseverance make it through extremely difficult situations. I applaud them. For me the Christian Faith was a strong component in my life brought on by parents that were faithful members of church. For me, I don’t think I would be where I am today unless I could talk to someone that I believe has the power to do anything. That is very strong to me. I’ve always had a strong sense of God. The scriptures taught in church really helped enrich my life and whether you believe in church or not I think the principles are magnificent. Especially the scripture all things work together for good to them that love the Lord..Basically to me this means even the bad things that happen to you will turn out good if you handle yourself in a good way. If you decide to turn your life around and start making the right choices, then the things you have suffered will one day not look so bad and you will realize it for what it is-something that spurred you to make some life changes.

Depression Quotes

Depression is nourished by a lifetime of ungrieved and unforgiven hurts”

 Penelope Sweet quotes

There are two things that I believe are deadly to the human soul.That is when someone chooses to hold something against someone and not forgive and the other not allowing yourself to grieve. It takes time to get through certain hurts in life. We have to be patient with ourselves and treat ourselves with loving care. We have to feed ourselves good thoughts, talk with others about our problems, and choose to follow the right advice. No amount of holding a grudge is going to get us anywhere. It only ends up hurting ourselves.

If depression is creeping up and must be faced, learn something about the nature of the beast: You may escape without a mauling.”

~ Dr.R.W. Sheperd quotes

The more we learn about ourselves, learn what makes us happy and sad, the longer we go through life and situations the better equipped we are to handle our problems. That is unless we choose not to be introspective about things. A person who is introspective learns from experience and will be better at handling the same thing next time. Depression can be something we learn to deal with. You may learn that getting into certain circumstance will onlu make you feel low about yourself or being with a certain type of person romantically is a mistake that should be avoided.