The Bright Side of Depression (My Book Sharing)
Author of The Bright Side of Depression, Jim Geddes
"How Depression can guide you into constructive character change."
"Depression is an opportunity. As unpleasant and as horrible as it can sometimes be, depression is a unique opportunity that can lead to personal growth. Depression is a necessary warning sign of the need to make changes in our character and life-situation. Depression is usually a constructive process, intended to slow us down for a better look at ourselves, with a view to amking major changes in belief, values, and attitudes."
"The Definition of Depression: Depression is sorrow and anguish that is combined with the other negative emotions of anger, fear, and guilt."
"To resolve the depression, simply reverse the process, returning from depression to sorrow by resolving and removing the secondary partner-emotions guilt, anger, and fear."
"What If My Depression Is Biochemical?
Biochemical depression is an illness and can only be diagnosed and treated by physicians and psychiatrist. Just as there is no psychologiacal cure for medical depressions, even more so is there no medical cure for psychological or characterological depression. In psychological depression you must work it through yourself, with perhaps some counseling to assist you. The onus or responsibility in psychological depression is on the person himself/herself to change his/her character, namely attitudes, habits, thinking, beliefs, or life-style. Ninety per cent of all depressions are psychological and characterological."
"Depression, if it is psychological depression, is not a mistake or backward step. Depression is usually a forward step which results in significant personal changes, readjustments, and good decisions. It is the discomfort of depression that pushes us to accept the need for change. It is the slowing down of depression that gives the pause which results in a clearer look at ourselves."
"When is Self-Help Not Enough?
1) When you have no idea of the cause of your depression
2) When you do not yet have the discipline to work through the depression on your own
3) When you have not had a good, recent medical check-up which may show some depression-causing illness, in which case - medical help is needed"
"Character reconstruction = changing some fundamental beliefs, some deep-rooted habits, and emotional expressiveness"
Dealing with anger..."reducing emotional pressure and eliminating extrame outburst."
"Martyrdom = a false value of acceptance of self-sacrifice. Thinking that if I sacrifice myself for others - - - they will someday appreciate me and return the kindness....when in fact - - others begin to demand more and more, which the martyr trys to comply with but finds that it is not possible. When the martyr finally denys such impossible demands, the martyr is pressured, threatened, and accused for not caring for them. The false belief that self-sacrifice pays off in the long run - - is not true. It is the martyr that needs to change his/her own belief system in order to no longer be the martyr."
"Character change resolves the depression."
Depression lifts when one "takes time to think through his/her misfortunes and accepts the serious losses, makes the necessary adjustments, and begins to look ahead with hope toward the balance of his/her own life."
"Depression helps me to focus on the areas of life that I want to improve."
"Depression slows us down to have more time for major decisions."
"Depression motivates us to face problems, not to run away from them."
"Depression is to protect us from making any decisions until we have more time to carefully analyze the present crisis."
"Depression points us to critical areas of our life that are in need of repair and improvement; it insists that we use our mental energy and ability to find solutions and put these solutions into adaptive changes that will satisfy us."
"Don't fight YOUR Depression - - Work It Through: Maybe the problem is your lack of self-confidence, shyness, emotional inhibition, or undue pessimism or optimism; but depression is not the problem. Depression is your own mind's final attempt to have you face the problems through to a resolution."
"Severe Depression = Multiple-cause depression which usually occurs in kind, generous, well-meaning people who do not have a clear idea of what they want out of life. Consequently, they go along with the ideas and pursuits of family and friends, ending up depressed because of a loss of meaning and personal identity. These depressions do not appear to be adaptive because they lack an easily identifiable single cause of depression."
"No depressed person needs further failure, and these failures should be avoided if possible. Every failure is dangeerous because it can deepen depression. For this reason, every attempt to succeed must be planned carefully to ensure its success."
"If early childhood experiences were frightening, degrading, confusing, abusive, it may be that a trained counselor can help with the unraveling and sorting out that is a part of depression resolution. Get wahtever help you need. Do not go it alone if the load is too heavy to bear. And get the help soon!"
"Blaming is looking backward and never leads to inner growth. Instead of blaming others, the depressed person must accept the responsibility for change and improvement in his/her own self. Blame only turns others against us, and makes it even harder for us to change ourselfves."
"Mental Health and regular honest expression of emotions go hand in hand. Emotions are for expressing, not suppressing. Positive and negative emotions are both healthy when they are honestly let out in the open."
"An important step out of depression is learning new habits of regular, honest, emotional expression."
"Stages that lead to Depression:
- We are distressed or angry, and we politely pretend happiness instead of showing the distress and anger. This is called inhibition.
- We continue to feel the distress, and the pressure becomes a burdensome preoccupation which interferes with present pleasures.
- The pressure increases, bringing with it decision, discontent, and discouragement. Cracks appear in the emotional armor; outburst, crying, and confusion appear.
- Unexpressed emotions multipy the pressure, and there is illogical thinking, lack of energy, extreme moodiness, and loss of hope. This is depression."
"You Can't Hurt the Feelings of Others...
Never worry that your emotional honesty may hurt the feelings of others, because they can only cause their own feelings to hurt and only you can cause your feelings to hurt.
This means that each person is responsible ONLY for his/her own emotions and feelings and mood.
Our emotions are always a matter of CHOICE, which we decide for the effect we want then to have on others, or, which we decide for our own enjoyment (as in the case of self-pity and most depressions), or, for a mixture of both reasons."
"Depression is an unpleasant but necessary stage in personal growth and development. Depression is not mysterious and unexplainable; rather, it is rational, adaptive, and directly related to our personal problems."
"Depression can be resolved:
- First, by understanding it.
- Second, by getting the right attitude toward depression.
- Third, by breaking bad habits that cause depression.
- Fourth, by changing false beliefs that cause it.
- Fifth, by learning new personal and social skills that can lead out of depression.
These five points are WHAT IT TAKES!"
This was copied and pasted from the SFYR Using Depression As A Guide page. It's something that was read over and over and at times was able to help focused. Lord knows that we've got some tough stuff going on in my life at the moment and if we don't keep finding stuff to help lift our spirits, the depression can get the best of us and it is harder to pull ourself up out of it.
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