Imagine yourself back at school. Today you are having your final exam in the subject ‘Depression 101’.
You studied depression very well throughout the academic year. You were literally living, sleeping, breathing it 24/7. You were an A* pupil, and your teacher, Mr. Pain, was always admiring and complimenting your homework.
Now, all that is left is for you to prove you were really doing all your practical assignments by yourself and that your deep knowledge of this subject is your real mastery.
You sit down behind a small desk. You feel comfortable and confident.
You fill in your name.
You are not worried. You know your subject. It will be over in 1 hour or as soon as you put down your 2000 words (whatever comes first).
The exam clock starts ticking. You compose yourself and turn the page over…
Your eyes scan the three possible choices:
‘Depressed as hell!’ Provide support and evidence to this statement.
‘I will never break free from this depression!’ Elaborate and discuss.
‘I am depressed’. Compare and contrast this statement to ‘I am feeling tired and totally exhausted ’.
Your stress level goes through the roof!
You did not see it coming. These questions are not even close to the practical assignments you were so brilliant at all these months.
You sit there, staring at the page, totally frozen and shocked…
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What’s just happened? Why was it so hard?
You can feel depression very well. You know what it means to be depressed.
But can you describe it?
If I were to ban you from using the words ‘depression’ and ‘depressed’, what words would you use to describe your emotions and feelings?
For example, you may feel: abandoned, abused, achy, agitated, alienated, alone, angry, anguished, annoyed, anxious, apathetic, ashamed, etc.
Uncovering these hidden emotions and feelings can be very therapeutic and healing. Taking these ‘discoveries’ a step further, can get you unstuck, by revealing the hidden issues and problems that were swept under the ‘Depression’ carpet for so long .
However, be warned! You may cry a lot! Don’t hold your tears back! Someone once said: ‘Tears are words the heart can’t express’.
As you may get all sorts of emotions and feelings stirred and surfaced up, ideally you should have someone you can talk with.
At the end of the day, only you can make the choice: to continue keeping your feelings and emotions all bottled up, corked up and labelled ‘depression’, or courageously step onto the path of awareness.
There is a lot of help available once you begin to understand what issue or problem you are trying to avoid dealing with or simply have no clue how to solve!
One issue by one, one step at a time, slowly and surely…that’s the journey of recovery from depression.
Have a go! I challenge you to begin expressing the true feelings that have been made invisible by the one catch all label: ‘Depression’.
Do it in the comments below, if you would like to get my feedback or simply to share.
Love and healing!
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