If you think that Depression is an illness…

While my current belief is that depression is more complex than a straightforward illness, I see no harm in placing it under a medical umbrella, if it can be useful.

So, if you want to consider it an illness, I won’t rush to convince you otherwise!

However,

If you think that depression is an illness, then treat it like one! 

No, I don’t recommend routine MRI scans to see if any areas of our brains have changed in size when depression hits hard…

If my brain is about to be tested, then I would like to know first what it is going to be compared to?

Is it to my high-school brain scan during the time I was obsessively and hopelessly in love? Or maybe to my breastfeeding brain scan when I thought that my IQ is all gone into my MQ (milk quality)?

Hmmm… If only I had those scans! I would be very tempted to explore all those images and play with hypotheses…

However, I must calm my scientist within before I start generating ideas of my own in regards to what else we can test, poke and zap in a truly scientific way!

So, please, my inner scientist, be quiet and let my medic speak!

Suppose Depression is an illness. A disease!

Suppose anyone who has experienced depression agrees: a hell of a dis-ease it is!

Let’s remind ourselves what exactly do we do when we get an illness?

Say you have a cold. A trivial runny-nose, pressure-on-your-ear-drums, clouds-in-your-head annoying common cold! No smell, no taste, no energy… Remember having one of those?

OK. There can be quite a number of choices what people do when they contract a cold. Some people take a whole week off, while others pride themselves to continue their lives as normal as possible. There are, of course, many other ways in between…

However…

I would like to point you to one universal trend I was able to identify:

The good care of noses!

No one blames their nose for getting a cold!

And I am yet to see a person who grabs a boxing glove during the onset and starts punching his/her face to rid themselves of their cold!

In fact, having a cold seems to be the perfect time to be particularly gentle around the nose area: soft tissues, not much rubbing, gentle blows, healing balms and inhaling aromas etc.

Even those who push themselves hard to get on with their lives, despite this nuisance illness, still perform some kind of gentle and caring rituals towards their physical body.

 

Self-care appears to be the answer to getting better!

 

If you consider depression an illness, then your main job is to:

CARE for your body,

BE GENTLE, BE KIND, BE LOVING towards it

and… most importantly,

LISTEN to your body!

 

Close your eyes, breathe deep and listen to your body….

 

What does it need right now?

Fresh air? A nourishing meal? A glass of water? A shower? A soft touch? A gentle stretch?

 

Only you can tell, and therefore, only you can take your first baby steps in a healing direction!

You might not feel like caring, but care anyway! One small tiny step at a time!

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