Overcoming Depression

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Life Is...how to remain unaffected by disappointment, failure, and loss, which are an inevitable part of human life, is a challenge that everyone faces. There are no exceptions to it. Since life is bipolar in nature, and success and failure constitute its two enduring faces, the need to learn to live with them meaningfully is a ceaseless quest. As long as one lives, one will have to encounter them. While there is no choice in the type of experiences that life will bring to us (of course, in the larger sense, according to Karma theory, they are our own doing), there is a definite possibility of how we respond to them. As human beings, we are not mere machines controlled by external forces, but have an inherent and inbuilt power and need to decide our responses, whatever be the situation in life.

Though pleasure and pain are inseparable, pain plays a more influential role in moulding personality and character than pleasure. Pain reminds us of our limitations and, if taken rightly, is a means to deepen life. Pain plays the role of a teacher, educating and guiding us towards higher states of being. The difficulty comes when we refuse to learn and instead cling to pain. That is how so many people go on privately fondling their painful memories, nurturing resentments, and planning to set 'others' right, not realising that what must be set right is within and not without.

Depression Is Inevitable

Everyone, at times, feels abused and neglected, or encounters failure and cruelty. The most immediate response to this is a feeling of sadness, a feeling of dejection and depression. But if feeling dejected and depressed is one part of the reality, the presence of strength and resilience in facing life is the other side. There are numerous instances, recorded or unrecorded, in the lives of men and women, which point to this uncommon degree of courage, calmness and enthusiasm even in the face of most trying conditions. We often wonder at these more-than-ordinary examples of strength and ask: Is it possible? for us?

Though depression or extreme state of dejection and hopelessness has been with mankind right from the earliest days, many current newspaper reports suggest that depression is on rise. Mental depression is more widespread today than ever. This is despite the fact that there is almost an astronomical increase in income levels, comforts and medical care—or it may be it is because there is too much to enjoy but little to aim at, ultimately, that we have come to this state of affairs. According to some observers, it is depression, and not deadly diseases like tuberculosis, HIV or heart ailments, that would soon top the list of fatal factors responsible for terminating the human life.

Depression is a feeling of intense loss and inadequacy. It is a state of mind where a person feels deprived, helpless and insecure. Psychologically, depression means either getting what one does not want, or not getting what one wants. Though depression is an effect, it, in turn, becomes a cause, too. A depressed person may lose enthusiasm and interest and want to withdraw himself from others. His responses are often monosyllabic, limited and cold. He seems to be resigned to circumstances and does not want to be disturbed.

There is no definite way in which a person may become depressed. There is no set cause and effect relationship in this. What may cause depression in one person may be the cause of encouragement in others. Take for example Edison's response to his repeated failures at finding the right type of metal filament for the electric bulb. When he finally succeeded and was asked how he could keep his calm in spite of so many (as many as hundred) attempts, he replied it was no failure at all. It was just a 100-step process to success!

To be continued