Let’s take an imagination train into your mind….

It is dark. It is hopeless. It is self-loathing. It is isolated and afraid. It is sad. It is guilty. It is full of shame. It is so many emotions you could never sort them out. You desperately try to think your way past these emotions. You try a few self-help concepts. You get advice from friends. After doing all you know to do you feel the immense weight of all the emotions as darkness closes in. HELP! You are screaming for help, but all efforts on your part and others seem to vanish immediately into the dark abyss of your mind. HELP…HELP…HELP…HELP…  Although your cries for help continue they are drown out by the confusion of what to do next. Finally, you give up. You lay your head on your pillow and simply give up. You then spotlight one part of your mind: self-worth. After the mix of emotions spiral into the dark abyss, after failed efforts to regain control, your mind spotlights the idea that “you are worthless.”

This is depression

People think depression is sadness, which in part it is, but what people miss is something I hope our imagination train will bring into the light is that depression is so much more than sadness. Sadness is usually the aftermath of losing the war on effort to control too many emotions that are taking control of your mind and inevitably your life. Short of grief counseling I have never counseled depression from the point of sadness. There is always…hear me out…there is always so much more to depression. The sadness that people see on the external is the reflection of hopelessness…or the loss of hope that anything can be fixed. The person has relinquished control from pure emotional exhaustion and accepted the deceitful whispers that nothing is working and therefore they must be “worthless.”

Depression is always complex, not to mention there are many forms of depression. Some depressions are curable with talk-therapy (seeing a counselor), some depressions require the help of medications in combination with talk-therapy, while other forms of depression are chronic requiring close monitoring for a long period of time or even life in severe cases. If your imagination train is dark, hopeless, exhausted, and beating you up there is always help to alleviate your sadness and underlying mix of emotions. There are life skills to help you detect early warning signs and thus prevent severe darkness in the future. There are ways to regain control. There are support groups for you. There are people and places you can turn to that will be there with you while you navigate your train of thought through the darkness, to the light at the end of the tunnel, and out into the sunshine again.

If you, or anyone you know are depressed and feeling suicidal here are some valuable resources:

IN THE CASE OF AN EMERGENCY ALWAYS CALL 9-1-1

Below are some statistics of depression: 

  • 11% of adolescents have a depressive disorder by the age of 18.
  • 16,000,000 U.S. adults had at least one major depressive episode in 2012. This made up approximately 6.9 percent of all adults in the country.
  • 14% of women from, a 2013 postpartum depression study, had the disorder four to six weeks after giving birth.
  • 30% of college students reported feeling depressed, which disrupted their ability to function in school.
  • $80,000,000,000 is the annual cost of depression in the U.S. due to lost productivity and health care.
  • 10% of American adults age 65 and older have a diagnosable depressive disorder.

Further Blogs for your reading: Broken is Not Worthless

Stewart’s Gift Counseling