The more we are able to communicate with each other, it seems the more isolated we have become from each other. The number of people depressed is of epidemic proportions. How can this be, we ask. There are many of us who are connected via the Internet, email, and online social media groups, with all the other sophisticated forms of communication.
This brings me to the point of this essay, that if the world needs anything, it needs a world where people can get connected, network, form real communities, where people know us and truly care about us. We all want a real live community of face to face community where we can share, we can cry and we can laugh and where we can actually touch one another. Even though these modern ways of communicating are tremendous helps in moving past our isolation and into the real world they cannot end there.
A prisoner once mentioned in group how he considered depression not as a chemical imbalance but more of a living balance
“Our willingness to hand over to other people and organizations the responsibility which is ours (just as the color of our eyes is ours) stems from our inchoate desire to sink into the mindless bliss of being totally cared for, totally supported, our original wanting and getting everything. We do not want to accept that just as our eyes are organized to see only part of the spectrum of light and no others, so our sense of time is ordered to perceive time only as progressing never as standing still or going backwards. No matter how great our longing, we cannot return to the womb of the Garden of Eden. ” Wanting Everything. Dorothy Rowe. (1994) Harper Collins, London.
One of the major dilemma’s most of us face when depressed is the immobilizing isolation that is ours while being intellectually aware that we need to move our bodies and get out of bed and face our world.
In Chapter Six of I’ll do it when I feel better, the author describes how the addictive nature of the depression experience keeps us spiraled down into that chasm of negativity and hopelessness. Basically we begin to think there is no way out.
“It’s our addictive thinking, our compulsive way of processing negative information, which means that we habitually store the negative and dump the positive influx of information and that gets us wanting to fall back into the old habit of staying isolated and avoiding others. We might fool ourselves and say that people have nothing to offer me so that I distance myself from everyone. Part of my nature when depressed is to avoid and distance myself from whatever I feel is threatening, like a child afraid of the dark.” (Believing is seeing. Hugh Smith. (2018) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville, Pg. 23.)
At one time in my life I was a part of this epidemic of depression. In order to counteract my isolation and continuing a free fall into hopelessness, I moved my body, got out of bed and started walking–day after day. My daily morning mantra was “I am going to beat this thing!” Was it a cake walk–no way! But if I was to survive from whatever had me by the throat I had no choice. That was yesterday – this is today. Today is all that I have and I intend to help others move their bodies, go to a meeting, learn about the spiritual principles of the 12 Steps and get busy putting them into practice in their everyday lives.
For more information about this program of recovery and the tools that are available for you, and your own recovery click onto our website www.depressedanon.com. You will find a wealth of information about depression and the choices that you will have to choose a life lived with hope and peace. That is a promise.
RESOURCES
(C) I’ll do it when I feel better. Smith, H. (2016) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville. KY.
(c) Seeing is believing. Smith. H. (2018) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville. Ky.