Depression and Chemicals

I watched a video the other night about a woman who was Depressed. She discussed how accepting her situation was not easy because she had what she saw as a good life. She said she would spend a portion of every night relating all of the good things in her life, all of her successes, and remind herself she should be proud and happy.

What people often miss about Depression is that it isn't going to change just because your situation changes. No amount of success, love, comfort, or ease will cause you to suddenly be not-Depressed. This is about the chemicals in your brain. This is about understanding what they are doing and recognizing the patterns.

A lot of people don't like the idea of going on meds for their mental condition. I understand that. Most people don't like the idea of medical dependence. However, this is something that needs to be fixed, the same way you would take meds to help lower blood pressure or deal with your sinus issues. Meds are needed to help the chemicals get sorted.

The trick is, they don't fix it completely, and that is where the therapy comes in. In therapy, you learn the signs of your condition. You learn ways to talk to yourself when stuff gets bad. You learn how to cope with it. Most importantly, you learn that in some ways, this is just how your life will be from now on. There will be the good days and there will be the imbalanced days. On the rough days, you acknowledge that things aren't as they should be and try your best to keep going.

The way I've learned to cope is by applying the Japanese concept of Kintsugi. When pottery is broken, instead of throwing it away, they fill in the cracks with a mix that contains dusted gold, silver, or platinum. The idea is that breaks, cracks, and flaws should be celebrated as part of the history of the object, helping to create its unique story. They call this 'the art of precious scars.'

That's how I choose to see my life. It has breaks, cracks, flaws, ohhh, so many flaws. But all of those things help to build my unique life story, my moments, and my ME. My mental illness, bad decisions, moments of horror, and various points of heartbreak are part of me, just like all the nice moments. All are valuable.

Also, clearly this is a day when the Depression is not that strong.