Respecting Depression Symptom Treatments

Have you been feeling particularly down in the dumps for such an uncharacteristically long amount of time that you’ve considered taking anti-depressant drugs? Uncomfortable symptoms are the body’s way of telling us that something isn’t right physically, uncomfortable emotions (as well as physical ones) are the psyche’s way of trying to tell us what we’re lacking mentally, emotionally or more collectively, ‘spiritually’.

Let’s say you become violently sick and keep throwing up. You happen to have some anti-nausea pills so you pop a few of those. Then you remember that codeine prescription left over from a broken arm a couple of years ago so you decide a couple of those couldn’t hurt. The codeine numbs the pain to such a degree that you’re not aware of the localized pain in the right side of your abdomen. In this scenario you’ve just managed to prolong treatment of appendicitis, an easily curable yet deadly situation if left untreated for longer for very long at all. Pain is your body telling you where the problem is.

Similarly, depression is some deeper aspect of ourselves telling us where our mental or emotional pain is located: in our happy-sad indicator. Depression is just a sign that we should take a step back and reexamine what it is that makes us feel most satisfied, productive, helpful or complete in life. No one is happy all the time, but things like satisfaction and feeling comfortable with our niche in life are what makes life feel worth living. If we’re feeling depressed it’s time to redefine what it is that gives us these happy-feeling sensations of accomplishment or belonging.

It’s okay to be depressed. Realize mentally that it’s part of a cycle of discovery and redirection, while giving yourself emotional room to just feel it for a while. Ride it out and see what tomorrow brings.