More Depression Treatment
This treatment had its genesis by trying to look at depression in the big picture. When it first started, if you will. So let’s return to the classroom for a moment…
Before the modern era, there was very little depression (or stress too, for that matter) as we know it. Sure, people were sad, worried, angry, in pain, or plain terrified. But they weren’t very often depressed. People had different words for things then.
But also, there wasn’t an epidemic. Class, customs, traditions, religion, the struggles of poverty and societal rules all provided a more solid backbone – and a focus – for our nervous energies.
Put simply, depression thrives when we have little focus or direction in our lives. In previous eras, there was little time for many people to be depressed. And if we did feel “lost”, there were accepted ways of doing things, to pull us back on track, to when we needed to be.
For better or worse, today there are a multitude of “tracks” we can choose from. We have a smorgasbord of choices, opinions, religions, and lifestyles. We can choose none of these belief systems, or pick and choose parts of many. We can exist idly, with time but very little money, or greedily chasing large salaries. We might have doubt about which of these we wish to truly aim for.
For some, however, these increased choices comes at a cost.
In the affluent modern West, our mind can easily become directionless, rudderless, full of double guessing and doubt – all of which are the product of too much thinking.
Without the structures and sureities of old, it is up to ourselves to give ourselves the backbone once provided by society. It is up to us to save ourselves.
How? The easiest thing for us to do is to give ourselves some really clear goals and directions.
Here’s an exercise, which might help this:
Write down what you want to achieve in life. Rethink and look at this list often – it’s an important document.
Whilst this sounds extremely simple, it can be a key thing for many depressed people. Whenever they are lost, simply thinking about what they really want in life, is half the way to solving, and preventing depression.
