Depression As A Crisis Of Meaning Or Mental Illness - All Depends On Your Definition!

Depression seems to be more prevalent in our modern age

. Even preschool children are now being prescribed antidepressant medication! Maybe what we need to be doing is getting to the root of the distress rather than handing out dangerous substances!

It seems that, once we visit the doctor with certain symptoms, we are immediately defined as having a mental illness, furnished with tablets and sent off to a therapist. Some people with very severe depression may require and benefit from, short-term medical treatment and/or psychological help. However, the majority of us may not necessarily find this a beneficial or effective treatment.

Maybe we have the solution deep within us? If we treat depression as an illness that we need to cure, we could miss its most vital message and gift.What if we are merely experiencing an existential crisis of meaning in our lives! Is it possible that we are just,shedding our old skin like a snake does?

We may go through many of these episodes, where life becomes meaningless and empty. We cannot make any sense out of what is happening to us or around us. Nothing seems to matter and we have lost our joy and passion. We may feel as if we have fallen into a dark abyss and cannot get out.

Maybe we are not meant to "treat" or "get rid of" or "run away from" our depression. We may need to go through this time of mourning, as we let go of everything familiar that may no longer serve us.

Maybe part of living is to experience this existential anxiety or void. It could be the way for us to just be with ourselves for a while,as we rethink who we are and where we are heading. It may be time for us to withdraw from the outside world and cocoon ourselves until we are ready to emerge,transformed from our experience.

If, instead of trying to flee from our fear or anguish, we sit still and just listen within, we will receive our answers.

If we viewed depression as a natural experience of deep reconnection with ourselves, instead of something to be avoided at all costs, then medication would be unnecessary and we would welcome this time of wisdom and new beginnings it has to offer.

by: Maria Parkinson

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