Thoughts On Depression

Some of the dearest people to me either struggle with depression or maybe have in the past. That being said, I am in no way trying to offend anyone. I'm writing this to give hope, though that may be contrary to how it feels at first. I've received some negative responses to my thoughts on depression in the past and that's totally fine. People have rights to their opinions and I'm aware that not everyone will agree with me. But the fact that there's different opinions about depression is proof to me that there's truth.

First I must admit that there's some frustration in me when it comes to this topic, but I think that's because I've been fighting for so long. It's in my nature to help people that are hurting as I too was hurting, but I offer help in a unique way. I believe depression is, for the most part, self-inflicted. I think there's some cases when it's not that way and it's chemical imbalances. It's in those cases not much can be done without a doctor, but for others I think there's a lot that can be done.

​I don't mean you can simply cure depression with "thinking happy thoughts" as many might say. I don't think that's enough - it requires action. By this I mean finding passion, belonging to something bigger, serving others, etc. (Easier said than done, that's for sure, but I never said fighting depression was easy.)

​If you were born into a non-privileged society, living in poverty, would you consider yourself depressed? Even if you had no clothes, no food, and no water would you go around telling people you struggle with depression? My guess is probably not. You would probably wouldn't think much about it because you wouldn't have anything to compare it to. You wouldn't think less of yourself because you'd be living like everyone else - it would be normal. The word depression ​lacks power when you take that perspective. Depression is a relative term, so is poverty.

​The feelings (and non-feelings) associated with depression are very much real. I'm not suggesting them to be fake, I'm simply taking them and putting them in a new light. To summarize, I think sometimes depression can be a result of chemical imbalance. ​​But when it's not, I think it's a result of the society, the system, and human nature. ​