| (Contents) | 2. Getting Stuck |
In these first 5 pages, we're going to explore the world of depression. Keep in mind the world of depression seems real, very real, convincingly real. It seems real because it feels real. This first section looks at how it can seem so real, yet not be.
Imagine that each of us, each human, has a view of life. Each of us has ideas about
In short, we have ideas that shape how we see ourself, the world and our place in it.
If you've become depressed recently, you might remember that as the depression took hold, your life changed. Before, life was okay, or maybe good, or you were simply busy in your life rather than jugding it. Maybe you were in school or had a relationship or job. Maybe you were working to survive, working to build a future. Probably you arranged your time to include time with loved ones and friends, time to enjoy life.
Suddenly life changed. Something happened in the world around you. Maybe a parent or loved-one or friend died, or maybe someone left you. Or maybe your parents split up, or there was a car accident. Maybe you were abandoned-- some kind of trauma happened. And maybe you thought it was your fault, or meant something about you. The world changed a bit, but your world changed a lot.
When life changed, you felt bad, hopeless. Perhaps it felt like there was no point in working for the future. Perhaps you felt alone, not connected to your family. Maybe even friends felt distant. Perhaps you no longer seem valuable or loved. Maybe you feel love is impossible or joy will never happen again.
When life changed, something happened. But it didn't just happen, it meant something. And as you adopted the meaning, your view of the world changed, and you experienced more suffering and misery and less joy and love.
For some of you, the trauma may have happened many years ago, and you've been suffering a depression for years. Perhaps hopelessness and despair have ebbed and flowed over time. For others, the trauma may have happened many years ago, but you coped. And then something happened which brought the meaning of the old trauma back to the forefront. Perhaps for years you've coped, hoping the meaning wasn't true. Then the new trauma occurred and perhaps your brain decided it was true after all, and life became hopeless.
Life on planet Earth changed little. But your life seemed to change a lot. The key here is "seemed".
So we each have a view of life based on our ideas, what we know and what we think we know. When the trauma happened, your view shifted.
The main lesson here is that, though your thoughts are real thoughts and your feelings are real feelings, they reflect the slice of the world you can see, the bit of the world your brain lets you see, your view, not the real world.
In some ways, this makes sense. We all have experiences of mistakes where suddenly we realized we were out of sync with reality- this is easiest to see when we cause a car accident or have a near miss, or bump into a doorknob or stub a toe. In our world, everything was fine and suddenly we learn otherwise. In the next sections, we'll look deeper into the depressed view and see several ways in which it's out of sync as well, but the clues are largely hidden from us.
Someone who is depressed and wholly believing their view wouldn't read this. That you're reading this means you don't entirely believe your view. That's extremely wise. You're right to have doubts. In the next page, we'll investigate how easy it is to get stuck in depression, even while having doubts. We'll strengthen your doubts about the accuracy of your depressed view, because these doubt are your key to finding your way out.
| (Contents) | 2. Getting Stuck |