LET'S TALK ABOUT DEPRESSION

When you feel like you're out there all alone.

What is Depression?

One Definition of depression is a persistent feeling of sadness and loss of interest.

5 Signs of Depression that feed off one another that I am personally acquainted with are the following:

1. No Desire To Wash: Overwhelming sadness can make you forget the last time you bathed or changed your clothing.
   
2. Overweight: Weight gain is a by product of depression because you tend to find comfort in food with no exercise regimen to offset over eating.
3. Sloppy Clothing: After gaining the weight you take comfort in wearing tops that slouch and jogging pants that let your belly bulge hang free.
4. Making Excuses to Stay Away From Everyone: When you are depressed you have no desire to go out and you don't want company because you haven't washed your butt or changed your sloppy unwashed clothing.
5. Physical Pain: The severe loss of desire to communicate with others and the overworking of your organs and joints to support the added weight can manifest itself as physical pain in your body. You start out resorting to over the counter pain killers for relief, but you eventually graduate to opiates that you get your hands on either legally or illegally, and then the cycle continues.

All of these behaviors relate to and perpetuate one another and before you know it you find that the monkey on your back has grown from a Chimpanzee to a Silver Back Gorilla. You find yourself constantly trying to get out from the unbearable weight.

I wrote in my book Inspirational Verse for Those Who Hunger and Thirst about depression feeling like the weight of the Clouds...

Weight of the Clouds . . . 

There were days when the clouds hung so low that I felt they would touch the ground and never let me up from under the weight that held my mind in a prison designed by the enemy, the father of all lies, who wished to have me. I was of two minds during this time. I wanted God to save me from myself and the bad decisions I was making because I believed that God could. But I also blamed God for not helping me when things went wrong and not coming to my rescue. I wasted so much time waiting on God to show up—only to realize that God had been waiting on me. 

I thanked God for waiting and promised him that I would not waste the chance I was given to help someone else find the way to get out from under the weight of their depression.

You're always the last one to know that you're depressed. You can get help for your depression thru therapy, anti-depressants, and finding your way back to the place in your life when you were happy. I tried each of those in my search for my cure, for depression is indeed a disease. I did not find fulfillment until I found my voice to speak out about my depression which I constantly battle with.

I will talk more about my journey back to wellness in another post.

So until then...

Don't take what you can get.

Get what you want.