Fighting Against Depression

An Inquiry: I’ve been fighting depression for three years and I’m still depressed. What do I do?

How We Would Respond: Not exactly sure what fighting depression involves for you, but your description is telling as it relates to your mindset. To fight is to resist and when you resist you are expending, and also providing, energy. Do you really want to do this with respect to depression?

If you expend energy in response to depression, what impact will it have upon the depression itself? It will run down your reserves, but will it deplete the depression? Depression is not some physical structure that you can push around: it is a mental construct. You’re not going to wear it down by forcing energy upon it.

You certainly wouldn’t want to, we would think, provide energy to your depression. That would only enhance its effects. This would seem to leave removing energy entirely from the equation as the remaining option.

Actually this would be the wisest choice as, by removing energy, you would not be depleting yourself nor providing the depression with your energies (enhancing it in the process). If you would impartially consider your depression, not providing any form of emotional or physical energy to it, you would also find its impact upon you diminished.

Try to step back and impartially observe, rather than reacting in response to any depression you might feel. See what happens…