Tag: Disorders

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Best description of depression… or is it the best description of an depressed Empath?

I’ve seen the below link a number of times touted as the best description of depression.

What immediately struck me was it was a very good description of an Empath (a depressed one.)

Well worth a look.

http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com.au/2013/05/depression-part-two.html

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Healing Depression Series: You can cure depression or WTF! How dare you say that!

Depression can be cured.

Yes, I know that’s a bold statement to make and I also know it will make many people very angry that I even would suggest such a thing.

Actually, that anger has always bemused me. The general reaction is: how dare you suggest such a thing! You have not gone through what I have, and you can’t possibly know what it’s like to have gone through Hell and back.

And they are right. No one knows what it’s like to go through what they have gone through, unless they have gone through the same things themselves.

Empaths will feel it, but it’s not the same thing.

Those suffering from depression will know it on such a level that they resent that anyone might claim they understand and can help.

And really, I can turn it around and claim that those people have no clue what I’ve been though, and I’m pretty sure that I’m in the small minority of people who has had also relentless psychic attacks every day for years. I experienced that when I was young and lived with seemingly no hope or help.

But it’s what makes me, me. It’s what has brought me to this point in my life and qualifies me to talk about many subjects that I have personally experienced.

And while I can’t claim to have been through what everyone else has, and let’s face it, who has? It is a fact that depressions come down to certain types and certain categories.

For instance, traumatic childhood events will produce uncleared trauma, and lead to clinical depression if not dealt with. The cause will differ; the results will certainly be similar, though.

And I can claim to have experienced nearly every type of depression over the years. I can also claim that I was able to cure it and move past it.

When I was a teen, I could never accept that certain conditions were incurable. That nothing could be done to help. I could not accept that there wasn’t a solution, and so I, almost obsessively, researched and tried everything I could get my hands on.

Over the years, I must have tried most therapies at least once, and I came across some which were actually effective.

I also came across many that just didn’t do a thing for me. But I still tried them for long enough to see if they would work.

When I write about something, it’s from my own experience. These are the things that have worked for me, on a constant basis, and could be repeated in other people who were experiencing the same type of problems.

So, yes, there are people who will be incensed at my claims that I can help them.

This blog isn’t for them… at least not yet.

It’s for those who have had enough, and are willing to try things that they might not have looked at before.

Next: Healing Depression Series: Bach Flower Remedies – An Introduction.

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Depression Series: – Exhaustion or I’m too tired to read this right now.

Many depressed people have more than just depression going on with them. They also suffer from exhaustion.

I’m not talking about the kind of gosh-I’ve-been-up-all-night-and-I-really-need-to-get-some-rest type of exhaustion, I’m taking about long term, utter weariness, where everything is a struggle and just getting up and facing a new day is a challenge that is almost insurmountable.

This weariness saps our strength, our internal fortitude, and our resolve to get a move on. Worse, it adds to the depression because it means when we have to deal with things, we don’t have the energy to do so.

Exhaustion is that will make you collapse on in on yourself.

It also triggers the self-recrimination, victim process, and you become very hard, and self-depreciating. You may well blame yourself for all the things you can’t do because you’re tired, and feel that you need to go to extremes in your behavior to change things.

All the while, you know, in the very back of your mind, that you’re in a victim / poor me cycle, and you’re hoping others will notice your extreme behavior and understand that you are pushed way past your limits, and probably can’t take much more before you implode.

This is a very, very serious state to be in, and rest and renewing energies are what is needed. Unfortunately, for some, even proper sleep is a luxury rather than something that just happens.

Those with sleep disorders will be quite prone to this type of depression.

Depression is a drain on the soul, and that leads to the exhaustion people feel.

Exhaustion leads to greater depression, which in turn causes even more drain on the soul.

You can see it’s a vicious circle and one that is very hard to break out of because many other emotions tend to kick in extreme, almost undefinable levels, such as guilt, terror, panic, and the feeling of being a victim.

We are so screwed up as a society that we would rather people repress their emotions and not bother anyone than seek to heal the causes that produce such things.

This has to change.

This will change.

Even if we do it one person at a time.

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Depression Series – You’ve done great! So why do you feel so down about it?

The pressure of success

You’ve done well. People love you, and some even hate you (which probably means you’re doing something right.)

So why do you feel so depressed? Why do you have a sense of anxiety and foreboding that something bad is going to happen?

The trouble with success, and more importantly, reputation, is that they are hard to live up to.

People see what you have done, and what you have said. They see how you have reacted, and admired your calmness within the storm.

But now you feel they expect it from you all the time.  You can’t have a bad day because that’s not supposed to be you. If you get angry over something, you get admonished for doing so, in spite of the fact others (especially those telling you off) are doing the exact same thing. The hypocrisy can be frustrating.

Once you’ve set a certain standard, the pressure is on to not only maintain it, but improve it.

But you know that’s just not feasible. Somewhere along the line, you are going to fail, let everyone down and they might decide that you were deceiving them all along.

We you being fake? We you pulling the wool over other’s eyes? Did you go out of your way to deceive anyone?

No.

However, there is much more to you than this one aspect. You are not just a one dimensional Mary Sue type person.

You have your own fears, doubts, bad days and down cycles.

That’s what makes you feel so down and anxious. You don’t feel you can be yourself on those levels, and not have all hell break loose.

Moments of brilliance are sometimes more the exception than the rule, and when you fail to deliver, your followers descend on you like sharks in a feeding frenzy over bloodied meat.

They may accuse you of being lazy, selling out, ripping off those following. They will accuse you of motives that you never in your wildest dreams imagined.

But is it so? In most cases: no.

It’s not possible to be perfect all the time. You can’t give everyone what they want all of the time.

This is a very severe type of depression, because it is insidious, and you won’t even know why you are feeling the way you are, just that you are feeling it.

Taoism states: After great success, retire.

There is great wisdom in those words, though how practical they are to apply is another matter.

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Depression – You just can’t get over it but you certainly can be over it.

Depression is really is a major problem for so many. You don’t have to be an empath to suffer from it, but it certainly doesn’t help you if you are one.

The problem is that unless you have experienced  depression, it’s hard to understand what it’s like.

The other problem is that it’s not a one shoe fits all type thing. There are so many different forms and types of depression that it makes it hard to identify just exactly why you are feeling down, and what to do about it.

Talking is a good start, but unless the person you’re talking to doesn’t make it about themselves, then it may not be very useful.

The hardest part of being depressed is that you’re in a state of flux, where you feel like you don’t want to be here, yet unable to look at the reasons why.

There may be many reasons why that is, but often it comes down to finding out something that you afraid to find out about yourself, or remembering an incident that you can’t bear to face again.

For whatever reason, the pain and isolation is traumatic, and depression actually creates more depression, especially as you start to feel that you are being a burden to others, and you feel bad, or guilty about it.

There is also an odd phenomenon where someone who is depressed will sometimes make things worse by avoiding all forms of help and suggestion.

They go into a poor me / self-pity mode.

Typically this will take the form of:

–          Nobody cares

–          I don’t see what difference that will make.

–          You can’t help me or give me what I need.

–          You can’t understand the pain I’m going through.

–          I want to hurt me, by hurting you, and if possible, push you away so I can feel even more wretched.

So, you may say, well, why doesn’t the depressed person just stop doing this? But it’s not that easy. Once you are on this downward spiral, you almost become seduced into going further and further down, all the while thinking that the world would be better off with you.

So much more to say on this topic, and I will do so, but those who are depressed, take heart. Know that you are not alone. Know that there are those who understand what you are going through, and know that there are things out there that can actually help you without harming you.

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Depression series – Empaths and Anxiety or Everything is great! So why do I feel like it’s not?

Anxiety

Checklist.

Do you feel anxious without any reason?
Do you feel something terrible is about to happen?
Do you suffer from anxiety attacks?

Anxiety, though closely related to feelings of guilt, tends to be a different kind of depression.

It’s the feeling that something is wrong or the sense that something horrible it going to happen. It could be a feeling of impending doom, or problems which you are ignoring, but still are eating away at you beneath the surface.

Indeed, one of the causes of anxiety is us refusing to look at, or acknowledge something that we feel needs to be done. It might be as simple as cleaning your home while you’re choosing to chill out or perhaps that homework you’ve not done, in spite of the fact may be due the next day.

It could be that exam you’re going to take soon, or the job interview that you are about to have.  Maybe it’s that pretty girl you’re about to ask out, or that stunning fellow who you want to look your way. (To be sexist J )

One might also feel anxiety about their personal lives. Especially if they are insecure about their relationships, or feel they should be in a relationship but aren’t.

Both can cause enormous distress, as it’s often due to our self-image, and the belief that something is wrong with us, or we are doing something wrong.

Some of us are experts at avoiding looking at things that we don’t wish to do, but know we probably should. This is different to procrastinating, as with that, you are making a deliberate choice to put something off as opposed to something that should be done, but has not been. This produces a feeling of great unease which is disruptive to our normal harmony.

It could also be due to something we think we should be doing, but are not. This might be as simple as calling someone (such as a parent) or stopping what you are doing in order to placate someone else. This kind of anxiety borders on feelings of guilt.

Empaths also have the extra burden of picking up anxiety from others. You may well be picking up on the emotional distress of another, or even a sense of fear on a global scale.

Some psychic empaths will often pick up impending events some weeks before they happen. For instance, there are some who picked up 9/11 before it happened. They did not understand why they felt what they felt, only that they felt a sense of dying and incredible grief.

Such things are already out there, in the collective consciousness, well before they happen, the greater the probability of them occurring, the more the empath will feel such things.

Is it said that this type of anxiety is us sensing things from the astral levels (that is, that levels which are not the physical realm) but not being able to bring the information fully down, so we know what is going on.

Anxiety is frustrating to live with, and some live with it on a daily basis, never quite knowing the reason why. Many hide it well, but they just can’t seem to get over it.

Bach Flower Remedy: 
Aspen