<font color="blue"> For me, there is a big difference between distraction and denying. I have chronic pain and with that came chronic depression. It is always there. But if I concentrate on it, give it full attention, that only feeds it and makes it deeper.

My depression sucks me down into a black swirling mass of chaos and misery. Darkness so dark I can't see in front of my face. The more I give in to it, the farther I fall. It feeds on attention. When I allow the lies that it tells me to ramble around in my head, then more and more black thoughts are added. And the swirl is fed and I fall farther into it.

That feeding, that attention, is different than denying. I don't deny I am depressed most all the time. It's always underlying every thought. I have to admit that I need to question each answer, each thought, and determine if it is truth, or one of the lies of my depression.

Distraction is allowing myself to be depressed, (knowing that I am working on it in the long haul) but not giving into it. I find something else for my mind to engage, rather than the lies and negative thinking the swirl craves.

Make sense?