Another Look At Depression: An Alternative Perspective
By: Debbie L. Whittle

What if depression was viewed not as an illness, but rather, a call; a call from your
own soul? Is it possible there is a gift in depression? We are told that depression is
an illness; one involving brain chemistry. Is it possible to view depression from
another perspective? Is it possible that depression can be viewed as part of a larger
life cycle? Is it possible to see beyond appearances and perceive a higher vision, a
vision of meaning and purpose?

These are the questions I ponder as I look at my own cycles of life; cycles that include
many periods of transition; periods of visiting places of longing, loneliness, isolation,
and despair. There have been many periods in my life when I felt the weight of loss,
the imprint of trauma, the torment of failure, and the hopelessness of dreams.
Yet, in the midst of it all, I keep asking the questions. Rainer Maria Rilke says in

Letter to a young Poet:
“ Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and… Try to
live the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that
are written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers,
which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live
them. And the point is to Live everything. Live the questions now.
Perhaps you will gradually, without noticing it, live along some
distant day into the answers.”

I have experienced trauma: sexual, emotional, physical, spiritual. I have experienced
loss: relationships, jobs, home, possessions, and death of a child. I have
accomplished some things I’m very proud of, and I have many regrets. There are
many reasons that I’ve felt worthless, fatigued, hopeless, self critical, full of agony
and despair.

More: http://www.power2u.org/downloads/Ano...Depression.pdf