Depression is....

i think that this rarely happens. SOmetimes the soul submerges.... but it is still there. Maybe there are few people without souls... but mostly, the soul is alive, scars and all.

I agree. Suspended animation, not death.

Depression is not with me now, thank goodness.

It's a distortion of perceptions...a cage for the soul...a dark room you don't remember entering...it's something you can't explain and explanation would be meaningless anyway...it's a sense of "wrongness" not unlike like pain, you can't remember how it feels when it isn't present because to do so would be to feel it again
Yeah, I know I used too many words but I don't plan to revisit this thread

Depression is like living with a really horrible mean housemate who leaves insulting notes for you around the house all the time.

Good one!

Depression is an inner voice that says meaner things to you than any other person ever did.

Depression is the painful death of your present and future, and the resurrection of your past.

Depression is lonely.

Depression for me is like being the Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz. Cold and hollow and empty---there's just nothing there. It's also like being the Cowardly Lion having lost your courage. I guess the Scarecrow is next...

Depression is the absence of hope or faith

Only one of these statements can be true:

1. Depression is a sign that you're not right spiritually, so that means it's your fault if you have it.
2. Depression is a medical condition that needs treating, and no fault of your own.

Which of those are you saying about me?

I refuse to let this go, because ANY time someone says depression is spiritual rather than medical, that's making a statement about my spiritual condition, my standing with God, and I resent that.

there is no test for depression being medical. And it is not this/or. There are biological components. But there is chemistry to love... and yet we don't call love chemical imbalance.

Psychiatry is not exact science, as much as many would want it to be. Human psyche is too complicated for that.

And if your spirituality is okay (I am not refering to God even. I am not saying go to church. I am a polytheist personally), why do you always react in this way? I define spirituality as something beyond your human self - a sense of purpose, fulfillment. And this don't come in pill and without this, I believe, you cannot reach satisfaction.

I refuse to let it go, because each time somebody promotes the medical model, it implies I am damaged goods, defective being, broken brain... while the world of 2000s is oh-so-swell and there is not problem and I have no reason to feel what I feel, I should just pop a pill and STFU. It implies MY spiritual feelings are probably just a symptom and I should just take my meds and let it go....

See... there are two sides of the story.

............

Why do I always react that way, if my spirit is right with God? Because my spirit IS right with God, and I don't accept having anyone, particularly a non-Christian, tell me it isn't. I am a Christian, I believe what the Bible says, and I'm not going to complicate Christianity with a bunch of cosmobabble. Any time someone says "depression is spiritual," that is the same thing as saying I wouldn't have depression if I were right with God. And I reject that.

So there is something wrong with my physical brain. Big deal. That's not a disgrace any more than missing a leg is. Why having a damaged brain would be more stigmatizing than being spiritually messed up, I can't figure out. At least having a defective brain doesn't make it my FAULT, as it would be if it was my spirit that isn't working right.

Why need to insult my beliefs then, if yours are enough? I said SPIRTUALITY IS NOT JUST ABOUT DEITIES, but about sense of purpose. And I maintain that without it, one is just drifting through life aimlessly and cannot be happy or at peace.


Look, I admit some things are my fault. I made mistakes for which I paid. Blaming brain will not help be improve the way I act... I prefer to learn and grow. I prefer to believe that some -most- of my feelings have so real basis, however extreme they are... When I drift in the wrong direction, when I get disconnected from the world... I start slipping.

So for me, it's mostly spiritual. My experiences are spiritual. Although medical model would dismiss them as mere halucinations of broken brain probably.....

It is not "deities." It is God. One God. Stop insulting and blaspheming Him by talking of "deities."

Just like in case of "depression is medical" we have no factual proof here.

I am not telling you what to believe in. I am not telling you not to take your meds (just saying it is not all there is to well being and some of us have different experience). Life is too complicated to be jotted down in simple rules.

Depression is pain...but this pain does not need to go unprofitable. Take this little happy pill and make us happy!

Depression is like wearing a cloak over your head. No-one can see in properly and I can't see out properly.

Depression is like trying to breathe through a coffee strainer. As hard as your lungs pull you're only able to get so much air. It makes you feel weak, and tired, unfulfilled.

I've been in and out of depressions. I had to restart meds this week after realizing I was really slowed down, disorganized and 'depressed' about the family I came out of and my daughter. I've been healed of depression once in church...it just lifted and I had my sense of scent back, so in that sense a spiritual touch healed me, whether the causation was brain chemistry or my thought life, or guilt or anger. Sooo many people suffer from depression. How can we say it is only chemical/physical, or only spiritual at the source? There must be some common denominator. I do know for me, the meds kicked in right away and I was thinking and moving faster; I think it has to do with the electricity in the brain and how the synapses are firing. Who knows, we all hate it. I have clear spaces without meds, then I go back and need them. 'didn't mean to ramble on so.....

Depression is feeling alone even when your surrounded by people.

just a reminder this is not a place for arguments. we each have our own opinions on spirituality and is not to be debated here. thank you all for your understanding.

Depression is like living in quicksand where it takes every last morsel of your effort just to float and inhuman strength to think about getting out of the pit.

That's the truth!