Major Depression should always be taken seriously. It is a potent and life-threatening soul signal. That being said, it is not a death sentence when it is responded to appropriately and in time. Rather, it is a call to life.
What looks like an illness of the psyche is actually a healing crisis. Depression invites big, deep transformations that will ultimately bring many rewards. Depression is a call to transfiguration of our sorrow that can help us have a very rich experience of life, once we do the work and create the healing antidote inside our own psyches.
But before it is transfigured, depression is dangerous. Major Depression is more than a serious case of the blues, as it is connected to a persistent longing to destroy the Self, usually as a way of expressing deep despair, anger, and powerlessness to face life’s demands.
The need of the depressed person to express paralyzing darkness, to communicate their damage and pain, is so intense and so relentless as to seek any kind of outlet, even death if that’s what it takes to be seen.
Professional help is usually required in the case of Major Depression. Time will be needed with healers who are qualified to understand the experience and the communications of the depressed person in the way that psyche needs to be able to recover. The depressed person needs total safety and reassurance that it’s ok for them to feel, and to be, as sick at heart and as dark of mind as they actually are for now.
Major Depression is sometimes treated with antidepressants. Depression can also be treated safely without pharmaceuticals with a combination of diet, exercise, body-based trauma work, and intensive psychotherapy.
Whichever healing path is selected, one key to healing depression centers on the topic of rage. A depressed person has rage inside that has nestled so deep as to have turned violent towards the self.
Rage comes from trauma. Because rage is a result of violation of universal human boundaries, treatment involves restoring the right to be protected and cared for.
When rage about violation and deprivation has no outlet, therefore no chance of resolution, it goes dark and destructive. A person with Major Depression benefits, therefore, from therapies that allow for release of ancient, stagnated anger.
When the depressed person can at last recognize their innate rights to unconditional love, that they get to belong and receive the love and care of others just for being a human being, no matter what, then the need for constant pain and distress signals will gradually subside.
Vigorous exercise helps with releasing pent up rage and other trauma residue, and has the benefit of activating endorphins. Ideally a depressed person learns to do something that resembles fighting, such as boxing, wrestling, or martial arts, to give a positive outlet for aggression, and to embody the experience of fighting for one’s life (symbolic and literal).
The arts are also enormously nourishing for those with depression. Painting, dancing, music, and writing are helpful because they allow for the beauty and depth of human melancholy to be preserved as artistic crystallizations that speak to all souls.
The turning point that transmutes the depressed person’s suffering into its exact opposite (a source of happiness) is when the sick person is able to uncover the secret gift hidden in the heart of this particular form of misery.
The unexpected boon for the depressed person is when they learn deep in their bones and without a flicker of doubt the following things:
I am worthy of a good life, just as I am, no matter what. My life is worth protecting and nourishing, and I am worthy of receiving whatever I may need to grow big, strong and happy.
I am allowed to have boundaries and to get mad when my boundaries are not respected. I am allowed to use that anger energy to fight back against encroachment, to stand up for myself when it is required for me to be protected from harm.
I am allowed to have needs, and to expect that life and those who love me will help me meet these needs. I am part of all of life and I deserve as much as anyone else to be cared for, looked after, respected and cherished.
I do not deserve hatred, punishment, or violation.
Knowing that I am part of all of life, that I deserve protection and nurturing, I am up for facing the challenges of life.
Thank you for reading!