When a person is depressed, there are emotional roots of anger, fear, and guilt that anchor depression into a person’s thinking. These roots must be uncovered, understood, and addressed in a positive, healing way. This is not a quick process. It requires time, patience, and no small amount of courage.
Courage is needed to identify and acknowledge the source of anger, fear, and guilt in your life. The source of this pain may be rooted in childhood, meaning you’re so accustomed to feeling this way, you may experience anger, fear, and guilt afresh at dredging up these truths. Looking at who you are and why you feel the way you do from a fresh approach can be difficult. Over the years, you’ve learned ways to cope with the pain, and those ways are familiar and even comforting. Giving those ways up and looking at the truth is the first step to creating change.
Some people are able to realize improvement through medication alone, but research shows there is a higher degree of healing when therapy is combined with medication.[1] Therapy or counseling provides individuals with a safe place to talk about feelings and discuss past and current events in life that have contributed to their depression. Therapists can also make suggestions about positive actions people can integrate into their lives.
When I have used the whole-person approach, including an understanding of the body and the appropriate use of medication, I have found success in helping people to achieve long-term recovery and healing from depression.
It takes courage to understand the need for change. It takes courage to step out in faith and act differently. Overcoming depression requires a new paradigm because depression can’t be solved by the same circumstances that created it. In order to recover, you need to change how you listen to and respond to your emotions.
What do we do when life feels like it’s piling on top of us? In depression, we bury our optimism, hope, and joy and react with anger, fear, or guilt, allowing overwhelming circumstances to knock us flat. Emotional depression can become an automatic reaction to life’s trials. Reactions are automatic, but responses need not be. Depression does not have to be automatic.
Even if we may immediately react negatively, we can learn to intentionally reassert positive emotions. This may not be our first reaction, but our first reaction doesn’t need to be our only response. Albert Einstein once said, “You can’t solve a problem on the same level that it was created. You have to rise above it to the next level.” Our reactions are on one level, but we can learn to take our responses to the next level.
