What Is Depression?

What is depression?
I would define it as happiness deficit disorder.
I don't think it makes much of a difference whether you have wet depression, where you cry, or dry depression, where you feel nothing at all and are emotionally dehydrated. Either way, you are not happy, and would probably like to feel better.
How did you get this way?
People can become depressed for a variety of reasons, and what made you this way is not as important as what you can do to feel better, but for curiosity sake, I'm going to talk about a few here.
First of all you probably have a hereditary predisposition towards depression, and if you think this is the case, please do not despair. No, seriously, don't, it will only make it worse. Some people are born to be happy go lucky individuals with a generally optimistic outlook, who don't stay down for too long if things don't go their way, and then there are the rest of us who have to work at it and learn how to be happy on purpose.
I am part of the latter group and can tell you first hand depression is no longer a problem for me and I am a happy person. I'm also not special. Millions of people have overcome this painful disorder and are living happy and productive lives today. You could be one of them.
You may also be depressed due to a trigger, like a loss or other bad thing that you didn't like. It showed up as a normal reaction, dug in, and stayed. Ouch. The good news is there are ways to become unstuck.
I also think some people become depressed because they have become bored. They have stopped growing, changing, reaching, achieving, and are stuck in a rut. A rut can be safe. It can also be slowly killing your soul. Anxiety can play a role in this. I will be addressing anxiety in future posts.
So what do you do about it?
There are lots of things that can be done and some of them I will not talk about here. I will not discuss medication because I'm not a doctor, I'm not qualified, and I don't know much about your individual situation. I am medication free, except for a very occasional St. John's wort, and I'll leave your choices about medication up to you.
I also can't tell you much about individual or group therapy. For some people this is a life saver, and for others it does more harm than good. My own experience was these helps seemed to want to focus more on disease than wellness, and feeling better was viewed with a jaundiced eye at best, discouraged somewhere in the middle, and at it's worst, I was angrily dumped by a therapist for getting well. You may have a better counsellor than this.
Addiction is also another topic, but I will add that once I was less depressed and had trusted tools for feeling better, I was able to quit drinking.
So what am I going to talk about?
I'm going to talk about the things I did to beat my depression and become a happy, relaxed, person who is having a really good time. I would like to talk about things like hypnosis, meditation, cognitive behavioural therapy that works, not the kind that doesn't, things you can do for your physical brain to make it healthier so it can function at it's best, spirituality for people who believe in god, and spirituality for atheists, because they shouldn't miss out on the fun and shouldn't be forced to believe in something they don't to join in. This list can go on and on. Basically it's about anything I've found to work to help people feel better.
As you may have already guessed this little blurb I am writing is an introduction to the work I will be doing over the next several months. My statistics at YouTube, and the personal stories I have read at YT and at Facebook, all lead me to believe that putting together a cohesive system of help for depression, anxiety, self confidence, and emotional healing would be putting myself to my highest and best use.
It is my sincerest hope that you will come with me on this journey, taking and using what you find useful, and discarding that which is not for you. Wish me luck and I'm sending warm wishes you feel better soon if you are depressed, or continue to feel happy if that is where you are right now.
Peace out, love to all, bye for now.