I had PPD, and what helped me was exercise, omega-3s, vitamins and LOTS and LOTS of unconditional, emotional support. If you have chronic depression, you really have to surround yourself with people who support and nurture you. This doesn't mean they're your doormat, but they do have to understand that to a certain extent, you can't help your mental illness, and that in order to become healthy, you need their love. Sometimes this means weeding people out.

Hmmmmmmmmm, Getting exercise and supplements helps. But, getting mental health should not be dependent on having others around us to make us feel healthy. That in and of itself is not a logical approach to good mental health..... Remember, shewolf was describing how she felt betrayed by those she trusted the most and that contributed to her bad feelings.....

The only company we need to achieve good mental health is our own company. Help is never outide of ourselves, it is always inside of ourselves. We can read a 1,000 books, have a 1,000 friends and still feel horrible. But, simply understanding who we are and accepting ourselves and learning to love ourselves can prepare us for all that comes into our life's circumstances.

When building our own solid foundation, we see the world for what it is, not what it could or should be, then the world cannot affect us as it consistently changes beyond our control. To adopt a quote from an unknown author: "Mental health is watching the world crumble at our feet and still feeling peace and joy within ourselves"...

We're all human, emotions will always be up and down, but we all have the capacity within to pull ourselves up quickly when we are down and we were so created that the answers are simple, never complicated. If it sounds like it takes an effort to get better, then its the wrong path to good mental health. I strongly believe in a spiritual passage I read once; "We can walk 1,000 miles in the wrong direction, but the right path is simply taking one step in the opposite direction"....

Being ok, is being aware of being ok, as we all already are....

Peace and love,

Ron

Ron - i completely agree with you that we are our own foundation; our own support; our own comfort. No thing, event or person should be able to interrupt our own sense of peace and security. Put into practice, this is considerably harder! But just knowing what it *should* be helps me to come just a fraction closer, and a fraction sooner, to this ideal when trouble hits. But I know in my soul that nothing this world can offer up really has the power to keep us from our peace. I think part of the big challenge of being human is to come to terms with this, and be able to put it into practice more and more.

I've heard it said that it only takes one thought in the opposite direction to turn it all around. that is the power of thought. it moves the universe!

I have been through this before quite seriously. I did eventually go the medication route, because mine progressed to thoughts and planned suicide. If you ever entertain those thoughts at all you need to go to the doctor. Depression isn't something you "snap out of". It is a hormonal imbalance. I will suggest excercise. It produces endorphins and a natural feeling of Euphoria and helps tremendously with anxiety and depression. I often went for walks and cried the entire time. I know it is not appealing at all, but if you can't even conceive of going for a walk, things are more serious than you thought. It does help though. Take care of yourself and don't be ashamed to ask for help. ((((hugs))))

Inside of us is a little voice. We all have heard it many times. Also inside of us is something a little deeper than the little voice. It is only detectable as an awareness that the little voice is talking to us.... Once we detect that the awareness of the little voice is active within us also and that it is separate from the little voice, we can no longer be trapped by depression, but rather we begin to resolve our internal conflicts.

This may not seem to make sense; but it is the essence of spirituality, or rather who we really are....

I used to get depressed until several years ago when I read a book by Eckhart Tolle, "The Power of Now"... I've read the book cover to cover 14 times and have skimmed over sections of it hundreds of times. In the book, Tolle says that we have the power to observe our own thoughts and that power is pure consciousness. Thought cannot exist without consciousness, but consciousness can exist without thought.

When we can learn to observe our thinking, especially negative thinking, we can detach from it and not allow our thoughts to define or become who we are.

It might seem an impossible task to grasp the concept of self awareness and thus pull our ownselves out of a depressive mode, but once grasped, depression will never again seem an insurmountable task, but rather just a mild nuisance from time to time......

Ron - no wonder we are like-minded here. I read Tolle's book too. It sort of kicked off the whole awareness and education concerning depression, the spiritual view of it, how we can deal with it within ourselves. Since then, I have read several authors who write on the same topic. These works have changed my whole paradigm about how I view reality, depression, fear, etc. Now when I do feel depressed, which I hardly ever do anymore, I can see it thru different eyes spiritually (and i don't mean religion here) and it has made a world of difference in my life. For me incidentally, I found that depression and fear walked hand in hand, which led me down a path to work on fear as well. And I intimately know depression. It has been with me most of my life and I know how very, very bad it can get. I'm content that i've found a new way to view it, and since then, it has diminshed down to just a mere annoyance at times. i.e. I see it for what it is, and it is NOT me.

I read the book called "The Secret" and started living it. Every morning I thank the higher power for everything that I have. I picture myself already having what I want. I picture myself in a situation that I want to be in, with everything that I want. The book is about the power or attraction. The book tells you that you can have whatever you desire as long as you believe you can achieve it. You have to really believe that you are already living the life, already have what you want, you should picture yourself doing what you want, looking like you want to look, living how you want to live. It says that you have the power to attract things to you. I have to say that saying thank you outloud for everything that I appeciate no matter how small, makes me feel good.

I've read other authors too, but vocabulary is everything when trying to discover certain things. I find that Tolle's choice of words and his descriptions of the meaning of the words really helps my understanding. I lived with fear, anxiety and depression, but after reading his book for the 4th or 5th time, I noticed my thought processes and my reactions to life's circumstances were different.

But one thing I can say is; if someone is not ready for that kind of book, it will look like greek to them, but when someone is ready for it, BAM! then it all makes complete sense.....

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To shewolf: I've not read "The Secret"... Who is the Author?

from your description of the book, I'll tell you a little difference in the perspectives... Using the word "achieve" for example:

In the book you describe having a desire and a belief, then you can achieve. This means that you are presently not satisfied and you have to look to a future time for fulfillment.

In Tolle's book, there is nothing to achieve, but rather fulfillment exists now through acceptance of "what is" in the present moment.

There are many comparisons that can be made, but I was just using that one as an example...

Yep - you get it when you get it. otherwise it sounds rediculous and makes no sense. ever heard of Steve Pavlina? His website has podcasts you can download on topics such as these. I found some value in some of them. www.stevepavlina.com.