CURING DEPRESSION
ITS' BEEN DONE AND IT IS DOABLE
tba, in process
CONTENTS
The truism
The Master Checklist
Discussion:
Solve the cause, solve the problem
Not living a truth-based life
My life has been terrible and therefore it is terrible
I exist only if someone else recognizes I exist
Believing the dead have a voice
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THE TRUISM
"Depression can be cured the same way Michelangelo did the statue of David. We simply need to remove all that is not sanity, which leaves only sanity.
Remove the "insane" (not well thought out) beliefs and only happiness and an effective life are left over."
The BuddhaKahuna
THE MASTER CHECKLIST (So much to do, how depressing! Well, actually it is illuminating and you feel better even as you are on the journey, especially following a path that works for sure and seeing your progress as you go. Before this, you've wandered and not gotten as far as you could be...)
Simple lifestyle changes:
___ Exercise every day (Preferably 30 minutes aerobic)
___ Be with people (do not isolate!)
___ Challenge each negative sentences in your head: No Negative Conversations -
___ Be sure to steady the body and mind in functional balance (homeostasis)
Follow the items in The Homeostasis Checklist. Tolerate no less!
___ Eat healthy food instead of the junk you crave
__ No sugar spikes, low sugar
__ High in vegetables
___ Carve out out time for rest and relaxation.
__ Sleep several hours before midnight --> greater melatonin --> more body
repair, feel more rested; full 7-9 hours of sleep (no less, no more)
__ Sun 15 minutes in morning (and/or vitamin D3 supplement) - Or full
spectrum light source
___ Follow the recommendations in: Depression Lifestyle Causes And Contributors - Rebalancing To What For A Better Quality Of Life.
___ Read inspirational books, especially about life
Psychological understandings:
___ No Fault - Understand why, stop all criticism.
___ Operating around The Core Of Life and develop invulnerability to
circumstances, to dependency, and to "conditionality". Follow the links, also.
___ Self-Sufficiency - Giving To Yourself What Is Needed - Giving Up False Control And False Dependence
Allies, resources:
___ Engage professionals, so you have guidance - Don't self-medicate!
___ Join a support group for depression
___ Be around, socialize, get exposed to positive people (and avoid negative!)
Tools:
___ Develop a Wellness Toolbox: List of things that are quick mood changers: Be in nature, review a list of what you like about yourself (should be in The Reminders Notebook or on your computer), listen to CDs that are inspiring and/or educating/reminding (like Dyer, Hay, etc.), especially funny shows/movies, long bath, singing, listening to music, play with an animal, just go somewhere (sit in a Starbucks, but do decaf)... see the extensive list in Creating "Up".
___ Read and memorize key affirmations (and have a list available to read)
___ Engage in yoga, tai chi, Buddhist meditation, etc., partly physical but they add in corrected beliefs
___ Manage stress, remove all stressors you can
___ Keep physical (and stress/mental) homeostasis, with no sugar swings or lack of sleep, relaxation, and exercise. (Eat seafood, lots of omega-3 fats, see Mood Diet.)
Ultimately: The "cause" must be changed: "stinkin' thinkin'". Change the key beliefs. There is no way around this, so stop hoping for a miracle! However, the process to change this is very doable and lots of people have done it very successfully - so you can, too!
___ No other choice: Challenge negative beliefs. Rework them (master method).
___ The key beliefs to change
___ Stopping negative conversations - Stopping and not repeating stories,
negative beliefs
___ Learn emotional intelligence facts
And, when ready to go to the next level:
Deciding to, and doing, maintain a high state of resourcefulness in your life.
Write down all your goals, dreams, bucket list, etc.
Construct who you want to be (and then do a plan, with help)
Read also: Depression Cause And Contributors - Also covers cures.
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Duplicated from the main page on depression:
A PREFACE: ABSOLUTE CURABILITY
I thought it would be useful to put the endpoint of this discussion in the beginning, and then from knowing its extreme value to have you delve into it further.
Martin Seligman hypothesized, and set out to prove, that the optimistic explanatory style could cure depression. Hundreds of studies of its scientific effect were resoundingly successful in proving that it cures depression. Read about explanatory styles (and the viewpoints creating them): Intelligent Optimism contrasting it with Pessimism, The Road To Hell.
And from those you can create a whole new life, free of the causes of depression, not only curing it but preventing its recurrence!
Know also that anxiety and depression are intimately related. With the viewpoints underneath anxiety being causal to depression, which is a symptom of anxiety run amok. Since curing the cause provides the higher level, permanent solution beyond that of curing the symptoms, you'll find that both have the same cure.
SOLVE THE CAUSE, SOLVE THE PROBLEM
Other than a very few cases of biological abnormalities, all depression is curable through curing the cause. The cause is always beliefs that create such fear over and over again that the body/mind must shut down in order to avoid self-destructing - no one can take that extreme a firing off of the danger signals.
The cure is always to get at the core cause, although sometimes we need to deal with the symptoms first so that we have a chance to deal adequately with the core cause.
The core cause is dysfunctional, fear-causing beliefs.
The source of all of our emotions, other than the few instinctual ones, is our beliefs.
We, as humans, are sane and insane. (Read about the Insanity Spectrum and decide where you'd like to be on it.)
To the degree that we have unorganized thinking where we have not applied rational thinking and used real evidence, we have incomplete and potentially harmful thinking.
It'll pay to go through the process necessary to create sane thinking.
That process is The Belief Changing Process.
NOT LIVING A TRUTH-BASED LIFE
Some people will defend their beliefs to their death, never realizing that their beliefs are not a part of who they are and not realizing that no belief is true unless proven by the facts. (See Who I Am.)
I repeat: No belief is true unless proven by the facts. Therefore, no one should believe their beliefs (stories) unless they are proven by the facts. That was the way out for Byron Katie and the others among those who overcame depression.
It doesn't work to have "the accused be presumed to be innocent, unless proven to be otherwise" in this case, as it is totally not workable to "presume a belief is true, until proven otherwise." It is the other way around: "presume a belief is untrue, until proven true." And don't believe in Santa Claus.
The basis of "right thinking" (sane thinking) is to accept reality as reality and not assume anything else is reality. When one does that, one stops suffering, as one deals only with reality and not all the made up stuff that causes suffering.
MY LIFE HAS BEEN TERRIBLE AND THEREFORE IT IS TERRIBLE
There is an illusion many people buy into, which is also the cause of needless suffering (per The Buddha, et. al.): the illusion of permanence, of something be fixed in existence. Indeed, it is no wonder that the primitive brain believes in permanence, but if one applies one's higher brain intelligence and reasoning, one can "see" the illusion for what it is, as simply an illusion and not reality.
Basically one creates over and over the beliefs and the resultant actions that cause life to be terrible. The process is so continuous that it appears to be ongoingly permanent. However, it has been proven, over and over and over and over again, that the chain can be broken, that a "terrible" life or a bad past need not be determinant of a future of the same. See those who overcame depression.
Since a "terrible" life has as its cause dysfunctional beliefs, if one changes the dysfunctional belief then the rest of the chain will no longer be activated. In effect, this change can occur in an instant, resulting in no longer creating the same past scenario in the future.
When the Life Training organizations, such as the most ubiquitous Landmark Education, refer to the idea that "the past does not determine nor cause the future" and that you can "change your life in an instant", they are making statements based on sound science (or simply pretty easy reasoning).
Basically life will not continue to be terrible if you stop creating (causing) it in the next moment and the next and the next - and insert something else into the space. Completing whatever has caused the false belief in the first place will free up the space taken by the attention the primitive brain puts on incomplete gaps and allow one to put into the space a true, functional belief that in turn creates the space to insert whatever one wants in life.
No one can get from "terrible" to "good" without going through the beliefs that create "terrible" and changing them into what works. You must, if you don't want to continue choosing those causes that create your depression, employ The Belief Changing Process.
The more completely you do it, the better the results. Following it through to completion allows one to be able to create happiness and a truly wonderful life. Not employing it fully leaves you with what you have created up to now: depression.
Your choice.
I EXIST ONLY IF SOMEONE ELSE RECOGNIZES I EXIST
Many people tend to believe this statement or another similar version: "I'm not ok unless others approve of me." Or the classic related to me by a friend: "My brother said he would have self esteem as soon as he got enough approval from others." (That's like waiting for a streetcar in the middle of the freeway, as the streetcar ain't gonna happen.)
"I need approval" or "I'll die". Maybe the latter isn't said out loud but it is sure clearly implied at some level. One can certainly live without approval.
BELIEVING THE DEAD HAVE A VOICE
Of course, Barbara, a very intelligent and knowledgeable person, did not actually believe in her intellect that her mother was still alive. Nevertheless, she figuratively kept her alive by saying "I could hear my mother's voice..." criticizing her or whatever.
By misidentifying the source, she perpetuated it being a "cause" outside herself.
By identifying "the voices" as being "something my brain is repeating due to an old recording" and then also acknowledging that oneself is, figuratively, the source of the statement that was attributed to her mother's voice, one begins to be "at the cause" of one's life rather than continuing to identify oneself as being "at the effect" of a person from the past.
It is total BS to believe that the past is still in existence in any way. It is true that one can maintain the memory of what seems like the past, but that memory is not the past and it is changeable and/or modifiable in some way.
WHAT TO DO
RELATED PIECES
Depression Cause And Contributors - Also covers cures
depression - It is doable,
by you, too!!
