5 Steps for Ending Depression
Depression can be overcome without pills, therapy, or spirituality (see following pages for more).
Fortunately, for many the five simple steps I below are enough.
- Fairy Godmother: Imagine your fairy Godmother magically appeared, bonked you on the head with her magic wand, and gave you thirty seconds to write down all your wishes. What would you write?
- Grant Your Own Wishes: If you can grant your wishes then just do it.
- Dealing With Wishes You Cannot Grant: All the things that we wish were different but cannot get are what causes suffering, and suffering eventually causes depression. Learning how to deal with all the things we wish were different but cannot have is the secret to this step.
- Remove Harmful Beliefs: Part of depression is believing in things like we are not good enough, unloveable, weak, incapable, a failure, that we are supposed to suffer, or that we are victims. This step is to get rid of all those beliefs that are not useful.
- Create Useful Beliefs: This final step provides the tools necessary to permanently end depression and prevent it from ever returning. Do you believe you can be successful? Are you lovable? Can you be happy? If you said no or even hesitated to any of these ideas then you can benefit from creating new useful beliefs about yourself and who you are.
You can be happier, more loved, and more successful. You can overcome depression. All that is missing is knowing how.
Causes of Depression
Depression has two primary causes:
- Physical impairment: Altered brain chemistry can cause depression. Physical causes are:
- Substance abuse: Chief among these are alcohol and street drugs.
- Illness: Many illnesses, even the common cold, can shift brain chemistry to cause depression.
- Diet: poor diet can lead to depression.
- Genetics: some people are unfortunately pre-disposed to depression due to their genetic make-up
- Environment: Chemicals or allergens from our environment may shift brain chemistry
- Suffering: this is what happens when we wish things were different. It does not matter what happens to us, only that we somehow wish they could be different. This is why rich or famous people are just as depressed as poor people, why fame and fortune have no effect on happiness. Anyone can suffer. All they need do is wish things were different. Depression is caused by suffering for a prolonged period.
Unfortunately, it does not matter what the cause the resulting depression is the same. So the only way to tell is to try ending depression by ending suffering. If that doesn't work then the cause is likely physical and medication may be required.
However, in either case if the depression is severe enough to impair concentration then before beginning Trioga medication can be useful to increase concentration. In order to practice Trioga one first needs the ability to concentrate at least enough to read.
Generally, if you are able to follow what is written here you have sufficient mental aquity to benefit from this without resorting to medication.
Notice that depression is not an emotional condition. Suffering is what causes the negative feelings commonly associated with depression. Luckily, suffering can be overcome by following the 5 steps for ending depression.