Occasional Mild Depression Can Be Good for the Soul

Life is funny. The funniest part of life is that sometimes, when you don't expect it, it'll kick you in the gut and then help you up. No one can experience an entire lifetime without going through the entire gamut of emotion. Of course, we all remember the times when we were unequivocally happy, but it's the times when we're on the edge of desperation that can bring back the most vivid of recollections. Not only do they remind us of our humanity, but it helps us cope with the problems we face in the present. As people, we can comprehend the reasons people do things by understanding just one person.

Whenever I experienced depression, it was never how media depicted it. I never sat in my room alone, watching the rain trail down the window with a distant look in my eyes. No normal person has time for that. I tried to sleep a lot and avoid things that reminded me of the problems I had. That first problem was just the beginning. When something almost trivial happens, people go looking for more "tragedies" to help garter sympathy, but it was different. I had to mask discontent and apathy to try and keep people around me from consistently asking me if anything was wrong. During this time, I looked around me for things to help me cope with the depression that was looming around in my head.

Depression is, although it takes place in the mind, physical. Messages in your brain may not make their way to their destination point or may get mixed upon their journey. This is a rough (read: crude) description. A biological disposition to depression also exists, so it's not entirely the depressee's fault. However, a small episode of depression can provide you with a chance to do some soul-searching that America desperately needs. The human mind is an extremely powerful thing. This is, by no means, advocating depression or any of the resulting actions it causes, but just something that could help you if you're feeling smaller than a blade of grass in the savanna.

First of all, think of someone you respect or respected who is older than you. Much older, not just a year or so. These people took the same amount of time to get to the age you are as you did, so it's inevitable that they've experienced something similar. These people have not only gotten through the ordeal, but they've grown up to become a respectable person, in your eyes at least. Just that feeling that someone may be going through the same thing as you are can mean a lot. Once you get that thought into your head, it will invariably resurface any time you think you're alone or against the entire world. Odds are, a lot of people your grandparents' age have been through worse things, or at least on par with what you're experiencing, especially in today's youth. Kids think they have to yell songs just because they can't get a cellphone or a new Mustang.

If you are in the older crowd, the same thing applies. Younger people have to have something to look up and live up to. Depression is something that strikes all ages. It can be more viable for the older crowd, however, as they actually have experience in life and a real reason to be sad. Learning more about yourself is important and as you think about why you may detest your life, take a detour and think about everyone you know. People want to help you, that's the key. If anyone you loved or cared about was going through the pain you were, wouldn't you want to help them? If you don't try to get better for the sake of yourself, then do it for them. That's one of the first things that depression teaches you about yourself, if you're a caring person.

Perhaps you're one of those people who click their heels every morning, depression can be absolutely devastating. Learning to cope with it can be remarkably difficult if you're not used to feeling apathetic about something. Resilience is another thing that's learned through depression. If you really want to get back to the disposition you had before, then fighting your way back into the sunshine is top priority and you learn that you're tougher than you thought. If you give up, then you also learn something: that the somber mood may actually suit you. You may not be depressed, but now you're all the more closer to completely figuring yourself out.

Mild depression is an interesting phenomenon. During it, people keep to themselves and thus have a greater sense of their personal aesthetic taste. Music, books, art, anything are also subject to closer inspection during a state of mild depression. While you're off-the-walls happy, everything is fantastic and you're apt to love all, but when you actually sit down to think about it, the world isn't a perfect, stainless place. It's naive to think it is. One of the last, and possibly the most important, introspective aspects that depression can teach you is that life isn't going to be beautiful. Sure, there are times when you're laying next to the love of your life and thinking how it would be impossible for things to get better, but there's also the time when you're standing outside in the rain in a soaked suit thinking how frivolous life can be. In a way, depression can teach you the meaning of life. Life isn't meant to have a set meaning. Everyone has their own purpose. Mine, I think, is to tell everyone.