The recent tragic death of Robin Williams has generated a tremendous amount of good discussion around the subjects of mental health and depression. Manic or chronic depression is a very profound issue and must be taken seriously.
This post is not about severe depression, but rather the mild and temporary bouts that every person experiences from time to time. I’ll offer the thought that feelings of mild depression have a valid purpose and should be embraced instead of ignored.
Our culture puts subtle pressure on people to be “happy” all the time. Well meaning friends want to “cheer you up” and help you “get over it” by distracting you from your feelings.
But depression, just like physical pain, can be a symptom that something is wrong. Pain acts as an alert to flag some damaging stimulus to the body. Let’s take the example of purchasing new shoes. Would you buy a pair that hurt your feet when strolling around the store? Of course not! If the shoes are a poor fit, walking any distance would increase the pain and ultimately produce blisters.
So too with feelings of depression. They can be symptoms of misalignment — something in life is rubbing you the wrong way. This could be the wrong profession, a bad relationship, or holding onto some limiting belief. The depression is your mind’s way of letting you know something needs to change.
Say you started a new job with great expectations. But after six difficult months, you feel depressed every Sunday afternoon because Monday you need to go back to work. Something is amiss here: you’ve chosen the wrong job.
So many of us are trained to hide how we are really feeling. The vast majority of Facebook posts have a positive vibe because we want to portray our lives as wonderfully happy as much as possible.
So don’t let the cultural pressure to “be happy” all the time make you bad about feeling depressed. We are humans have the capacity for many different feelings, and depression is one of them. Feel it, let it speak to you, and let it go.
These occasional feelings of depression are natural and beneficial. Acknowledge and accept them as valid. They are trying to tell you something important; ignoring them is detrimental in the long term.