Depression is not an illness

I realise that this is a highly contentious point. But we must recognise the elephant in the room before we are able to deal with it.

The myth that depression is an illness causes more harm than the good it’s intended to achieve.

Depression is the absence of hope. Preceding that is the saturation of failed expectations from those we consider significant in our lives.

Like happiness, depression is not a choice. But, also like happiness, depression is an outcome of the collective choices that we make.

The more aware we are of those choices, and importantly the consequences of those choices, the more consciously we are able to make decisions to break the cycles that result from those choices.

The moment we label a human experience as an illness or a disorder, we create victims rather than masters of our emotional experience, thereby disempowering us in our efforts to rise above the unpleasant experiences of our lives.

Depression is not an illness. It is a legitimate human experience in response to bad experiences in life.

When we begin to recognise this, it becomes possible to reconnect with our humanity, rather than to surrender to an imagined illness.

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