I’ve seen it thousands of times over the years – that anxious, distressed expression from a new client in my counseling office, telling me “I’ve been diagnosed with depression.” They share that information anxiously -often in hushed, fearful tones. For years, on glowing TV commercials, in colorful pamphlets at doctors’ offices, on TV talk shows or news programs, or maybe even within their own church or family environments, they’ve been told about “Depression” – that devastating “brain disease,” that looming “chemical imbalance” that threatens to darken their days and doom them to misery and dysfunction for the rest of their lives.
In some cases, these appropriately worried souls may have seen loved ones languish for decades under the shadow of diagnosed depression – trying prescription after prescription, suffering year after year, with the impact of this disabling – and assumed to be permanent – illness. And now, that frightening diagnosis has been applied to them personally. In that diagnostic process, some have even been told, “This is something you will struggle with for the rest of your life.” What could be more depressing than that?
Fostering a More Hopeful View of Depression
In those circumstances, with those worried clients, it is a joy for me to be able to share with them a more hopeful and empowering message about their disorder. I tell them – You can learn to heal from depression. You can learn to move past the conditions that otherwise can feed your depression, year after year. You can CHOOSE healing. You can intentionally FOSTER emotional wellness. This disorder doesn’t have to be permanent. You can truly learn how to heal from this. And most joyously, once you know how to do these things for yourself, you can apply the same lessons and strategies to help your loved ones, friends, children, and others in the circle of your personal influence.
You see, the “TV version” of depression – that commercially advertised version that we all “know” about – that’s just one of many alternative views about this illness. Please keep in mind what a commercial advertisement actually is. It is a doorway into a product. It is a carefully polished message, designed to sell a purchasable resource to as many people as possible, for as long as possible, for as high a price as possible. It is an exquisitely crafted, perfectly photographed, convincingly acted, strategically targeted message, sent out to the masses for one driving reason – to sell product.
I want you to know at the outset – this highly advertised, well-funded view of depression, trumpeted through the media by means of skilled actors paid to impersonate actual doctors – this is one and only one of many alternative views of depression. And those other less-advertised, less profitable views, in my experience, hold infinitely more powerful and hopeful keys to actual healing, actual happiness, actual recovery. And best of all, these are strategies you can learn to apply for yourself and your loved ones – starting today.
Learning to Heal from the Inside Out
Happily, there is a less-known but powerful and ever-increasing army of doctors, therapists, scientists, researchers, biochemists, and other experts who have been steadily building a mass of documentation over recent years about another approach to treating depression. The specific methods and strategies they recommend may differ somewhat from professional to professional. But what each of these insightful experts have in common is this: They believe passionately in the ability of human beings to heal, from the inside out.
Now, this is not some newfangled, unresearched, pie-in-the-sky, quirky medical view. This perspective is consistent with the deepest, oldest wisdom human beings have had for millennia about the healing process.
For example, Hippocrates, the widely acknowledged father of Western medicine, taught that the human body possesses the capacity to heal itself, from the inside out; and that a healer’s job is to help activate and strengthen those innate healing capacities within their patients. And Eastern medicine has long been a practice of identifying blocks or obstacles to wellness, and removing them so that the healing energy within the individual can carry out its innately designed work, bringing that individual to full wholeness and health.
In recent years, these ancient perspectives on healing have been joined by modern scientific research. Joel Fuhrman, Mark Hyman, Dean Ornish, Caldwell Esselstyn, John MacDougall, Colin Campbell, and many other health and science professionals have bountifully documented the impact of simple lifestyle and nutritional adjustments that can powerfully promote healing and wellness.
And most recently, researchers have discovered that even the human brain itself – that most complex and intricate of physical organs – likewise has the power to regenerate itself – to heal itself, from the inside out, through a process known as neuroplasticity – the innate capacity of the body to continuously generate healthy new brain cells, from birth to old age. Now that’s hopeful science. Those are ideas that can heal, and inspire, and facilitate positive action. And they are ideas that can powerfully work for you, and for your loved ones – if you will learn them, and then carefully apply them.
So – Where Do You Start?
There is much to learn about emotional and physical healing. Don’t expect instant results or effortless relief. You’re going to have to work for this. But it is doable, step–by–step, joyful work, that you can do a little at a time, over the process of time. Each tiny success – however small or seemingly insignificant – will build the groundwork for your next achievement – and then the next, and then the ones after that. Here are three simple but powerful strategies I assign as a starting place for my own counseling clients, to help them begin their recovery:
1) Adopt a healing mindset. Stop telling yourself – or allowing others to tell you – that you are doomed for permanent misery. Your depression can be healed! – if you apply the conditions that promote healing, and stop doing things that worsen the disorder.
2) Feed your body – and your brain – wisely. Healthy new cells cannot be built from substandard, artificial materials created in a factory. Choose food and beverages that are as natural, wholesome, and unprocessed as possible – that work with your natural brain chemistry, rather than against it.
3) Control your media intake. The vast abundance of technology and media in our modern society can educate and inform, at a level never previously possible, in all of human history. But overuse of media can distract us from real relationships, real achievements, and interaction with the natural world our bodies and brains were designed for. Passively watching media for hours on end keeps us from the movement and activity we need daily to thrive. So limit screen–time, and use it selectively, choosing only things that build you up in a positive way.
Don’t be content with just “managing” depressive symptoms. Learn how to heal – powerfully, from the inside out. Choose constructive beliefs, actions, and influences that can help you build a beautiful, happy, fulfilling life – starting today.
© 2019. Carrie M. Wrigley, LCSW. Your Happiness Toolkit: 16 Strategies for Overcoming Depression, and Building a Joyful, Fulfilling Life. Reprinted with permission.
