1. < Depression & Anxiety

Therapy - and dealing with the past

Posted by ricm58 @ricm58, May 31, 2023

I take medication, it helps enormously, it saw me through a very, very tough moment, so hooray for meds! 🙂

But I also undergo therapy (psychoanalysis, which I know is kinda out of fashion).

I spent last week visiting cousins, in a lovely city with happy memories, and on my return home the depressive weight just came back like an unwelcome cloud of yuck.

But home is fine in reality - work, the place we live, etc. The depression's about home in the sense of: things that need sorting, past decisions that I live with now, and - most of all - memories of the childhood home.

Why am I writing this? Because this experience made crystal clear to me how much my depression and anxiety have to do with things I've lived through. It's not all just brain chemistry in my case. Therapy helps me.

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Depression & Anxiety Support Group.

ricm58 | @ricm58 | Jun 10, 2023
In reply to @baa "Reading through this conversation and posts, brings up the age-old question we can’t really answer as..." + (show)
@baa

Reading through this conversation and posts, brings up the age-old question we can’t really answer as human beings. “Why do some suffer so while others seem to skip through life?” At my age I am beginning to see there are only degrees of suffering but we all do suffer and we never know anyone else’s degree. For me, what I have learned is that only compassion for others matters. Recognizing the hurt and pain a person who hurts others must be living in is important. Some lash out at others; some turn it inward until it shortens their life; and some are truly overcome by evil. The world we live in is not a kind place. It never was and it never will be. I rest in my faith. Bless you for your sufferings. Bless you for sharing and by that helping others. Just bless you.

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Beautifully put, Baa.

I am trying to find a home for my faith. I would love to "belong", to nurture my faith by interacting with like-minded people.

Guidance would be welcome, but I know it's hard to answer that request without someone complaining that you are proselytising!

REPLY
1 reply
baa | @baa | Jun 10, 2023
In reply to @ricm58 "Beautifully put, Baa. I am trying to find a home for my faith. I would love..." + (show)
@ricm58

Beautifully put, Baa.

I am trying to find a home for my faith. I would love to "belong", to nurture my faith by interacting with like-minded people.

Guidance would be welcome, but I know it's hard to answer that request without someone complaining that you are proselytising!

Jump to this post

I understand, and after being hurt so badly by two churches I was ready to give up on organized religion. But we need community. We need support from others. Then my son invited me to a non/denominational church that he and many of his college friends attended. I immediately found a home. Before moving to this small city, I would drive an hour and pass about 20 other churches to come here! All I can tell you is that they follow what Jesus taught … judge no one, love everyone. Doesn’t matter if folks are of other religions or no religion at all. We may not agree but if we follow that one thing He tried to teach us, there is a peace with that. It’s not always easy. Most of the time not. But we keep trying and that brings honor. We see humans destroy churches everyday with their unacceptance of anyone (inside their church mostly). That not the church Jesus talked about. That’s humans. And we are all imperfect, aren’t we? Do some visiting and let your heart and soul be your guide-

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Mentor
Helen, Volunteer Mentor | @naturegirl5 | Jun 10, 2023
In reply to @aissa2 "I want to offer you a challenge. You state that you are someone who does not..." + (show)
@aissa2

I want to offer you a challenge. You state that you are someone who does not compose poetry. I bet you could write a poem. You love the metaphor of the waves that ebb and flow on the ocean. Now, I want you to visit that image, close your eyes and see it the waves ebbing and flowing, the dance and rhythm of the ocean. Either turbulent or calm with the sun rising or the sun setting. I went through just a few poems and tried to stay away from the ones that were not contemporary in their language. I decided on the one below. Just take a line, or a few words of it and think about the ocean and the ebb and flow and what it does to you or what it makes you feel , now write something. It does not have to be perfect, no such thing as a perfect poem. Squash your internal editor who wants to butt in before it's time and just write freely. Write anything that comes to you and what you are feeling when you think of the ocean and the ebb and flow of it. Enough images? See what happens in the process. Good Luck

Seaside
by Rupert Brooke
Swiftly out from the friendly lilt of the band,
The crowd’s good laughter, the loved eyes of men,
I am drawn nightward; I must turn again
Where, down beyond the low untrodden strand,
There curves and glimmers outward to the unknown
The old unquiet ocean. All the shade
Is rife with magic and movement. I stray alone
Here on the edge of silence, half afraid,

Waiting a sign. In the deep heart of me
The sullen waters swell towards the moon,
And all my tides set seaward.
From inland
Leaps a gay fragment of some mocking tune,
That tinkles and laughs and fades along the sand,
And dies between the seawall and the sea.

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@aissa2 Thank you for the challenge. I’m very interested in the technique for writing that you describe and I will do that. I’ll report back here after I’ve done it.

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