Perhaps you know what depression feels like. If you are like most college students, at some time during this your--more likely the dark months of winter than the bright days of summer--you will probable experience a few of the symptoms of depression. You may feel deeply discouraged about the future, dissatisfied with your life, or isolated from others. You may lack the energy to get things done or even to force yourself out of bed; be unable to concentrate, eat, or sleep normally; or even wonder if you would be better off dead. . . Maybe social stresses, such as feeling you don't belong or the breakup of a romance, have plunged you into despair. And maybe brooding has at times only worsened your self-torment.
You are not alone. Dpression is the "common cold" of psychological disorders--an expression that effectively descrebes its pervasiveness but certainly not its seriousness. . .
To feel bad in reaction to profoundly sad events is to be in touch with reality. In such times, depression is like a car's low-oil-pressure light--a signal that warns us to stop and take protective measures. Recall that, biologically speaking, life's purpose is not happiness but survival and reproduction. To this end, coughing, vomiting, and various forms of pain protect the body from dangerous toxins. Similarly, depression is a sort of psychic hibernation: It slows us down, avoids attracting predators, and evokes support. to grind temporarily to a halt and ruminate, as depressed people do, is to reassess one's life when feeling threatened. From this perspective, there is sense to suffering. Withdrawal may be strategic. . .
Winston Churchill called depression a "black dog" that periodically hounded him. Poet Emily Dickinson was so afraid of bursting into tears in public that she spent much of her adult life in seclusion. Abraham Lincoln was so withdrawn and brooding as a young man that his friends feared he might take his own life. As each of these lives reminds us, people can and do struggle through depression. Most regain their capacity to love, to work, and even to succeed at the highest levels.
To feel bad in reaction to profoundly sad events is to be in touch with reality. In such times, depression is like a car's low-oil-pressure light--a signal that warns us to stop and take protective measures. Recall that, biologically speaking, life's purpose is not happiness but survival and reproduction. To this end, coughing, vomiting, and various forms of pain protect the body from dangerous toxins. Similarly, depression is a sort of psychic hibernation: It slows us down, avoids attracting predators, and evokes support. to grind temporarily to a halt and ruminate, as depressed people do, is to reassess one's life when feeling threatened. From this perspective, there is sense to suffering. Withdrawal may be strategic. . .
Winston Churchill called depression a "black dog" that periodically hounded him. Poet Emily Dickinson was so afraid of bursting into tears in public that she spent much of her adult life in seclusion. Abraham Lincoln was so withdrawn and brooding as a young man that his friends feared he might take his own life. As each of these lives reminds us, people can and do struggle through depression. Most regain their capacity to love, to work, and even to succeed at the highest levels.
-----From Psychology text book by David G. Myers
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