Negative Energy: Depression (2 of 2)

Another part of my mental health program was to read books of people overcoming depression.  One book I read was “A Season in Hell” by Percy Knauth, who had everything but feared growing old.  He described becoming depressed as his “descent into hell”, which he likened to a snake swallowing its tail.  Knauth detailed three basic rules that he discovered to help him overcome his depression.  I follow his basic rules even today, since they remind me to take care of myself.

The first rule is to get out of your bed.  Depression tells you that nothing good will come of leaving your bed.  By getting up, you are declaring victory over depression.  By leaving your bed, you are greater than your depression.

Rule number two is to make your bed.  Depression creates chaos in everyone’s life.  The chaos can overwhelm you, and keep you stuck in the mire and debris of your wrecked life.  By making your bed, you are creating order out of chaos. Since you can do that, you can rise above your depression.

The third rule is to make yourself a hot drink.  This simple act of ministering demonstrates that you still care about yourself.  Depression tells you that you are worthless.  By feeding yourself something that you have cooked, you demonstrate your self-worth.  You are re-enforcing your desire to live.

Doing these three simple things every day becomes building blocks to a good life.  Some days when you feel useless, you can point to accomplishing these three things.  Each is fundamental in creating your future, since each propels you away from your nihilism.

What depression has taught me is that all feelings need to be expressed and felt.  For example, grief can be love that has no place to go.  Instead of constructing a tomb to live in, you build a shrine to visit.  By releasing the grief, you open yourself up to more love.

Breaking out of the prison of despair and hopelessness takes action.  By following Knauth’s rules, we can become unstuck and move on.  Employing a program of mental hygiene helps us to give up our old stories of despondency and grief.  Depression does not need to be the black hole sucking us in.  We can see it as a time of learning about our strength and reclaiming our personal power.  We can use this new found power to fill the black abyss up with flowers.

Works Used:

Boeree, C. George, “The Ultimate Theory of Personality”, Shippensburg University, 2006 http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/conclusions.html,

----, “Depression Guide”, Depression-guide.com, 2004, http://www.depression-guide.com/index.htm,

Flach, Frederick, “The Secret Strength of Depression”, Hatherlaigh Press: New York, 2002.

Frankl, Viktor, “Man’s Search for Meaning”, Washington Square Press: New York, 1963.

Hartman, Tori, “Color Wisdom Workbook”, PDF from author, http://www.torihartman.com/shop/pc/home.html,

Heath, Ian, “Discover Your Mind”, 2002, http://discover-your-mind.co.uk/index.htm,

Knauth, Percy, “A Season in Hell”, Time-Life: New York, 1975.

---, “The Merriam-Webster Thesaurus”, Merriam-Webster: Springfield (MA), 1989.

Myhre, Mark Ivar, “Existential Despair”, The Emotional Times, 10 July 2011, http://www.emotional-times.com/2011/07/existential-despair.html,

Negative Energy: Depression (1 of 2)

In order to discuss depression, one needs to separate the mental illness from the emotion.  Although the two are intertwined, there are differences.  The mental illness is a disease of the brain, which is not producing enough of the chemicals needed for brain health.  To help the brain function better, doctors prescribe various medications to replace the chemicals needed for mental balance.

Depression, the emotion, occurs when various negative emotions turn sour and then go underground.  The result is a dull ache of the heart, and a feeling of despondency.  Depression, as despair and loneliness, becomes the end point of the soured emotions, opening up the black abyss before us.  We can be happily jumping rope one day, and then suddenly stop because the activity now seems meaningless to us.  We question why we should continue to live since we were born to die.  This is full blown depression which invites us to jump feet first into the oblivion.

In his presentation on depression, Ian Heath divides this emotion into three types.  Each has a base emotion that has gone underground, and reappears as a different form.  Depression, based on guilt, fixes the blame on the person themselves, who now feels guilty for existing.  Depression, which is derived from envy, creates alienation from other people.  The person becomes an injustice collector because they see themselves as a victim.  Depression, based on sorrow, turns into self-pity with a feeling that much injustice permeates the world.  The result of these varieties of depression is a sense of personal unworthiness.  Combined with their bitterness and resentment, the person becomes overwhelmed by life.  Depression, then, sets in prompting a feeling of nihilism and futility.

For me, depression is a deep sadness and grief that the world is not what it should be.  This deep unrelenting grief has no place to go, and becomes the tomb we live in.  The feelings of helplessness and hopelessness have come to dwell inside in our hearts.

 

However to come completely back from the brink meant that I needed to take baby steps.  First was to reorder my chaotic mind.  To that end, I established a program of mental hygiene.  I would read and watch only things that would be helpful to me.  I follow this program, even today, to fill my mind with happy and cheery things.

One of the first books that I read about depression was “The Secret Strength of Depression” by Frederic Flach.  The author presented the concept that depression is a normal reaction to stress.  Dr. Flasch emphasized that it is normal to feel grief and loss but not for long periods.  Since I had a chaotic childhood, I mourned the loss of feeling safe.  Being depressed had became a habit of thought as familiar to me as breathing.  Dr. Flach discussed how to leave the squirrel cage of depressed thinking and reconstruct “normal” thoughts.

The next book I read was “Man’s Search for Meaning” by Viktor Frankl.  In this book, he related his experiences in the Nazi concentration camps.  As a survivor, Frankl pondered why some people, who had many advantages, died while others with nothing like himself lived.  He was kept alive by the memory of his young wife since he believed that they had a future together. From this experience, Frankl realized that the survivors believed in the future.  He developed his theory of logotherapy, which is to find a will to live through meaning.  In the emptiness of time when nothing exists to take us away from ourselves is when we seek to find meaning for our lives.

 

Negative Energy: Hate (3 of 3): Henry Wadsworth Longfellow "The Christmas Bells"

A stark contrast to Gov. Perry’s ad is Longfellow’s poem, “The Christmas Bells” (1864).  This poem details the poet’s emotional struggle with several major tragedies in his life.  Three years before, his wife died in tragically and horribly.  In trying to save her from the flames that engulfed her, Longfellow himself was permanently physically disfigured.  Later in that year, one of his sons ran off to enlist in the Union Army (U.S.) to fight in the U.S. Civil War (1861-65).  Later this son was seriously wounded in battle, much to his father’s horror.

To express his sorrow and despair, Longfellow wrote this poem (later put to music as a carol). As he listened to the bells, Longfellow relates, “And in despair, I bowed my head: ‘There is no peace on earth’, I said”.  He goes on to say, “For hate is strong and mocks the song, of Peace on earth, good will to men.”  This is Longfellow expressing his bitterness in contrast to Christmas Day, when people celebrate joy and life.  

However Longfellow does not end the poem there.  He continues with the bells’ answer: “God is not dead, not doth He sleep; The wrong shall fail, the right prevail”.  Longfellow’s response is that there is a power greater than hate.  This power, God, is actively involved with the affairs of humans.  With patience and hope, we will see our wrongs corrected and the present hate overcome.  God can end the hate that people cannot.  Longfellow offers an antidote to hate, after he notes that it will always plague humans.  We do not have to give into this emotion for we can counter it with faith in God.  

Longfellow’s use of the Christian religion differs from Gov. Perry’s.  The poet relies on his religion to breakdown the differences between people.  Through God’s actions, peace and goodwill will be restored on the earth.  God’s love is the key to ending hate. Meanwhile Gov. Perry uses his religion to divide people.  He sees God as being under siege, and that we people need to fight to assist Him.  In Gov. Perry’s case, God becomes weak and unable to overcome hate.

Using Longfellow’s example, I can counter hate with other thoughts.  I do not have to be overcome by it.  For example, when hate pops into my head, I can think thoughts of gratitude.  During the week of trying not to think about hate, I decided to be grateful for central heating and indoor plumbing.  I dislike the cold, and thought that being grateful for these things would be a good antidote.  As I felt gratitude about central heating, I could feel my mind expand to include the people who invented such marvels and also those who maintain them.  As I became more grateful, I became more inclusive in the group of people to thank.

People do not start feeling hate as a primary emotion.  The first emotions can be fear, sorrow, or despair.  Senseless tragedy can lead to sorrow and unhappiness.  From these emotions comes resentment and bitterness.  This chain-link of feeling leads to hate, which is the final stop on this emotional train.  To stop it, we need to backtrack to the beginning.

Resentment has us place our despair and hurt outside of ourselves, usually on another group of people.  Bitterness purifies our selves by putting our unwanted and shadow feelings onto another group.  These two emotions encourage rigidity in people and harden them as well.  With laser-like aim, we can lay the source of our pain onto someone else.  Hate gives us a reason to eliminate the Other as a source of our pain.

However, hate can be countered through the generosity of spirit and forgiveness.  Sorrow and hurts have to be felt because through this process of feeling, wounds can be cleansed.  With hope and optimism, our wounds will be healed.  After accepting our sorrows, we will have a more flexible approach to life.  Then forgiveness will eliminate the final traces of hate in our lives.

In my own experience, eliminating hate from my thoughts was difficult, since it is a force that needs to be dealt with.  Most of the time, I do not consider hate, but it does creep up on me in unguarded moments.  What I did was to replace the idea of hate with thoughts of gratitude.  However, I do need to make sure that I process my feelings of hurt and sorrow, lest they fester into hate.

Works Used:

Anderson, Douglas, “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day”, The Hymns and Carols of Christmas, 2010, http://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/Hymns_and_Carols/i_heard_the_bells_caulkin.htm, .

Clarkson, Frederick, “Thirty Seconds of Dominionism over Iowa”, “Talk to Action”, 7 December 2011, http://www.talk2action.org/story/2011/12/7/23297/7132, .

Heath, Ian, “Discover Your Mind”, 2002, http://discover-your-mind.co.uk/index.htm, .

---, “The Merriam-Webster Thesaurus”, Merriam-Webster: Springfield (MA), 1989.

Pressfield, Steven, “Warrior Ethos”, The Black Irish Press: New York, 2011.

Stewart, Tom, “The Story Behind ‘I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day’”, What Saith The Scriptures?, 20 December 2001, http://www.whatsaiththescripture.com/Fellowship/Edit_I.Heard.the.Bells.html, .

Williams, Mary Elizabeth, “Rick Perry: More disliked than Rebecca Black”, Salon.com, 9 Dec. 2011, http://www.salon.com/2011/12/09/rick_perry_more_disliked_than_rebecca_black/, .

Negative Energy: Hate (2of 3): Gov. Rick Perry's Ad: "Strong"

Examining Gov. Perry’s ad “Strong” in the light of hate as identity and separateness is an eye opener since it presents the meta-definition of hate.  The Texas Governor puts a wall between himself and the Other (which in his case includes homosexuals, President Obama, liberals and Moslems).  Gov. Perry sets himself and “his people” apart from the Other, by denigrating the humanity of several groups of people.

Hate accomplishes two things.  It dehumanizes and demonizes the Other, who then becomes your enemy.  Once this happens, you can destroy them without any scruples or qualms.  In contrast, the “warrior ethos” gives respect to the enemy.  We see our enemy’s full humanity and accord them their honor.  We may fight them, but we allow them the same rights as ours.

However, Gov. Perry, in his ad, rejects the humanity of homosexuals.  As the Other, their service to their country (the same one as Gov. Perry’s) is denigrated.  The sacrifices of homosexuals in preserving the Constitution that grants Gov. Perry his rights are not acknowledged.  Instead, he claims that they, by openly serving their country, bar his children’s right to openly practice their religion in public schools.

Gov. Perry declares, “I’m not ashamed to admit that I’m a Christian, but you don’t need to be in the pew every Sunday to know there’s something wrong in this country when gays can serve openly in the military but our kids can’t openly celebrate Christmas or pray in school.”  Possessing a siege mentality, he and “his people” see themselves in peril from “Them”.  The subtext of the ad is that the Texas Governor will stand up to “Them”, who have endangered us and our way of life.  He goes on to say, “As President, I’ll end Obama’s war on religion.  And I’ll fight against liberal attacks on our religious heritage.  Faith made America strong. It can make her strong again.”  He uses code words for “hate” such as “war” and “attack”, and emphasizes a “Them versus Us” mentality.  He portrays Christians like himself being under siege by homosexuals, liberals and President Obama (as himself and as a representative of the Moslems.  (Note 2))  Gov. Perry sets himself up as a Christian warrior ready to slay the non-human Others that threaten us.  These people, whom he implicates as not being Christian, are not worthy of anyone’s respect.  Only Gov. Perry and “his people” and their safety are what matters.

This ad could be considered to be “hate speech”.  To understand it fully, we need to decode the language in it.  The words of hate do not always include that particular word but do create a wall between “Them and Us”.  The sad thing about the ad is that neither Gov. Perry nor “his people” see it as hate speech but as a positive statement of the truth.

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Notes

Note 1:  “Strong” by Gov. Rick Perry can be found at his campaign website “Rick Perry for President”.  It was broadcasted 7 December 2011. 

Note 2:  Various reviews of “Strong”, the ad conclude that the reference to the President is code for those who believe that President Obama is a secret Moslem.