Coping with and indeed beating depression

Sorry ot bring this up in this forum but I'm sort of at a loss in tactics at the moment.

I'll try to be brief here and not bore you with surplus details. Suffice to say that a few years ago after some rough patches in my life and I went to the doctors and got diagosed with Depression, then I got some lovely little tablets and counciling session that were frankly not worth a shit.

I took six weeks off work with it, did my course of tablets and what have you then went back to life such as it may be. I took several months of the exercise though and that brings me to my problem.


The major change that I've noticed in me in these past years is that before, when I was dead into my capoeira and RBSD and other interests I always seemed to have reserves I could fall back on. Even if I was exhausted or overworked or whatever I could going inside myself and find it in me to keep going, to finish what I started and to progress.

When I decided to get back into exercise since I've not been able to emluate that. I just feel lazy. I question the point of it all. Even when I set myself a goal its so easy to just let it slip by and not bother.

Its been a few years now and I find myself crawling through lift and not feeling like I'm getting anywhere and where as before I was chomping at the bit and promising myself that one day I would of achived some goal that seems just not be there.

Anyway I would love to know how others find that little something,

Truthfully???

Usually by being ridiculously hard on themselves.

Achievement is the byproduct of painful endeavour. Nothing more and certainly nothing less.

I'm personally happy being a lazy bugger when the time is right but I get twitchy and jumpy if I let that laziness go on for too long. My mental and emotional wiring doesn't like inertia.

You find any of life's great achievers and for the most part they are incredibly unhappy people. I have yet to meet one who didn't have problems they were either overcoming or had in their past. It's just the nature of the beast.

I'm not saying that goals are a bad thing. I'm not saying that striving to achieve is a bad thing. I'm saying that for the most part discontent is the human condition and long may it be so because that is what drives us to survive in animal terms.

Sorry to hear that mate, seems to be a lot of that about so your deffo not alone mate, I guess you have pick what matters most to you and focus on it, take every day as it comes, a big no no is alcohol, stay the fcuk away from that, also, probably easier said than done is to try and change your attitude toward life, I take the USMC moto, "Fuck it, drive on" sorry I can't give you any proper advice but its maybe a start

PS, get yourself on Muscletalk Forum mate, you would be surprised how many are in the same boat, loads of great advice, if you decide to go on it, look for the General Forum amongst the many forms there and post the same as here, good luck

Sorry to hear about the depression, mate.

My advice would be the opposite of Chris's. Choose something that you love and then just get into the habit of doing it week in, week out. Don't worry about getting a black belt or becoming an instructor or being the best in the world or even if it's the best style in the world. Just train because you love it.

Also, some daily meditation might help. Look into a book called Full Catastrophe Living by Jon Kabat-Zinn or see if anyone in your area offers mindfulness meditation. Watch out for cult members with robes and unusual facial hair obviously...

In truth mate ... all we can offer on this forum is SUPPORT

None of us are experts in this field, and thats what you really need.

however we are behind you in your fight against this, and do support you mate

good luck

True depression is a medical condition,you can't just "snap yourself out of it"

The correct medication(possibly long term) and treatment,positive activities ....and time and patience.




...and us lot,of course!





p.s.and Soc,what exactly is wrong with robes and unusual facial hair?

thanks lads I appreciate the support. I know that its a condition rather thn brough around by some act, though it seems that way as stress and sadness add to it. I'm pretty sure that I've had it continuously through life and it only became apparent when I finally bit the bullet and left capoeira lessons for reason that have nothing to do with this thread. Two months later my father died after a drawn out fight with cancer. Capoeira was normally my out in life in that whenever I felt bad I threw myself into capoeira and that gave me great comfort, this time, forby the lack of capoeira was already telling on me in that I was devastated that I would not be able to complete my plans in it, I was sitting on my hands a lot in the house not really feeling like exercising or whatever.

I tried a few things and setted a little on rugby but was aware that I was still feeling very unfufilled and down. It came ot a head one training session shortly before rememberance day and I had been in a funk and tried to bottle it (as many people do I imagin) and we had a full contact game to finished off with that brought every emotion right out of me. Rather embarissingly I cried my eyes out on the way back to the changing rooms and when asked by my mate what was wrong I had to tell him I had absolutely no idea I was just fucked in the head.

I recal that it was before rememberance sunday as my father and I normally went to the old comrades march and this was to be the first one after his death, which we suspected was the reason I was in a particually bad funk. I was permitted to take his place in the march as I was a former member of the TA (I was the youngest one there lol) and was informed by his old friends that I could also wear his long sevice medal, which helped me greatly.

Afer this point it was obvious to myself and others that somethin wasn't right and I went to the GP and was prescribed anti depressants. I took a weeks holiday from work and perked up for a little while untill christmas then went into a low low mood, stopped even attending the rugby sessions. On my last session I took extreme exception to being given press ups and told the coach what I thought of him. Though I apologized later and was not excluded from any sessions I didn't attend another rugby session for no other reason than I just wanted to wallow in the house.

About a month later I began to find it impossible to sleep and after three sleepless night called in sick to work and was off six weeks.

That was about two years ago and since then I stopped taking the medication out of disgust. I had always been proud of very rarely needing tablets or painkillers and one morning I found myself necking anti depressants and ibruprofein and pain killers for my back.

I've recovered a lot since that point and have come to logical terms in my head that if I suddenly start ranting at the world and feeling down then its not because anything happened its because there's a chmeical inbalance in my brain that makes me miserable. This helps me a lot to just say 'well fuck it' and get on.

I've started several hobbies also, guitar singing kettlebells and have started going to the gym and so on. But I'm acutely aware that I'm a shadow of my former self in the area of fitness.


I know that its me that needs to works this and I know what I have to do...... my problem is that I just go down to where I used to get all my energy for capoeira and RBSD and karate...... and its not there. There doesn't seems to be any fire in my belly anymore. I do everything less now, I've noticed I've started planing for my retirement and it appals me that I'm actually getting into the mindset that I'll be in my current job when I retire. I remember the day when someone told me I'd have to stop training so much if I wanted use of my back in later life and I laughed in his face and told him I'd rather train and be a cripple later than do nothing now. Now I catch myself being sensible.... its frightening.


Anyway that's the thing in a nutshell sorry I wasn't going to bore everyone with that but once I started typing......


My main question from all of that is I just wondered if anyone here has in fact had a period of their life like that, then beaten it.... refused to accept it and won.... made their mark

Jagunco wrote:
My main question from all of that is I just wondered if anyone here has in fact had a period of their life like that, then beaten it.... refused to accept it and won.... made their mark

I think the answer to that is going to be yes Jag,probably in quite a few cases.

But having said that everyone's experiences of these matters are subjective.You should really seek whatever professional help you need,then treatment can be tailored specifically to your needs.

...but yeah,people do get really close to the brink.But they claw their way back,and i'm sure you can too.

It might help to break issues down into lots of little problems.

For example, with this bit:

...I've noticed I've started planing for my retirement and it appals me that I'm actually getting into the mindset that I'll be in my current job when I retire.

Why not have a think about what you want to be doing in 20 or 30 years?

Once you've worked that out, you can work backwards to get a plan to get there.

Let's say that you want to change careers. What qualifications would you need to get into a new job? How long would it take to get them? How much savings would you need to cover the transition?

For example, say you need to study for a year to get qualified for something you would enjoy more. You decide you need 20 grand to cover a year's study, tuition fees and so on. You already have 5 grand in the building society.

The question then becomes how do you raise a further 15 grand? Suppose you could do overtime at your current job. How many extra shifts do you need and for how long?

Imagine that you work out that you could 15 grand in two years by working a couple of weekends per month. All of a sudden you have a concrete goal - get qualified for a new career - and a plan flor getting there.

hiya,

been through it. totally debilitating. Kinda with socrates on this. though when one is depressed there is little or no want. interest is one of the first things to go.

I've tried loads stuff. yoga, reiki, meditation. Something that is making the biggest impact on me is Advaita Vedanta. Googling, Ramana Maharshi, Papaji - but for the western approach - Gangaji and her husband Eli. i can send you a pdf of one of her books.

Basically it shows one how to stop searching, looking outside of themselves for pleasure. to stop internally. Stop everything. Process begins by 'self-inquiry', such as mind-fuck questions - 'who am i?', or, 'what do i need if this is my last moment on earth'. Our mind reaches a critical point and we experience something that's hard to put into words..

can be summed up as nothing outside of oneself matters really. and, one experiences their true nature - bliss. constantly. which is the experience of the REAL self. not the name, not the perception or the assumption.

there's a lot of neurscience to back this up. IT is equally applicable to religion/sprituality, or science. or neither.

Lemme know if ya want the book.

warmest wishes

Wayne

That sounds interesting mate, it worked for you then?

Jagunco wrote:That sounds interesting mate, it worked for you then?

yeah, and no. It's kinda a paradox. The moment I/we stop 'trying' to do/get anything things begin to get different. All goes back to stopping all the drama inside. Once we stop the story e.g. i am like this because..' we begin to quieten. scientifically, our brain patterns change also. This gives rise to the blissful feeling, which can be on-going at all times. again, there's sceince to back this up.

basically we begin to not be bothered about anything really. or we have a difference experience. it's hard to put into words really. for me anyhow. pm me your email, i'l send the pdf. also check out youtube for gangaji